Which Would You Choose?

So you're going to New York and you're going to see some shows. You decide while you're there that you'll see one of the one-person shows playing in town. You check out the New York Drama Desk nominees for Best Solo performance and you have to decide.

- Do you see Carrie Fisher, daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, Princess Leia, author of Postcards from the Edge, telling the stories of her life, a show that has been praised to the skies by everyone.

- Do you see veteran actor Theodore Bikel -- the Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, countless TV productions, beloved performer.

- Do you see Anna Deavere Smith - The West Wing, The Practice, Nurse Jackie, winner of two Drama Desk awards for outstanding solo performance.

or do you see Jim Brochu, a name you either have never heard before or may only have heard from mentions here in this journal.

Well, if you're going to take the word of the voters for the Drama Desk Award you'll choose Jim Brochu in Zero Hour.

Jimmy won!!!!!!

I read the news around 1 a.m., after staying up to watch the Lost finale and Jimmy Kimmel's wrap up afterwards. I checked out Facebook before going to sleep and there it was...

I haven't been able to keep the smile off my face all morning, so I can only imagine the jubilant mood in New York this morning.

Actually, I didn't have to imagine the jubilant mood in New York because Steve, wandering around 9th Street looking for a barber shop, called me and we both just kept talking about how fabulous it was. It was so nice to have that voice connection to share the excitement, since Walt isn't home and there is nobody to yell at here. (In desperation, I sent an e-mail to my fellow critic, Jeff, who is terribly blasé about everything and who, I am sure, could care less about my excitement. Predictably, he never responded.)

I think back to the first time I saw Zero Hour, when it was all very new, but it was replacing the autobiographicalThe Big Voice, which had been running for several years. It was in a little storefront theatre on a back street somewhere in North Hollywood, I think. The show got a great reception. It moved to another theatre in the area and then came to San Francisco, now under the direction of Jim's friend, actress Piper Laurie. I saw it each time, so glad for how well received the play was.

Then I followed the news of it, the almost unanimous rave reviews, as it traveled around the country for a couple of years. I so much wanted to fly to Washington, DC to see it because they were getting such great audiences (and ultimately Jimmy went on to win the prestigious Helen Hayes award for best lead actor).

It was our great pleasure to be in New York on opening night, a night I will never forget. It had a wonderful run at the little church theatre there but had to close to make room for another show that had already been booked. But it then moved to the DR2 theatre in Union Square. Later this year it will be back in Florida and then in Toronto.

Jimmy has been a working actor for 42 years, a man of immense talent, and I just cannot express how thrilled I am for him to receive this much-deserved award!

Somewhere, Ethel Merman is smiling.

The Thrill of First Nighting

What a great day it was, start to finish. In truth, when I first got up, I was a little disappointed that I had suggested going to Ellis Island today (and that Walt had agreed to it). Though I had slept better that still didn't mean well and all I really wanted to go back to sleep. So I did. After breakfast, I came upstairs, laid down on the bed and by the time Walt got upstairs, I was asleep. I slept (he tells me) about an hour and a half. But when I woke up, I felt raring to go and so off we went to Battery Park and from there to Ellis Island.

It was a glorious fall day.

Though the "living statues of Liberty" were enough to give the creeps to anybody!

We boarded the ferry and for awhile it was so crowded I thought we were never going to see the real Statue of Liberty clearly, since we were only going to Ellis Island, but we did finally pass by, after lots of folks got off on Liberty Island.

We had about an hour at Ellis Island (barely enough time to scratch the surface) but were glad we had come. Walt tried to look for his grandmother and I looked for my great grandmother.

Eventually we got the ferry to take us back to Battery Park, where we ran into some acrobatic break-dancers.

We took the bus back up town and walked over to Joe Allen's restaurant, where we were meeting my friend Ron for dinner. I decided Joe Allen's is an in joke. It's a show-bizzy place, with the walls lined with posters of Bdwy shows...but, as Ron started telling me about them, all the posters seem to be of shows the flopped. Badly.

It was so good to see Ron. He's one of my favorite people, and one of several very good things to come out of my years with CompuServe. I haven't seen him in about five years and, though we communicate on Facebook a lot, it was nice to see him in the (considerably less) flesh.

The restaurant was only a block from the Theatre at St. Clements, where Zero Hour is playing and we got there in plenty of time.

This was the main event--the reason we'd flown 3000 miles. I couldn't NOT be here to be supportive of Jimmy...and, let's face it, personally experience the accolades I knew he was going to get.

Ron was proud of me. I popped out from behind that potted palm I hide behind all the time and actually walked up to and introduced myself to Piper Laurie (who directed Zero Hour). She was very nice.

The show was fabulous. So much tighter than the last time(s) I'd seen it. He had amazing audience response (of course this was an audience of friends!). But the response was well earned.

When it was all over, we were all invited to the "after party" at Sardi's ... probably my only opportunity to ever have that experience.

...and the rest is just a bunch of photos to capture and remember the moment....

Piper Laurie

Steve chats with Robert Osborne (of Turner Classic Movies)

90 Year Old Marge Champion

Brian Childers (Hi, Brian!) and Kimberley Faye Greenberg
of Danny and Sylvia
standing on either side of set designer Josh Iacovelli.

We finally find Jimmy in the crowd.

Steve with Theodore Bikel, who had his own
show to do, but came to the party afterward.
He had been a friend of Zero Mostel's and thought
Jimmy's performance was spot-on.

Steve with Michele Mais, the original Tricia
in The Last Session, who is now on Broadway
doing Rock of Ages.

We had bus passes that were going to turn into pumpkins if we didn't get into the Metro quickly, so we didn't linger, but it was just a magical night and I hope nothing but the best for Zero Hour because Jim has certainly earned it!!!

Reincarnation

Anyone who doesn't believe in reincarnation should get him/herself to the New Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and watch the short run of Zero Hour.

...but I'm getting ahead of myself. I feel like I could start writing "Tale of Two Cities." It was the best of times...it was the worst of times.

The day started out normally with something waking me up instantly out of a sound sleep at 6:45 and the dogs being THRILLED that I had gotten up to feed them. I'm getting pretty good about feeding dogs in my sleep.

When they had all eaten, I settled into the recliner, determined to at least be quiet long enough to come to a proper state of waking. Quiet was about all I got. Rupert curled up with me and Lizzie, determined not to let the upstart have all the lap time, joined him. You know, I actually like Lizzie in my lap, if she didn't always have to be on my FACE. She crawls up until she is practically touching me with her nose. If I'm watching TV, I can't see around her, and then the licking starts. If she'd just curl up and sleep like Rupert does, she would get a lot more lap time.

At noon, I took Rupert to Petco and left him. I don't know if he got adopted, but someone was coming specifically to see him, so I'm holding the good thought. He went home with Megan from the SPCA (if he didn't get adopted), who is keeping him until Wednesday when things calm down around here.

We were headed to SF to a memorial celebration for Dario, partner of Roger Pierson from the Lamplighters. The memorial was scheduled to run from 2 to 6 and we figured we'd get there around 4, eat enough that we didn't need to have dinner, and then drive across town to the theatre to see "Zero Hour."

Only it was raining and traffic was totally impossible. My average speed for a good portion of the ride was 25 mph. Even when we changed direction, left Highway 80 and took 37, which goes across the delta to Highway 101, it was still 25 mph and then we got to 101, where it was still 101. It seemed that traffic in this part of California had just come to a grinding halt.

The 90 minute ride took us over 3 hours and it was nearly 5:30 before we got to Roger's. By that time the crowd had dwindled down to the "faithful" and all the food was gone. But we were glad we had gone anyway. "The faithful" are all part of the old guard Lamplighters, and all people in the company that we still know, so we got some visiting time in, which is always very nice.

At nearly 6:30, we got back in the car (it was raining, BTW, so all our clothes are soaking wet) and drove to the theatre. I made a wrong decision. I should have known better than to try to drive on Van Ness Ave., where the entire length of the street the top speed was 5 mph and we hit every red light.

But we did get to the theatre on time and even bought some Nutter Butter cookies for "dinner." 2 cookies each. Then they announced that the house was opened.

I had seen the show before, in one of its earlier productions and was impressed then, but it's been at least two years and since that time Jimmy has been performing it all over the place, so it has been tweaked and honed and is an even more amazing production than it was two years ago.

He doesn't play Zero Mostel, he is Zero Mostel (hence the opening sentence about reincarnation). He was telling us after the show about a woman who had seen it...somewhere. She was about 90 yrs old and came up to him afterwards and asked if he remembered her, and that she had lived in the same building that he did in New York. She actually thought he was Zero Mostel!

It rained most of the way home. Now that I am sliding into my dotage, there are several things I don't like to do: drive after dark, and drive in the rain. But with Walt's arm in a cast, I had to grasp the steering wheel and do it anyway. It was, needless to say, a relief to finally pull off the freeway in Davis.

Tomorrow we get to do it all over again, to different locations for different reasons, but lots of driving and visiting again. I don't have a clue when I am going to update this journal, the vlogs, or anything else until Wednesday, so you'll see me when you see me, I guess!