Dreams Don't Die, So Keep an Eye on Your Dreams

Got home from work last night. Bruce was just pulling up. Ran in to change and get myself ready for Encores! at City Center. Ed and Bruce are getting in the car. I realize that we forgot the binoculars and run back in for them. While I’m rooting around for them, I hear Mike’s email from that afternoon in my head telling me that I am fated to meet Sondheim again. I grab the Company and Merrily CD covers and stuff them in my coat.

On the way in, we are discussing something and the topic of creepy actresses comes up. Ed mentions Amanda Plummer. As we leave the parking garage, we pass a Starbuck’s on 58th Street and there in the window getting ready to step out onto the street is Agnes of God herself, Ellen James from Garp, Miss Amanda Plummer. Odd. But fun. She picks up on us noticing her and heads across the street. Wise lady.

We stop into a Ray’s Pizza and Howard Kissel gets in line behind us. Minor spotting. Very minor.

At intermission, we leave the thin air of the Gallery at City Center and head down to a more reasonable atmosphere. I think about bringing the camera and my CD covers but decide it is too much of a hassle to dig them out of my coat.

Down on the orchestra level, John spots Marge Champion. I stop her and tell her how terrific she was in Follies. Then I spot Erica Slezak (Vicki Buchanan from One Life to Live). We see Ben Brantley in the lobby. We also see Howard Kissel for the second time.

John and Bruce disappear, but Ed and I stay down on the orchestra level. And here he comes again. Sondheim! For the third time in 10 days. Amazing. And I don’t have the CD covers. They’re in my coat in my Gallery seat hundreds of feet above us. I want to kill myself. Ed calls over to him, “Stephen!” (Stephen!? I cringe. Such impertinence.) Ed says that this is the fourth time this week that we’ve seen him. Sondheim says something like, “I don’t see how since this is only my second time out this week.” Ed tells him that we saw him at Ars Nova on Monday and at the CD signing at the O’Neill last week. Okay. Thanks. And then the great man heads outside (to have a smoke?). I want to slit my throat because I didn’t have the CD covers on me and because I didn’t speak to him.

After the show, we are out on the sidewalk after the long trek down from the heights of Mount City Center. As we stand on the street collecting ourselves, Sondheim comes out the doors with a young man and heads right across the street. He is moving fast and not making eye contact. I start to go after him and then stop. Then I do the math of the last 10 days and figure that the stars won’t align like this again. In all our years in the city, I had only seen Sondheim twice before (in the audience at the Merrily We Roll Along anniversary concert and at a Times Talk event). Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor. I decide to go for it. I dart across 55th Street and see Sondheim and his friend/nephew/protégé heading up a cut through to 54th. I follow and catch up with them on a deserted 54th. The young man looks over at me and then turns back to his conversation with Sondheim. “Excuse me, Mr. Sondheim?” “Yes.” “I just want to thank you for all the years I’ve enjoyed your work.” I extend my hand and he shakes it. He thanks me. “I’ve been carrying this around for a couple of years in hopes of running into you someday,” I say as I pull out the Company CD cover. “Would you mind signing it?” He lets out a little noise of surprise when he sees what I have. “Certainly not. What’s your name?” I tell him and he writes “To Bill – Stephen Sondheim” on the Company CD cover right between Elaine Stritch and Barbara Barrie. “Thank you. I’m sorry to interrupt your evening. It’s a great honor to meet you.” I shake his hand again. “Thanks. Good night,” he says. And I trot back over to 55th.

I am tempted to hold the autographed CD cover over my head in a victory walk as I walk back over to the guys. But I’m too humbled by meeting him. I’m enjoying the satisfaction of it all. I’m glad I took the chance and am so pleased that he was kind and cordial. I slow down to savor the moment a little longer by myself. I think of all the things that I would have liked to tell him about: Taking the cast album of Pacific Overtures out of the library when I was 13 and being so shocked at the traditional Japanese drumming as the score starts and then falling in love with the music. Starting to look for everything written by Sondheim and discovering Company, A Little Night Music, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Gypsy, and, (my God) Follies. Hearing “I’m Still Here” for the first time and playing it over and over. Asking my mother about some of the references in the song and having great conversations with her about her connections with the things mentioned in the lyrics. Reading excitedly about the new show Merrily We Roll Along that was opening when I was in high school. Plotting a trip into the city to see it and then feeling crushed when it closed so quickly. Getting my hands on the recording and falling head over heels for it and trying to figure out how something this clever with such great music could close. Rewriting the lyrics to Gypsy with my friend Joe to make fun of the crazy people we worked with at Friendly’s Restaurant. Seeing Into the Woods on stage and absolutely loving it. Endless conversations with my buddies John and Peter with frequent references to Sondheim shows dropped in. A great first date at a production of Follies. Meeting my friend Mike over our shared interest in Sondheim’s work. Driving to Virginia to the Signature Theatre with an “All Roads Lead to Follies” sign in the back window. Spending two glorious weekends in DC enjoying the Sondheim Celebration in 2002. The revelation that was the DC production of Sunday in the Park with George and how the end of the first act was one of the most moving and cathartic moments I ever experienced. The terror and chills of seeing Sweeney Todd performed in DC even though I knew how it would end. My deeper connection with the Sweeney music in its pared down version in the current revival. And Passion and Assassins and Anyone Can Whistle and on and on. And suddenly I’m glad that I kept it short. I would have raved like a mad man once I got started.

I feel like a certain chapter of my Broadway stalking life has ended. I found the Holy Grail. I achieved Nirvana. I briefly consider that this will be the end of all the craziness. I will go home and frame the Company CD.

But wait! I can still get Teri Ralston to sign it someday. She’ll do something, somewhere. And why didn’t I go wait for Charles Kimbrough when he was doing that Gurney play The Fourth Wall Off-Broadway in 2002? How did I let Pamela Myers slip by me after the Showstoppers concert at Avery Fisher Hall in October of 2004? Why did I miss her at the Into the Woods revival? And I see Donna McKechnie around often enough, how come I’ve never had her sign it? And I bet I’ll bump into Merle Louise and Beth Howland someday.

My work is far from finished…

..but still, it was Sondheim. And he asked me my name. And I got to thank him for it all.

Sweeny Todd new cast recording signing

We got out of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels last night (a big “eh.” Very well performed but not much of a show. Pryce appeared to be wearing some sort of body/back brace – or did he just get stout?) We headed up 3 blocks to the Eugene O'Neill Theatre where Sweeney Todd is playing. Got there about 9:45 for the 10 PM opening of the doors. Already one line of people who saw the show that night and were waiting to get the CD signed and another line that ran half a city block of people just coming for the CD signing.

At 10 PM there was some movement. They alternately let in patrons from that night's show and from the other line. After a few minutes some people started coming out. They held up their signed CD's. They sort of had these "I've got a Golden Ticket" looks on their faces - pleased but not quite believing their good fortune. A few came out and were just plain gloating. It was interesting to see the crowd. A lot of over-eager and very affected kids in their late teens and early 20's who appeared to be trying to break into theatre. A number of less-than-cool looking kids aged about 10-15 with their parents. A bunch of gay men of varying ages. And plenty of just average looking anybodies. Two very young adults - a 20ish version of Will & Grace - came out breathless and laughing. They ran up to friends behind us on line and gushed about brief conversations with Sondheim and LuPone with lots of, "Oh, my God's" and effervescence. One girl came out crying, overwhelmed by it all. I guess in our own obsessive theatre way, we were meeting The Beatles.

Our line finally started moving - very slowly. Doors were scheduled to close at 11 PM. At about 10:55, we were still a bit far back from the theatre doors. They moved 2 more groups of 20 in over the next few minutes. We were close but still far off with time running out. I was getting anxious. We had already bought the CDs from theatre employees (for $25 each instead of the $17 on Amazon). The woman at the door counted another group, "17, 18, 19, 20," and ended with Ed and me. Ed piped up that we were three and John was with us, and she let him in also. We got into the theatre. They let two more people in, and that was it. We were the last ones! Just made it.

There they were up onstage. The entire cast. So cool to see them lined up at a table in front of the set that we had just seen in this great production a month earlier. The line snaked down the left orchestra aisle, up some stairs and up to the signing table. The new cast recording was playing over the sound system. As people moved along, you got glimpses of the cast. Then Ed pointed him out. Second along the line at the table. Sondheim! I didn't quite believe it at first. I said something like, "This is what it must be like to go to heaven and see God."

It was pretty exciting waiting to go up. The line was rather hushed and reverential. Sondheim is pretty notorious for being private and is not a ready autograph giver. I think everyone there was pretty aware of this and was still quite surprised at their luck to be there.

It was an assembly line affair. You went up to the table, handed your CD to a woman standing to the left of it. She put it down in front of Patti LuPone who signed it and pushed it along to Sondheim, then to Sweeney Todd himself, Michael Cerveris, then on to Mark Jacoby, Donna Lynne Champlin, Manoel Felciano, Alexander Gemignani, John Arbo, Diana DiMarzio, Benjamin Magnuson and finally Lauren Molina. They didn't all look up as they signed - understandable since they'd been signing for about 75 minutes at this point. But if you talked they looked up and smiled and chatted a little. You just sort of moved along at the same pace as the CD that you thought was yours. As you got to the other end of the table, another person (an employee of the record company or the theatre, I guess) picked up the CD and handed it to you.

Sondheim was quite jovial which surprised me. He usually seems fairly serious to me. He was joking with LuPone. He looks like he's lived all of his soon to be 76 years. Kind of tired and rumpled. He has always looked to me like he just woke up from a nap. But who cares? He's brillaint. I have spent decades enjoying his music. I told him that the Sondheim Celebration in D.C. in 2002 was one of the best things I ever attended. He smiled and thanked me. Michael Cerveris heard my comment and chimed in about how great D.C. was. I complimented him for his role in Passion in D.C. and his Tony winning performance in Assassins two years ago. Cerveris was very cordial and looks much more attractive and approachable up close than I ever thought before. But all I was really thinking about was, "Wow. That was Sondheim I just spoke to."

The three of us were all a bit giddy when we left the theatre. Very glad that we stood out in the cold for over an hour (thanks for running to get the hot chocolate, Ed). Glad that we participated in a fun and most unusual Broadway event. Delighted that we can check Sondheim off of our "To Meet" list.