Hello all,
I took my friend Robin and my older brother and went adventuring today. I went way out to Western Mass. to take in a showing of "A Streetcar Named Desire" at Barrington Stage Company. Starring as Blanche DuBois was Tony-nominated Broadway actress Marin Mazzie -- "Mother" in the original Broadway cast of Ragtime, "Lilli Vanessi" in the Broadway revival ofKiss Me, Kate, among other things. When I heard that she'd be playing Blanche in my current state of residence, I absolutely couldn't miss it.
So off we went, the three of us, stopping for tacos in Amherst on the way. We got to the theatre after about 2 1/2 hours on the road -- it was a lovely little theatre, quite intimate, we had fantastic seats, eighth-row orchestra level. But you don't really care about my seats, do you?
The show itself was absolutely incredible. Christopher Innvar was magnetically repulsive, if you'll excuse the oxymoron, as Stanley Kowalski - I mean that as high praise for a man in a powerhouse role that completely lacks any semblance of refinement. Kim Stauffer's Stella was adorable, with a childlike stability which seemed to both explain her abuse at Stanley's hands and explain how she managed to remain so loyal to those she loved in spite of her situation. Also outstanding were Kevin Carolan as Mitch, Jennifer Regan as Eunice, and Chavez Ravine as the blues singer, whose between-scene interludes garnered heavy applause at every turn.
Marin, of course, was divine. From the moment she stepped onstage, she commanded every ounce of the audience's attention. Every nuance of Tennessee Williams' fallen heroine was played to a tee - the vanity, the devotion to Stella, the desperation, every aspect of her mental breakdown was believable and justified by impeccable acting choices. It was as moving a performance as I have ever witnessed (although I do not claim to have seen a large breadth of live professional theatre).
Now for the fun stuff: Robin and I decided to "stage-door" after the show. It took us a while to find the stage-door, but we did eventually. Anyway ... earlier in the day, when we had first gotten on line to collect our tickets, I thought I recognized Jason Danieley (of Broadway's Candide and Curtains; also Marin Mazzie's husband) standing behind us. I wasn't sure, however, so I didn't say anything until I was at the stage-door and, again, found myself standing next to him.
"I think I recognize you," said I.
"Yeah, I'm Jason," he replied.
"Joe Cable, South Pacific at Carnegie Hall?" (P.S., Robin calls this one of my most "dorktastic" moments.)
"You got it," said he. "...I'm related to Marin."
It was, indeed, Jason Danieley, who played Joe Cable at the Carnegie Hall concert of South Pacific.
The subsequent stage-door episode could be entitled, "In Which Ana Realizes She Does Not Know How To Talk To Celebrities."
Marin was the last one out. She had some friends (along with Jason) at the stage-door as well, so I hung back a bit. She saw me waiting after a while and came over ... at which point I became completely star-struck, and lost most of my train of thought.
"*stammer* Uh, Ms. Mazzie ... I'm so thrilled to finally be seeing you live ... uh, I'm such a huge fan of your work... AHH..."
Fortunately, Marin was very nice... she thanked me for coming, asked where I was from, signed my program, and even took a picture with me (although the picture was deleted by my flaky camera-phone [it was terribly blurry in the first place, so no great loss was recorded]). Although I epic-failed at being smooth of tongue, the experience was pretty freakin' awesome, for lack of a better phrase.
The trip home was late, but rather enjoyable. Rocking out to the Jackson 5 keeps anyone awake. Caught the last few innings of Yankees/Red Sox play on the radio. May write more about the 4-game sweep and 6 1/2 game AL East lead at some other point.
Until next time,
Ana
Love the story! :)
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