I saw Anthony Rapp 8 Times as Mark in Rent, a definitive moment in my life as an artist, and now he is starring in Mozart: Her Story – The New Musical.
I heard Audra McDonald sing in a tiny rehearsal studio in NYC during a reading of Dear World.
I saw Priscilla Lopez as Diana Morales in the first Broadway musical I ever saw: A Chorus Line – 30 years later, she starred in one of my plays at Lincoln Center.
And I held Kristin Chenoweth’s purse.
I love my life.
In 1996, my entire world was rocked when I saw Rent for the first time. I was splitting time between LA and NYC and a struggling artist. I was at a crossroads, having an existential crisis as most twenty somethings do. And then I saw this musical about twenty somethings who were struggling artists and I doubled down on my determination to make it. (As I’m writing this from a rehearsal studio next to London’s National Theatre, with a couple of films currently on the festival circuit and a book coming out this week, I’d say my perseverance paid off.) Okay, yeah, it took another 25 years, but —- note to all of my twenty something NYFA and Antioch MFA students —- if you persevere you will succeed.
Success isn’t from money or career, it’s from full circle moments. Moments like seeing A Chorus Line when I was a kid and wanting to be Diana Morales. Thirty years later, Priscilla Lopez, the original Diana Morales, was starring in a play I wrote with Jackie Collins at Lincoln Center. I mean, it doesn’t get better than that… does it?
Does holding Kristin Chenoweth’s purse count?
It was one of the first table reads of Wicked at Universal. Winnie Holzman had been my idol since she wrote My So Called Life. When I waitressed and she was my customer, I awkwardly proclaimed my obsession to her and asked her to be my mentor. She agreed and invited me to the first reading. So, I met Kristin Chenoweth. She was tiny and incredibly lovely and needed someone to hold her purse. So, I held Galinda’s purse while she read and sang in one of the first incarnations of Wicked. Ten feet away, I heard that beautifully distinct voice that would go on to charm the musical theatre world.
Her voice is extraordinary, but my favorite voice in the world belongs to Audra McDonald.
I saw Audra McDonald play Sarah in Ragtime. I sat in the balcony. Two weeks later, my friend Fred was doing a workshop with her and invited me. So, I sat in a rehearsal room with a slew of Broadway stars, five feet from Audra McDonald for a workshop of Dear World, where she played Nina opposite Chita Rivera as the Madwoman. I had played the same role opposite Jill Gascoine as the Madwoman. Ours was was the play. Hers was the musical. And the experience of hearing Audra’s pure voice so close to my hear will stay with me indefinitely.
Today, my full circle moment comes as I am watching Anthony Rapp – the original Mark from the original Rent originate a character in Mozart: Her Story – The New Musical. This is the same Anthony Rapp I fan-girled over when I saw him in Rent eight times… making me an official Renthead. The same Anthony Rapp whom I sing/quote every time I’m cycling “To riding your bike Midday past the three piece suits“, the same Anthony Rapp who is singing a song two feet away on a show on which which I am the dramaturg.
I love my life.
Not to mention the time I was singing a song that Victor Garber sang in Godspell while he was, unknowingly, in the backyard. Or the time I sat next to Betty White at a birthday party when people were arguing politics around us, or the time the time I performed in a wedding with Jonathan Grofff.
Or, the time I told Steven Spielberg I’d be working for him one day & he said, “The last person who had the chutzpah to come up and tell me that was Whoopi Goldberg, and three years later she was starring in The Color Purple.”
Still waiting, Steven.
I love you! Can’t wait to read more! ❤️