Now?the moment I was waiting for finally happened. The stage lights dimmed and music started. I almost sprang out of my seat, I was so wound up! Jennifer Ehle is lounging onstage, and the play begins. Well, those first 10 minutes or so was AGONIZING TORTURE. When the HELL was Alan coming on?!?!?!?!?! By the time I started getting at my antsiest, he bounded up stairs from under the stage. I'm still getting all smiley and tingly just remembering it. Can I just tell you that I barely have any idea what he said? I burst into (quiet) tears and sobbed during the whole first scene. My view was PERFECT!!!!!!! I'm not kidding when I say I was turning into a Chrissi puddle. At the end of the first act, when he goes to snog her again, I banged my head into the banister.
The play was fine. It was quite amusing at times and I enjoyed the accents. Dominic West was surprisingly good, but Jennifer Ehle got to me a lot. Jenny Sterlin (Miss Hodge) was so awesome, as was Jessica Stone (Helen). I could have really lived without the others: Marisa Berenson (sucking as bad as she did in the movie version of Cabaret), Saxon Palmer, T. Scott Cunningham, and especially John Cunningham (Ernest). That man made me insane. I know Jack was sympathetic to him at the end, but I just couldn't muster much. What was great was how the characters of Otto (Alan), Leo (Dominic) and Gilda (Jennifer) were so much like Jack, Will, and Karen, respectively, from "Will and Grace." That was very cool. The play was revived to be timeless, and the gay themes were in full force as Noel Coward (the playwright) would have wanted. Unfortunately, the 1930's weren't kind to things like that.
Alan just took my breath away. He looked so damn cute, even with the blonde hair. I have this thing against him with blonde hair (but I don't condemn him for it or anything, that would just be plain moronic). I'd rather see him shaved than blonde and cropped! But the hair was growing out, and it just looked tipped, which pleased me. Speaking of shaved, yes, all the leg hair is off :-) (that was one of my fave parts about him!?perfect amount of body hair). Hey, at least I got to see his legs, yum, (among other things, hehe), although he covered up the new nipple rings with an undershirt now. He has gained some weight back, but it's only noticeable to fans. He's still his lovely scrawny self! His smile is in full force. He laughs SO much in this!! It really reminded me of when he was his sweet self in "Bernard and the Genie," and during some interviews. He doesn't laugh much for the public or in movies anymore?just broadly smile. And are those broad smiles ever gorgeous!! Shame he couldn't smirk more, hehe. And he was always bouncing around. That was so great. The second act really was the best, though. I saw him do some things that I didn't even see in movies! Quite nice. I don't want to give away any spoilers. If you know you're not going to see this and you're interested, just email me at cabaretalan@hotmail.com . I think I was in a state of shock the whole time. When the play finished and they came for bows, I just couldn't stop clapping. I was so damn proud. Then, THEN! He spoke about Broadway Cares in his beautiful Scotttish accent! WOOHOO!!! I knew the speech, I was just so pleased that I got to hear his true voice. Not like his British one wasn't divine, but Scottish is just the cream of the crop.
During intermission, a girl came over to Jack and I, and it was Jamie! I was right after all, even in my nervous state. It was great to finally talk to her in person. I felt bad that Jack had to listen to our drooling about Alan, but it was cool. He understood. I think by that weekend it was her 7th time seeing the show. Lucky girl!!! I wish I lived where she did, hehe. She came down after the show and she showed us where the stage door was. The real highlight was seeing 4 drunk guys in kilts come singing down the street. Oh how I should have taken a picture. The three of us ended up hanging out for awhile and got something to eat. Jack said that if I wanted to stay until after the evening show, it was no problem. Did I mention before that I love you?! Jamie gave me some pointers about when I meet him, and after traipsing all over with us to find a bathroom, she left. L She's so damn cool.
Jack and I hung out in NY for 3 hours. This is tricky when restaurants are carding (yeah, can you believe it?!) to hold back the drunken craziness. Sucks that Jack's been 21 for 3 months, and I have another 8 months to go. Errrr. It also sucked that it was getting cold and rainy. Shame that the cast of SNL come outside on Friday nights, esp. since Aerosmith was the musical guest!! After walking through Times Square, we ended up at a deli and re-bonded for over an hour. It's been so long since we've really hung out and talked/reminisced, so that was awesome. He's been one of my best friends for 6 years now. We're Jerry and Elaine :-). We left and bought two umbrellas since the rain was coming down. I was pissed and frightened that Alan wouldn't come out. Jack made us go to Fridays so he could get a drink. By that time, I was crying again since I just wanted to go home and not try. I was so not hungry/thirsty either, which is a first when I'm upset. Voice of reason started again, bless him. True, we hadn't spent all that time to just give up and go home?still, I was feeling a really strange vibe.
We started walking back around 10:25 or so, since I figured the show would be done at 10:40 pm. The rain had let up. I took a bunch of pix of the marquee and posters, since it looks cooler at night. We waited?and waited. Nobody was coming out. I ran around from 43rd to the front of the theater, and nothing was going on. By this time, Jack had to go to the bathroom so bad (damn mudslide) that we parted ways for 10 minutes while I went back to the stage door. Yeah, I was scared being on a NY back street by myself at 11 pm, but I dealt. He had to spend $10 on a movie ticket just so he could get into the bathroom!!! Poor guy. So, we waited another 5 minutes and I gave up. I took another peek at the front, and the theater was dark.
We took a subway back to Penn Station, where I almost vomited watching a 15 year old couple make out for 5 minutes. Get a fucking room!!! Then we were greeted with the news that we missed our train by 10 minutes and had to wait an hour for the next one. I was cool up till that point. Basically, I completely broke down in the middle of the train station. Thank god New Yorkers don't give a shit about you! I just cried and cried. Jack, who is not usually very open with his emotions, went to buy a magazine for himself, came back with one for me, and hugged and comforted me. That made me cry harder, hehe. He inadvertently bought me the Entertainment Weekly with a gorgeous pic of DFL in it, so that cheered me up! We got to Trenton around 2 am, and I got him back to his house before 3. By this time, my fishnets, bracelets, and Docs had become a part of me!! Seriously, it's been exactly a week since that night, and I still have slight bracelet burn, hehe.
Jack brought up a fabulous point though (among others): I had seen Alan Cumming LIVE that day! No screen was separating us. He released every emotion in himself and me, stole the show, and gave a knockout gorgeous performance once again. This time, I got to witness it. What could be better than that?!?!?!? It really was the greatest day of my life, as of now.
Well, we'll see what happens next Sunday, April 1st! Yes, I'm going back by myself for cheap seats, and will hopefully meet up with Jamie again! Cross your fingers-- Hopefully I will be posting a story and pix on April 2nd! And maybe even the weekend of April 15th, LOL!!! I wonder if his atheist self would perform on Easter?
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