Please forgive me for being E & T since Saturday night. I am still suffering from pneumonia, so yesterday I stayed in bed as long as I could before I had to get ready to go do the matinee of Oliver. Two of my very dear friends were supposed to come to the show yesterday with her mother and a family friend of her mother’s. When I made their reservations for four, I neglected to mention that I would prefer that my friends not be seated in the front row, since, as Ann pointed out in her review last week, the front row is about two feet away from the edge of the stage.
Well, knowing that my party of four was in the front row, I did my best not to make any eye contact with the audience, a neat trick during Reviewing the Situation where I have been directed to address several lines to different audience members. Somehow, I managed it, which, as it turned out, was a good thing. When I took my curtain call I looked out at my friends only to find that the fourth member of the party was not their old family friend, but instead was my best friend from high school and college who flew up from L.A. to surprise me.
As a result of my surprise, the show was followed by dinner out, which was followed by hours of reminiscences, before I finally took him back to his father’s place. By the time I got home, it was way past my bedtime and AOL kept kicking me out, so I finally gave up trying to post.