Let's break out the booze and have a ball

Figuring the coffee must be ready, I left off packing and ran to the kitchen. Mom and Joy were crowded in there, next to the coffee pot, both blowing on their coffee, and looking sheepish. With a laugh shared between them, they said:

"We had to make more coffee" Mom said with a half-smile
"We put salt in the first cup" Joy said, accusingly but with a glint of laughter.

"Now who puts salt in a bowl?!"
"And puts it next to the coffee maker?"

"Oops, sorry" I laughed. "I use chunky salt. . . it doesn't fit in a salt shaker. . . " and then laughed too.

________

"So, where is Rolf?" Mom asked.
"I really couldn't say."
"Probably at work, and he's going to be late, right?" guessed Joy.
"Probably. . . make yourselves at home. . . I'll be out in a few."

_________

"Rolf's on his way he said. He should be here in a bout twenty minutes."

It wouldn't have been a problem if they hadn't arrived 30 minutes early. I was lying anyway. . . he hadn't even left the office . . .

To keep them entertained, I pulled out their itinerary! The news that I had gotten the tickets - due to the wonderful tip to check out BroadwayBox.com - got shouts of glee from the church ladies. Delightedly, Mom said: "Oh, and we're going on a cruise!"

My sister: "Oh this is just great, it's like going on a church camping trip; and I don't have to worry about anything!"

__________

Joy's started dating a new man. He's a Methodist Preacher, named Bruce.

As I left, to go finish packing, and call Rolf. . . she says

"I finally told Bruce about you. . . and he's fine with it. . . isn't that great?!"

"I finally told Bruce about you. I finally told Bruce about you. IfinallytoldBruceaboutyou. . ." I muttered with contempt as I left the room.

They've been on one date.

________

"Now, the reason I was able to get half-price tickets for Sweeny Todd is because Patti LuPone is away this weekend. But Judy Kaye has been filling in for her this whole run to rave reviews, so it's still going to be great."

I told this to Mom and Joy at home before we left. And while they were there I repeated it to Rolf once he got home. The tickets were only $50, AND we were in the fifth row center of a full house. So I talked about Judy Kaye a lot. How she was a Tony Award winner. . . how she's been filling in for Ms. LuPone regularly to rave reviews. . . How she's the reason we were able to score such great tickets.

But when we got to the theatre, everyone else was just noticing that Patti LuPone's understudy was going on. And they were all saying. . . "Patti LuPone's not here. . " I mean it was all you could hear were exclamations that "Patti LuPone's not here".

I'm sure Mom had no idea why I thought she was just losing it, but when she looked at me with disappointment and said "Oh, Patti LuPone's not here" just like all the rest of the people, I really was shocked. My mom is super smart. She always has been. I had to wonder does the stress of the cancer have her so distracted that she's not making logical connections anymore?

Then, were settled into our fabulous seats looking through our programs -

Joy: "Oh, she won a Tony for Phantom of the Opera."

Me: "Oh, she must have played Fantine"

Rolf: "That's LesMiz."

Me, laughing: "Oh, that's almost as bad as the time I said I wanted to see Provence on our trip to Italy."

Mom: "But if you saw it in Italy you wouldn't understand the words."

Me: ??

_________

So, Mama, Joy, Rolf and I did have a very good time. The shows couldn't have been better. We laughed so much on the trip up, that I wish I'd had a tape recorder going so I could relive the moments again and again.

We took a carriage ride through Central Park, shopped at Tiffany's on Fifth Avenue, followed by lunch at McDonalds on Time's Square - it's because of the view from McDonald's second floor dining room, of Time's Square, that I have lunch there once on every trip to Manhattan. But you have to walk up two very high flights of stairs, and that seemed to be almost beyond Mom's strength.

Then we saw the matinee of Sweey Todd. Wow! It was so great. I've seen the show several times, but this production, with the cast doubling as the orchestra, adding their instruments right into the dramatic scenes, the one set, the totally new interpretations . . . Oh! God! That's! Good!

I had my arm around Mama when Toby sang "Nothing's Going to Harm You, not while I'm around." I just wish I could make that true.

________

The theatre was immediately next door to our hotel. It was so great to be laying down for a nap ten minutes after the show. We took a cab to dinner (at Da Rossina) even though it was just a few blocks away. I didn't want to tire Mom out.

Then we saw Dirty Rotten Soundrels. I never would have guessed that I would love this show! I'd heard that it had gotten better after John Lithgow left the cast. And, with the cast now including Keith Carridine, Lucie Arnez, plus Brian D'Arcy James. . . who . . well, I thought he was in the original cast and had won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical. Well. . . He was so good, in the Steve Martin role, that I kept saying to Mom and Rolf: "See, that's why he won the Tony. . ." only it wasn't him.

I used the BroadwayBox.Com link, and got tickets for 35% off! I couldn't have done better at TKTS.

It seemed that about every time I looked at Mom and Joy, they were laughing.

"Oh, that was the best one . . . didn't you think that was the best one Mom. . . that was just the best. . . " my sister kept saying.

________

We turned in after the show. I'd thought of going to Don't Tell Mama's or Marie's Crisis so we could sing around the piano bar, but . . . I'm beginning to feel like the parent of my mother, and I thought she should go to bed.

In the morning, we took a cruise around the island which was just perfect. Even though there was a woman from Secaucaus that I wanted to slap hard upside the head because she was so fucking loud for the whole two hour trip; still, it was a beautiful day, we were on the water, sitting, we got to see the Statue of Liberty close up, and we had a nice relaxing tour of the city from the vantage point of the water.

_________

The last show of our trip was The Drowsy Chaperone. It's the first time I've ever seen a Broadway show with the Original Broadway Cast! oh no, that's not true Tommy was the first, oh and Titanic, oh and that Vampire piece of crap. OK! Whatever! I was so excited. And it was so good. What a remarkable show. A musical within a comedy, it's billed as.

_________

We hit the road really fast, and got out of town without any trouble. We sang the Shitzpeas* Family Trio numbers, those that we could remember, with Rolf improvising a bass line. Once we were trying to sing an old radio hymn, called "Holy Be", that has a running bass even though Rolf had never heard it before. Me and Mom and Rolf were trying to sing the line together, so he could learn it, while Joy sang the counterpoint. . . but we just got to laughing so hard that our voices started to hurt. . . so we took a break. And although we did sing some more, we never tried that one again.