I saw Jackie Hoffman perform her one-woman show on Monday night. She’s in the cast of Hairspray (which I still haven’t seen), and one of the themes of her routine on Monday was how much it sucks to be in a Broadway show. She touched on something that I can’t get out of my head: she says she enjoyed performing in Hairspray so much more back when it was still new and the theater was filled with gay men. Now that the show’s been running for more than a year, the audience is filled with tourists and families, who don’t get all the humor, and she can’t stand them. “Welcome to Irony Airlines,” she intoned. “We’ll soon be reaching our cruising altitude of THIRTY-THOUSAND FEET OVER YOUR HEAD.”
I’ve been feeling a little envious and inadequate since then. I still haven’t seen Hairspray, and if and when I finally see it, I might feel like I’ve missed the boat, that it’s just not “cool” or “in” anymore. I want to be one of those people whose finger is on the pulse of New York theater, who has subscriptions to Encores and the Roundabout and the Manhattan Theater Club and sees the hot new shows in previews. I’m not saying I want to turn all pompous and stuck-up and fabulous; I just want to know a whole lot more about musical theater than I currently know. I want to know people who can get me free tickets to stuff, and invite me to parties, and I want to be able to chat intelligently about obscure shows and composers and Off-Broadway plays and such.
Okay — my dad did give me two free tickets to Wonderful Town last weekend, which he got from one of his co-workers who couldn’t use them. So that’s a start. I took my friend Jere, because Matt had already seen it and was busy with work.
Anyway, I love learning, and I’ve been learning a lot about musical theater these last few months. So I guess I have nowhere to go but up.
ohmigod, i love that you’re a Mustical Theatre fag. i wish i was a New York Musical Theatre Fag too.
I wouldn’t fret about the Hairspray thing. As long as you see it before Harvey leaves (if ever, at this rate), then you’re just fine. It’s a fun little show, and it still will be whenever you get to see it. I can still kick myself for not seeing long-running shows, only to have them close before I could get to them.
What an incredibly arrogant thing for Ms. Hoffman to say. If being in a Broadway show is no fun for her, then there are 1000 others lined up behind her whose dreams would be fulfilled were they given a shot at her role.
As for her information, those tourists and families, and the money they paid for their tickets, are paying her salary and her health care and benefits.
I can’t stand it when stage actors bitch and moan and whine about the “difficulties” of doing a Broadway show 8 times a week. They are working at the top of their chosen profession and earning a damn good living doing it.
Can Ms. Hoffman, who was a virtual unknown prior to her small character role in HAIRSPRAY, say “ungrateful?”
Well, I think her bitching and moaning was just tongue-in-cheek, and she was just trying to mine the humor of it for her show. I bet she actually loves being on Broadway and is grateful. But, point taken, Jere.
Oh Yes, I’m with MAK (above) see Hairspray! Harvey will probably leave sometime soon to help launch the La Cage Bway revival. You MUST see Harvey, and then you will be chic, and in, and groovy, and hip and cool… Reidel reported in the Post today that Same week tickets are available for it nowadays…
As for the MTC, there is nothing hip or cool about them at the moment. And Roundabout is always hit or miss… and often Bargain Basement-ish with all their cost cutting and gyp-ing actors out of regular Union Scales… You’re hipper and cooler if you DON’T subscribe, and you pick and choose…(assassins would make you hip and cool, I think!)
You are already a Theater Fag with a Blog. You are way cool. Waaay.