What's In The Daily News?

I'll tell you what's in the Daily News....

For all you musical theater lovers out there- what show opens with these words??

Time's up.

Answer is....Guys and Dolls.

And guess who is going to see it on Broadway?? Me! That's who (and not with my union dues...Oh, I could go on...)

I just bought tickets to go see it when I make my way to Manhattan this summer and I am pretty excited. I have been singing all the songs from this show to my husband very loudly and I am starting to sense that he has snuck some ear plugs in as he seems to be smiling and nodding at every song I sing. Hmmm. Anyhoodle. All of this talk about Nicely Nicely Johnson and Nathan Detroit reminded me of a story...

Once upon a time in a high school not so far away, a girl named Lisa was in her senior year musical and the musical was (you guessed it) none other than Guys and Dolls. Lisa had a small role, but she was pretty excited to be in a few scenes after singing in the Chorus and having only dancing roles in previous years.

Lisa played a very old woman (in some scripts this role was a very old man but she tended to disregard this small detail) who played the bass drum (see sample picture below) in the Save A Soul Mission Band. The Save A Soul Mission Band liked to parade across stage in just about every scene - including the opening scene. (Well, not technically the opening opening scene, but I am assuming the majority of my readers haven't a clue what I am talking about so I am improvising here. A little. )

Now, Lisa is a fairly short person and this bass drum was incredibly large. In fact, now that she thinks about it, she is not sure the audience ever saw her face because the bass drum pretty much strapped onto her shoulders and covered over half her body. Ahem.

As you can tell by the opening lines, the opening scene took place in front of a newstand. With lots and lots of newspapers. Stacks of them really. Lots and lots of stacks of newspapers.

Lisa and her bass drum had to enter stage left but the dressing rooms were only on stage right, so she had to quietly walk across the stage to get to stage left wings before the scene opened. She did this each night during the overture.

What? What's an overture? Oh, that's when the curtain is closed but the orchestra plays and it pretty much starts the show for the audience.

So, there she was, bass drum in tow, quietly walking across the stage, curtains closed, orchestra playing, not technically being able to see exactly where she was going because of the gigantic drum in front of her. And then it happened. Her debut. She walked straight into a stack of newspapers. And fell. Fell on top of her drum. In a horrible crash. A crash loud enough for the audience to hear, but thankfully not see. (Remember? Curtains closed. Thankgod.)

You know when a turtle gets flipped over on its shell and it squirms with all four of its legs trying to flip back over? You know, kind of like this?

Well, picture the reverse effect of this and that was poor Lisa. Drum on the floor, her body up in the air, all four limbs flailing. And she couldn't get up. And the overture was ending, which meant the curtain was about to go up. Thankfully, a few helpful chorus girls and stage hands picked her up off her drum, put her on her feet and guided her past the remaining land mind of newspaper stacks in front of her. She was terribly upset, but had to calm down because just at the moment that she scampered to the wings, lights went up, curtain up and the show started. Showtime.

After the show, Lisa found her mother and asked if she happened to hear a loud crash during the overture. Lisa's mom replied, "Yes! What was that??"

Lisa told her mother that is was none other than her daughter falling on top of her drum. Lisa's mother, being the loving mother that she is, could not stop laughing at her. In fact to this day, if ever someone spots a turtle, Lisa's mother likes to bring up this story. Lisa has refused to touch a bass drum or walk in a parade ever since this incident. Not that she has had many opportunities to touch one or walk in parade, but you get the point. The End.