BARACK ON BROADWAY
All the bigwigs of Broadway organized a fund raising evening for Barack Obama, (the next President of the United States) in the New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street during the 'dark' night of Mary Poppins. It was a wonderful evening, full of beautiful words and music from actors, singers, dancers and of course our man, Barack. He spoke for about 45 minutes, and he was truly inspiring. He is humble, optimistic, realistic, and genuinely funny. I couldn't help but think, more than once, while he was speaking, "he doesn't sound like a President, or a 'polished' politician for that matter." That's why he is so refreshing. He speaks from his gut, without pretense and smooth talk. He gets to the point in a conversational way that makes you feel your having a discussion with him in your living room. That's comforting. And I want to follow 'that'. And most importantly, he is different. He is not D.C. experienced, he is an idealist, and he constantly talks of hope. Isn't that what we need right now? A hopeful, new way of dealing with Washington D.C. , our country, and the world.
To make the evening even better, afterward, I approached one of the evening's presenters, and 'god' of Broadway theatre - Harold "Hal" Prince. I was completely starstruck. If you don't know who he is, you should. He is contemporary theatre's most legendary producer/director. He has won a multitude of awards as a producer and director of such famous original productions as: The Pajama Game (1954), West Side Story(1960), Fiddler on the Roof(1964), Cabaret(1966), A Little Night Music(1973), Evita(1979), Sweeney Todd(1979), Phantom of the Opera(1988), Parade(1998), Lovemusik(2007), and dozens of other plays and musicals.
Anyway, I approached him and told him how much I admired him and his life and work. He was extremely warm and friendly, despite the multitudes of people. We talked for a minute about nothing important, since my mind was wiped clean of any rational thought. And I got this great picture. He is one of those people I have always wanted to meet sometime in my life - and I did.
6 comments:
I like to hear that Barack speaks from his gut and is not polished. In the past, I have voted for Ralph Nadar in protest of the polished politicians, but I am with you, Obama seems much more genuine. Plus, I like what his gut has to say.
Go Obama!
He does have a lot of good to say. I hope he can bring to pass at least some of the changes he wants. I guess he's succeeding at what he wants to do, give people hope.
I feel so out of touch that I don't have a candidate I am following here in little ol' Utah...I will have to do it vicariously through you guys. NYC seems so cultured and exciting - I'm coming! Thanks for the information! And what an awesome experience to meet someone you admired so much. I felt like that at like the fourth Indigo Girls concert I went to. I didn't even meet Amy and Emily, just cried when I saw them up close and personal from the first row. So weird...
What about Harold "Hal" Prince for President???
(I am so happy you are having another girl!!!)
Hey Herricks!! Let's update here...I keep checkin' in to see how you're doing but I can only read this post so many times!! Hope all is well! :)
Note taken Allison. I actualy wrote a post a week ago, but was thwarted by technical difficulties when trying to add photos, for some reason. Anyhoo, stay tuned.
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