Garden State

So I was sitting at a Starbucks in Hoboken earlier today and thought...
This would be a good time to blog. Unfortunately my Sidekick had other
plans... The battery was dead. Its not the Sidekick's fault. I blame
myself for not charging it in almost 24 hours.

Hold on, go back... Did she say Hoboken? Yes. I was walking down the
street and suddenly I looked up and I was in New Jersey.

At the moment I'm in Long Branch, NJ. I found a nice place to plug in
my Sidekick and rest my weary head. My mom and I are staying at her
friend's house. Today we took a commuter ferry from Hoboken to Midtown
Manhattan and saw Lion King.

One word about Lion King: damn

Damn!

HOT DAMN!

I cried... Just a little... I'm secure enough to admit it. I was a
weepy mess. But not because of the story line. I think only other
theatre geeks would understand...and even not many of them. I can't
really explain but in the opening number when the music swelled and the
stage rotated and lifted and all the animals came to life with people
inside them I suddenly found it hard to breathe and my eyes stung with
some unfamiliar salty discharge. There was a friggin full size elephant
onstage! For craps sake! And Rafiki held up the little Simba cub
puppet with his little arms and legs wiggling. And the zebras pranced
around...an ELEPHANT! And a little baby elephant! And it was kinda cool
and so I guess the extreme coolness of it all stung my eyes.

I kept wishing my my brother the techie was there to see it so we could
geek out theatre style and talk shop about it afterwards. Or my other
sybs because they appreciate feats of mechanical genious as well.

My mom and her friends were alright. They loved the show but they were
more excited about the cast members in the lobby accepting donations for
equity fights AIDS. My mom kept asking if I wanted to meet anybody or
get a picture or an autograph.

As an actor I feel like the most uncomfortable part of acting is the
post-show meet-and-greet with strangers. Obvously I'm not on broadway
and not all actors feel that way, but I just don't want impose that same
awkward torture on others - even if they are getting paid the big
bucks.

I imagine the conversation going something like this: "I know you guys
won a bunch of Tony awards and are like one of the most technically
amazing shows in history but I just wanted to say it was good! Remember
the part when you almost got run over by wildabeasts? That was
awesome!" totally Chris Farley style.

Ok I'm sleepy. Goodnight.

- Megan