Happy Thanksgiving 2021

Hello, cyber-friends!  I can’t believe another year has gone by – time seriously has no meaning anymore.  But I offer my wishes to you all for a happy happy Thanksgiving.  This may be my last post for a long while; more on that later…  

I hope everyone is safe and warm and healthy and ready to enjoy a long weekend.  I know I am ready; my weekend is actually going to be extra-long, due to comp days after so much work for work.  Frankly, I’m exhausted.  I'm glad to be celebrating this year by staying with a lovely goddaughter, then sharing a fabulous meal with my dear friends. I hope that your day is filled with as much laughter and love and fun as I know mine will be.

As always, I have plenty of things to be thankful for this year, such as:

• my amazing parents;
• my wonderful sister; 
• my glorious pip of a nephew, I love him so much;
• my sweet Scooter, best doggie nephew ever;
• my beautiful GNO gal pals AND our wonderful guy pals/plus-two;
• my wonderful extended family, with the coolest aunts, uncles, and cousins around (more on them later);
• all of my dear, darling friends who lift me up daily;
• co-workers who make me laugh and lift me up daily;
• my beautiful goddaughters;
• Justin's dark chocolate mini peanut butter cups;
• Caroline, or Change original Broadway cast album;
• Great British Baking Show (hello, Chigs);
• Whole Foods same-day delivery;
• Leah and Talk NYC;
• Young Sheldon;
• my Twitter feed;
• Bob Evans' individual macaroni and cheese;
• the Q101 bus;
• Copper Cow coffee;
• Snoopy holiday pajamas;
• Stet! Dryer's English board game;
• Boqueria’s orchard margarita;
• the NY Times crossword puzzle app;
• In the Heights film;
• the Excelsior Pass Plus;
• Gin Gins;
• Scentbird;
• Off the Hook Raw Bar;
• the Bryant Park holiday market;
• the Milk Street community;
• my wonderful liquor cabinet;
• reveling in my dear Fellows' successes;
• the Seamless app;
• Apple TV (and Ted Lasso);
• Murder, She Wrote re-runs;
• theater companies who are continuing with virtual theater;
• fierce women playwrights;
• theater is BACK!

cousins in the old days

I'm sure there's more, but let's stop there.  I'm feeling much thankfulness today, that's a good thing.  Though I’m also feeling so many other things – depression, sadness, fatigue.  I think I mentioned in a recent blog post that I’ve recently lost someone very dear to me.  Back story:  I grew up in an extremely close family; my mom had four sisters and each sister had two kids.  My cousins and I hung out together all the time when we were growing up.  After I went off to college and they started growing up, getting married, and having families of their own, we got together less often.  Christmas Eve became pretty much the only time we would all see each other.  I’ve missed them.  In September, I got a call from my sister that my aunt, who had struggled with several health issues over the years, had been diagnosed with COPD and probably only had a few days to live.  I got a fight home the next morning and went straight to the hospital.  Thankfully, my aunt was a bit better and recognized me when I got there.  We talked a few times over the next couple of days, and said “I love you” many times, which I’m so grateful for.  At any given time, there were at least dozen people in the waiting room, all wanting to visit my aunt.  I was again spending time with my beloved cousins, sort of catching up on lost time, while we sat in waiting rooms.  It was nice to be all together again, even for such a terrible reason.  After a few days, the doctors told us that keeping my aunt on machines wouldn’t cure her, just prolong the inevitable.  Her sons made the difficult decision to take her off the machines, transfer her to hospice care, and she passed away two days later.  Everyone in the family was devastated.  We still are.

my beautiful aunt

I’ve been unable to sleep since I got back, which has triggered some depression, I think.  Vague dizziness has returned, which doesn't help.  I’m having a hard time concentrating at work and feel…empty.  My mother is having a hard time with the loss of her sister and I’m sad I can’t help her more.  I need to get my pep back.  I need to get my life back.  The reason I’m sharing all this is because even though I’m happy when I’m inside a theater, afterwards I feel anxiety and dread about trying to blog about it.  Which is stupid, but true.  Writing is now a chore and it used to be a pleasure.  So I think I’m going to step back, work on a few things for myself, and see if I can find the excitement in sharing my thoughts about great work with you.  

Though (because I'm me) let me say something about the most recent theater I’ve seen:  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go see Trouble in Mind (by Alice Childress, produced by Roundabout Theatre), Cullud Wattah (by Erika Dickerson-Despenza, produced by the Public Theater), Selling Kabul (by Sylvia Khoury, produced by Playwrights Horizons) and Clyde's (by Lynn Nottage, produced by Second Stage).  These are vital, important works, centering women of color in stories that need to be told right now.  They are beautifully written, acted, and produced shows.  Buy tickets, tell your friends, show the powers-that-be that these are the stories we want.  Uplift these writers.  I tried to write thorough reviews, but just couldn’t get the words on virtual paper; I didn’t want to let this last post go by without offering my strongest recommendation for these plays.

Sorry to bring down a thankful post – I AM enormous grateful for what I have and know that people love me and that peace is within reach again.  Enjoy your holiday, everyone, and thanks to YOU for joining me here!  It’s been a pleasure to report on things to you and to imagine people actually read my scribblings into the ether – may there be a new kind of Tour in the days to come.

Amazing Women Writing Amazing Women

I've been very fortunate to be able to see wonderful work lately.  I made a sort-of commitment to myself to center my ticket-buying on stories about, or written by, writers of color.  Especially women of color, because these new (to me) stories are the ones I'm hungering for.  Actually, most of the tickets I've purchased lately are by women I know, so...

Last week, I was really taken with Jocelyn Bioh's new play Nollywood Dreams, playing at MCC Theater.  This is one of the shows I had tickets for before the pandemic.  It was a long eighteen months to wait.  I loved Bioh's last play, School Girls, or the African Mean Girls Play, and I have been looking forward to this new piece ever since.  Like in that play, Bioh gives us gorgeous, specific, and riotously funny dialogue and beautifully crafted characters.  She has a way of showing us lightness and darkness, all at the same time.  I truly believe Bioh is one of the most talented writers working right now.

In Nollywood Dreams, it is the mid-1990s in Legos, Nigeria.  A young Nigerian director, after spending some time in America, has come back to Legos to direct his latest film and is holding an open casting call (or so everyone thinks) for the lead character.  We meet the delightful Ayamma, who thinks this audition is her chance to leave her parents' travel agency where she works with her sister Dede (who is a saucy, hilarious, acerbic wonder).  Other characters in the play include the director, Nigeria's hottest male sex symbol (who will be starring in the film), a female film star who also has her eye on that lead role, and a talk show host who pulls all of the stories together.

photo credit: Russ Rowland

This play is so funny and so true.  We feel for Ayamma and Dede, who yearn for bigger lives, dream of celebrity, and puzzle at the realities of show business.  Plus, their sisterly camaraderie is so authentic.  I laughed a lot, even while the characters reminded me of the disparity of what life in Legos actually is and how life in Legos is generally depicted in the American film industry.  Nollywood Dreams is smart and hilarious and an enormous treat.  The audience was just eating it up - there was a set malfunction early in the play and the actors played it up to the hilt.  We were all just putty in the actors' hands; the entire cast was truly amazing.  Please go see this fantastic play.

Last weekend, I went with a beautiful chum to see Caroline, or Change.  Have I ever told you the story of the first time I saw the show?  I went with a friend right before the Tony Awards; Tonya Pinkins (who was playing Caroline) was out.  The incredible Adriane Lenox played Caroline and while she was sublime, I just had to see Tonya Pinkins.  So I went back again before the show closed to see Tonya.  WELL.  Needless to say, the show itself blew.me.away and Tonya Pinkins' performance is one I will never forget.  What a force of nature!  I have been so looking forward to this revival and I'm so glad I got to experience it with my beautiful chum who hadn't seen the show before.

Caroline, or Change is a masterpiece.  Jeanine Tesori is a genius.  Tony Kushner is a genius.  Sharon D. Clarke is another force of nature.  I loved every minute of seeing this production, even from the less-than-ideal location of the mezzanine (though, if I'm honest, if you have to sit in the mezzanine at Studio 54, the last row of the front mezz isn't so bad).  I teared up many times throughout the afternoon, not only because of the story and situations, but because the show is so fricking amazing, the construction of it caused me to weep.  

photo credit: Joan Marcus

There's so much to say, I'm kind of tongue-tied.  The voices are incredible, the acting is fantastic.  Sharon D. Clarke has layer upon layer upon layer.  The devastation that comes after her confrontation with Noah is a gut-punch.  For some reason, I felt it even more than before.  Caissie Levy found a lovely, maybe softer way in to Rose; I really liked her.  How John Cariani finds so many shades and nuances, I don't know.  And his clarinet playing?  AMAZING.  The cast is so incredible, top to bottom, that Chip Zien, who I've seen dozens of times on Broadway, is playing the relatively small role of Rose's father and he is, as always, sublime.  But, really, everyone is.  Emmie?  The washing machine?  The radio trio?  The dryer?  The bus?  OMG, THE BUS.  Perfection.  The first time around, maybe this musical was too esoteric?  Too idiosyncratic?  I don't understand why it only ran for a few months, but it seems as if its genius is being recognized now.  The house was packed and the audience thrilled.  As they should've been.

It was such a delight seeing productions with such fantastic female leading characters played by incredible women who should be superstars.  The way Jocelyn Bioh captures character so utterly perfectly is awesome.  The way Jeanine Tesori writes music that says so much in so many different musical forms that perfectly embody each character is awesome.  (Yeah, Tony Kushner is all that, too, but I'm focusing on the women, thank you.)  I was moved, thrilled, and delighted by both of the productions I was fortunate enough to experience last week.  If theater continues to be this ground-shaking, I'm the luckiest girl in the world...

Saying Goodbye

When you've been working somewhere for nearly 25 years, inevitably you're going to lose people whom you hold dear.  Over the course of the pandemic, two such people, two bright lights of humanity, have left us.  I was privileged to be in the rooms when their amazing lives were celebrated.

Most recently, dear sweet Micki Grant left us.  Hers was a career that was truly groundbreaking - I'm embarrassed to admit that when I first started at my job, I didn't really know the breadth of her accomplishments, I just knew her contributions to one of my favorite musicals, Working (the link is my post on the most recent Off-Broadway revival of the show).  But even though she was a trailblazer, she was also down-to-earth, kind, supportive, and loving.  And a real mentor to anyone who needed her.  I once produced an evening that was a conversation between Micki and another glorious writer and Micki was terrified that she wouldn't have anything interesting to say; she begged me to sit in the front row and throw her suggestions when she ran out of ideas.  I don't think I need to tell you that I was completely unnecessary and the two of them had a thrilling conversation about what it means to be a woman, specifically a woman of color, in the theater.  It was my privilege to be there.  It was my privilege to know her.

I was also fortunate enough to have a seat at her recent memorial/celebration service.  It was done safely, COVID-wise, by having a minimal number of people in each row of the stunning Riverside Church, so I felt comfortable sitting (at a social distance) with a couple of friends who also adored Micki and hearing remembrances from many who knew and loved her.  There were songs, dances, hymns, and readings.  All of them were performed with the generosity of sprit that Micki exemplified.  Plus, hearing from her family members was a true gift.  I knew Micki as a writer, mentor, friend, and colleague, but to hear about her as a cousin and aunt and childhood friend was a blessing.  I can only hope my life touches as many people as Micki's did.  Of course, I haven't written musicals that will be done now and until the end of time.  I guess I should get on that.  Let's put out into the ether that Micki's work needs to be revived SOON and OFTEN.  In a Broadway season that is finally finally giving Alice Childress and Adrienne Kennedy their Broadway debuts, having Micki's Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope back on Broadway would make the perfect trifecta.

At the beginning of the pandemic last year, only a couple of weeks after Broadway shut down, the horrible tragic news came that we had lost one of American theater's great writers, Terrence McNally.  Not only was he a gifted and remarkable dramatist, but he was also a kind and caring man.  I treasure the last email I received from him, about six months before he died.  It was such a beautiful note about how much MY work meant to HIM.  I'm crying just typing about it.  Of course, it was his work that meant so much to me.  I went back to look at old posts and found a review of The Visit and Mothers and Sons.  I don't know why I couldn't find others; I wish I could find what I wrote about the transcendent experience I had seeing Richard Thomas in The Stendhal Syndrome.  That is on the short list of favorite/most exciting performances I've ever seen.  Oh well.  OH, and everyone needs to see the beautiful documentary about his life, Every Act of Life!  It's incredible!  Even Terrence's writing about other writers was beautiful - he wrote a lovely forward in the Playbill for the recent revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This.  Gorgeousness.

Terrence's memorial was open to the public; I think only the speakers were given reserved status, everyone else had to wait in line.  I felt pretty lucky I got there early when I saw a big time Broadway producer and a big time Broadway actress walk past me to get in line behind me.  The line was long and they were checking people's vaccination card and IDs before letting them in.  There was a big reserved section for the speakers and their guests, but my co-worker and I got a good seat on extreme house left of the Schoenfeld Theatre.  We were maybe ten rows back and had fine views of everyone, even though we were off to the side.  The memorial was jam-packed with amazing talent who were all genuinely heartbroken at the loss of Terrence.  I was surprised at how choked up Nathan Lane was throughout his tribute.  But, really, everyone was fighting tears the entire time.  Especially me.  All of the words were so lovely and so true; I could identify with all of them.  Seeing Terrence's brother walk out for a tribute was surreal, he looks so much like Terrence and their laugh is exactly the same.  We all laughed heartily at the image his brother painted of the childhood bedroom they shared - apparently, the photos on Terrence's part of the wall were Maria Callas, James Dean, and Shakespeare.  Perfect.

photo credit: Douglas Gorenstein

Hearing small sections of his plays only made me want to see all of them again (or for the first time - I've never seen Corpus Christi!) - someone somewhere must want to produce a festival of his work.  His work would be a balm right now, his characters are all so humane and his dialogue is so witty, funny, and true.  Let's put THAT idea into the universe, too!   We need his work, that way he will continue to live for us all.  And we will miss him, but remember him, and rejoice in his gifts.  He also touched, and changed, so many lives.  I found this beautiful photo of Terrence and Micki from one of the work events I produced.  I think you can see the goodness they radiated - we'll not see their equals anytime soon, we can just all try to be worthy.