“Do you want to go see a children’s show at 10:30am on a Sunday?” Amanda asked. Of course! Her friend Melvin Tunstall III had written the book backstage while working as a swing in the Broadway show, Beautiful (The Carol King musical). Another Beautiful cast member, Douglas Lyons, wrote the songs.
We stopped for coffee and breakfast rolls on the way, had a quick picnic on a stoop,
And they even let us bring our coffee in the theatre– everyone seemed very impressed that we were able to get ourselves out of bed and out of the house for a 10:30 show on a Sunday!
The show told the story of a town of Squares (these were people who were blue with orange squares on their skin). On the first day of 3rd grade, a Polkadot girl shows up (she has purple skin with yellow dots). One of the kids doesn’t like her because she is a polkadot instead of a square, and the other kid likes her even though he is pressured not to like her because she is different. It was fun to watch the kids in the audience poke their parents and tell them it’s not fair when the polkadot girl was made to drink from a different water fountain from everyone else. It was such a cute way to teach children about racism. The songs were catchy and the characters were fun. It was well produced and entertaining. Afterward, Amanda and I talked about the casting. The Squares were played by white people and the Polkadot was played by a very talented black girl. I don’t think it would have gone over as well if it had been the other way around (even under all the makeup), but it would have been interesting if all the roles were cast as minorities. It’s frustrating and sad that racism (and the other ism’s that were addressed in the concluding song) is still a problem, but I love that this play sparks discussion for New York City kids at such a young age.
After the show we walked South and East to the Public to see Tiny Beautiful Things. When Amanda bought these tickets over a month ago, I asked if I could join her. To see this play would be meaningful to me on a variety of levels.
- The book. A few years ago I was at Mountainfilm in Telluride doing my usual stalking of Tom Shadyac. He was hosting a coffee talk with some lady named Cheryl Strayed. I went to see Tom. At the talk, he read some quotes from her book (which were deep and beautiful and meaningful) and then asked for questions. The first lady to ask a question gushed at Cheryl about how her books were so incredible and changed her life and she was so wonderful and… was there a question? No– she just had to say that. The way I remember it, it basically repeated like that for the next 45 minutes. I walked away thinking, I guess I have to read this lady’s book. After reading Tiny Beautiful Things, I had to get my hands on everything else she’d ever written. One of those books is Wild. You may have heard of the movie. The movie is better if you’ve read the book. I had to agree with the crowd of that coffee talk in Telluride. When Cheryl was young and broke and not famous yet, she wrote, unpaid, for an advice column. Tiny Beautiful Things is a collection of those articles. As I read the readers’ questions I would think about what my answers would be. Cheryl’s were deep and tragic and inspiring and beautiful. I’ve given this book as a gift a handful of times. It said in the program that the Artistic Director was given the book as a gift, and then he passed in on to several people, saying this book will be meaningful to you. It is, to so many people. It’s a book that gets passed around to people you love.
- The Theatre. The show would be playing at the Public in the theatre where Hamilton was performed before it went to Broadway. If you know me, you know how obsessed I am with Hamilton. I still haven’t seen it (I play the lottery daily) but now I’ve been in the theatre where it was born.
- Nia Vardalos. As an Actor, I am so impressed with how she made a name for herself by writing her own stuff. I like her and I like her work. She came in through the lobby while we were waiting for the show to begin. I took a creepy photo of her, but didn’t go say hi. I didn’t want to bother her.
We walked in and found our seats. The subway rumbled under our feet. Here is the set.
I was so happy to be here, I think I checked in 3 times on Facebook– just to tell the world where I was and what I was doing.
I was curious to see how they would adapt the book into a play. I mean, I would have been happy if Nia just sat there and read it, but I imagined she might be more clever than that (Nia adapted the book into a play). She was. There were three other actors who played the readers and other characters in Cheryl’s life. It was beautiful. It only took a few minutes before the tears started pouring out of my eyes. I mean, it was inevitable. I knew what I was getting into. If you’ve read the book, you understand. The words are eloquent and powerful on their own, but with people saying them with feeling to my face…. and I was just so grateful and pleased to be where I was while all of this was happening… Here is our “after” photo:
My face was nice and blotchy by the time it was over. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. With most adaptations of books, I know you can’t keep everything. Therefore I am always impressed when I love a book and then find it’s representation in another medium so satisfying. It was just so good.
Amanda and I wandered back toward the 1 or the A train on the West Side, basking in the glow of great theatre.
Back in the Heights we stopped at Saggio, an Italian place in the neighborhood that also had happy hour on a Sunday! And they had fizzy red wine– one of my favorite things that I rarely find– and incredible cocktails. Everything on the menu looked good. We narrowed things down from 10 to 3 to 2 and then asked about the Eggplant thing on the special menu. She said it was thin sliced eggplant, breaded and wrapped around cheese and spinach like a spring roll. This thing was amazing. It tasted like lasagna– I couldn’t believe there weren’t any noodles in it!
When I look at all the wonderful things I experienced in this one day, I am amazed. I couldn’t have asked for a better one!