Last night I took my seat at The Public Theatre's newest production "Compulsion" starring Mandy Patinkin. Being the theatre geek that I am I made it a point to bring my original Broadway cast recording Vinyl record of Evita for Mandy Patinkin to sign. As I sat in my 5th row Public Theatre Member seat (het hem), I see an inconspicuously dressed smallish women with glasses and that unmistakable nose guiding her up the stairs to the row directly in front of me. A shot of adrenaline entered my heart as it skipped a beat, I thought to myself, "Is that Patti Lupone? No I couldn't be that lucky." She and her husband proceeded to sit in the seat directly in front of me one person to the right. It suddenly hit me that I had less than a foot from Patti, my Evita LP cast recording. I thought to myself, "No way am I bothering her to ask her to sign while we are in the theatre." She was within the first third of audience members to arrive and at that point was quite empty. I heard an older woman 2 rows behind me say not so quietly, "Patti Lupone is here tonight!". If I could hear the woman, Patti could. I chuckled to myself. As she turned around to take off her coat I was reassured it was her and am not ashamed to say I listened in on what her and her husband were talking about as they thumbed through the playbill. Her husband playfully said "Is there anyone in this show that we know?" Patti replied, "No I don't think so" and ended the statement with her signature (quiet) laugh. As the show started she perked up straight in her chair as did I forcing myself to be enticed by the show before me. The show was fabulous, I will most likely post a review after this story. During the show Ms. Lupone laughed quite loud at several of the jokes and even shed a few tears at one point, sniffling and wiping tears from her eyes as she gazed upon Mandy with such love and admiration I could only imagine the memories this evening must be bringing back for her.
After the show ended I took the elevator down to the lobby and saw Patti waiting with a group of people. I made my way over and waited patiently until no one was talking to her. I said "Excuse me I'm sorry to bother you but would you mind signing this?" as I held out my Evita cast recording. She looked at it and exclaimed "Oh my goooood." in her signature drawl. "Where did you get this?" I told her it was my personal copy and I had the actual record at home. She replied with, "No I mean do you just carry it around with you wherever you go?" I suddenly realized what she was saying and said, "Well I brought it for Mandy to sign and had no idea you would be here." She laughed kind of embarrassed as her husband said, "Yes who else was in the show?" jokingly. We all laughed and had a grand ole time. She signed the record and I thanked her and she said your welcome and walked away to go back and see Mandy. I waited for Mandy to come out but he never did. His wife saw me with the recording and said, "Im married to the guy and can't even find him!" so I waited for her to leave then gave up. lol So I went to a play starring Mandy Patinkin with an unsigned Evita Vinyl and left with it signed by Patti Lupone and not Mandy Patinkin? Good night for me.
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