Sondhiem

There are very few people in this world that can say they have been in the same room as one of the greatest minds in musical theatre. I can say I've been in that room twice now and it's pretty amazing!

Last summer I worked on GYPSY at NY City Center for a few weeks in wardrobe. Well, Stephen Sondheim is the lyricist and happened to hang around the theatre a lot. One day I was lurking in the doorway of the wardrobe room, staring down the hall to see who might come to see Patti LuPone in her dressing room and up the stairs walked Stephen Sondheim. Everyone else acted very nonchalant, but I'll be honest. I did the double take, mouth dropped to the floor, and I went around telling everyone in wardrobe that he was there.

Thursday happened to be the invited run-thru for "Road Show," Sondheims new/rewritten musical at The Public. Since I'm on wardrobe crew, I had to be there. So I headed over to the elevator to go up to the rehearsal space and as I round the corner there he is, waiting for the elevator! SO we rode in the elevator up to the third floor together. At one point I looked over at him and he smiled a friendly "hello" kind of smile. It was pretty awesome. And let me tell you, he really enjoyed seeing his musical preformed. The whole time the had this huge grin on his face and laughed really loudly at anything funny parts. I guess seeing your creation come to life never gets old. Let's just hope I end up doing something that I still enjoy when I'm that old (and boy, does he look a lot older in person!).