One of the 99¢ show's Weird Family was out with strep throat tonight, so a longtime friend of and dramaturg for Orphean Circus gamely stepped in for him tonight at a moment's notice. (I swear, they're dropping like flies, it's starting to sound like a TB ward in that dressing room.) We were all a bit worried for Michael during the early show; it was already a hairy night for other reasons, and while he was more than familiar with the script and production, it's quite a different thing when you're on the other side of the footlights. Especially for the very first time.
But we needn't have worried. Not only did he do a bang-up job delivering his lines and not bumping into the furniture (who was it who said that about acting, anyway, Spencer Tracy?), our budding superstar totally grabbed the spotlight and ripped his second act solo to shreds. Barbra Streisand, look out.
As we discussed in the lobby aprés, after your first show, you wonder why anyone wants to do this; after your second show, you wonder why anyone would want to do anything else.
xxx c