SHORT:
Life is just
“this person sucks”
“this person’s nice”
on a loop
MEDIUM:
I wanna do an NPR Tiny Desk Concert but it’s me bangin’ my head on my tiny desk cuz I haven’t had an interesting thought in years…
(I’m having a rough week because I, once again, thought I knew who I was and what I wanted but it turns out, I actually don’t and no good options r presenting themselves)
The good news is, I got to attend my gay senior citizen pen pal Ric’s production of The Music Man Sr. where a woman in an American Flag poncho continually threw one of her arms up in a big ending “tada!” pose, a good 30 seconds before each song actually ended.
Perhaps that’s who and how I want to be...
LONG:
Ric rocked the house as The Mayor.
Every time he said, “I wanna see that man’s credentials!” the crowd went wild!!! (okay just me and Jess — who he calls “Jen”, no matter how many times we kindly remind him otherwise… actually when we checked in for the show, Jess’s ticket was not under Jess or Jen, but… yeah you guessed it: “Nicole”. It’s okay because he gave Jess/Jen/Nicole a big smooch on the cheek when we said goodbye. I, on the other hand, did not get a kiss, but I think that’s actually good… we’re keeping things ~professional~* ).
*he talks about how the gravitational pull of the moon is his viagra every other week to me and describes his lovers in great detail
After figuring out that Jess’s ticket was under an abstract interpretation of their name, we sat down next to a lady who yelled “DID YOU SILENCE YOUR PHONE, LARRY!?” as a 80-something year old woman with INTENSE stage makeup welcomed us in by repeatedly saying “hi”. Moments later, we noticed a little nose and fingers peeking out from behind the curtain, and yeah, it was Ric — just checking out the crowd! We waved, but he quickly shut the curtain, and the show began.
While Ric obviously was my favorite part, I’d like to nominate some runner-ups:
The “chorus” — a group of gals who sat, motionless, at the front of the stage holding American Flags like this.
“Dancers” — two beautiful, graceful swans who entered (arms up!), at random, between scenes and lifted their dresses to show off their legs while winking at the audience (something I don’t quite recall being a part of The Music Man, but then again, it’s been a while since I’ve looked over Meredith Willson’s world-famous script).
Woman in big shiny hat — who was an expert in what I can only describe as eye and hand acting. Big wide eyes in every scene. Gloved hands moving at the speed of light but only across the hip area. Body otherwise stock-still. And, yeah, a BIG SHINY HAT on top.
Winthrop (gender-bent role).
School board (only actual harmonies in the whole thing, and stunning ones at that)
All the props made by the seniors but most notably “the footbridge”
Butch woman with huge cigar in opening train scene
Marian had a beautiful voice and Harold Hill carried the piece, sometimes feeding lines to other actors who would say “sorry” and he’d say “no problem”. At one point, despite holding the script in his hand, Harold managed to lose his place and we all sat in silence for a bit as he flipped pages, allowing us to really ponder what exactly it means for 76 trombones to lead the big parade.
More plays should have silence as actors try and remember where they are!
And more plays should have elderly dancers entering at random to show off their legs!
Congrats to everyone on a killer show and congrats to Ric on convincingly “playing straight” as The Mayor.
C U Next Tuesday
(and yeah, I watched the Tonys, but the Lennox Hill Center’s Music Man was way more exciting)
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Sincerely,
Reid Pope
Venmo: @rpope-venmo-26
Donate to The Audre Lorde Project
Bonus Jonas Zone:
Not sure if this is the Ric face reveal but this was really cool for me and I'm glad Ric slayed!!!