Even though I love so many shows and saw "Sunday in the Park with George" on Broadway three times and spat at the TV screen when Jerry Herman won for Best Score and was depressed for many days when it didn't win for Best Musical...
My truest obsession was "Grand Hotel." I saw it two nights in a row after it opened. I was in awe. I went to the stage door after the show and they all walked right by me: Karen Akers (so tall), Jake Krakowski (so huggable), but they were such an incredible ensemble cast that I felt that if I spoke to any of them, I would be insulting the rest of them.
This was a year or so before the cast album came out, so I tracked down as many bootlegs that I could. (I would still love to have one of the show as it opened in Boston before the Maury Yeston songs were added.)
When they had the audition announcements for the national tour, it hurt my heart that I couldn't try out for it. Even though I am not a dancer and too young (at the time) to play Kringelein. Though, I did find a part for myself in the show. The desk clerk waiting to hear about his child being born. He was about my age. There was nothing to say that he couldn't be heavy-set. And he only danced in "Who Couldn't Dance With You."
Well, living in Pittsburgh, I wasn't able to get to the auditions in New York.
When the tour came here, I saw it two nights in a row, again! I got one set of tickets for me and my sister and then the guy playing Kringelein used to date the friend of a friend of mine and we got house seats!
And during the show, I watched the guy who played the desk clerk and thought, "I could play that part as well as, if not better than you!"
There have been a couple of local productions of it, but I haven't gone to see them. That show was such magic...
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music
"Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70
"Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba
