These are all making me happy too!
1) The final Broadway performance of Les Miserables. I'm a huge fan anyway, so I just cried my way through it. The whole evening was electric, and I felt beyond priveledged to be there with all of those "names."
2) Patti LuPone "Matters of the Heart" from the front row at Lincoln Center. After 'Shattered Illusions,' she threw the rosebud she'd been plucking petals from right at me, and I melted. After that, my partner and I walked back to our hotel thinking, "That's as close to what I imagine Judy at Carnegie Hall must have been."
3) Elizabeth Franz in Death of a Salesman. Need I say more?
4) Liza in "Minnelli on Minnelli," singing 'The Trolley Song' with projected footage of Judy. Granted, Liza was not exactly in her prime here, but it was the first time I'd seen her live. I had held it together up until just before the final "To the end of the liiiiiiine," when Liza turned to the screen and shouted, "Sing it Mama!" and let Judy take it. In a single beat of the song I went from being completely composed to completely losing it, and I cried like a baby from that point through the curtain call.
5) The Music Man (revival), again from front row center. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it just seemed to me to be THE perfect "golden age" Broadway experience. It was a joy from beginning to end, and Rebecca Luker was enchanting. My partner is friends with Kate Levering, who then took us backstage after the show where we chatted with Craig Bierko and Rebecca about politics. Just a truly fun night at the theatre!
(EDIT: Wow, Miriam -- you really saw all of those shows live?? I'm honored! Did you happen to see Jumbo at the Hippodrome in 1935?)
Updated On: 3/17/05 at 04:15 PM
