A Big Apple present
Some people just know how to give gifts. My dearest friend is one of those masters of the perfect present and her timing, as always, was terrific.
I retired last month and I can honestly say I was overwhelmed at the thoughtfulness that so many people extended to me. But Ginger, my sidekick of 55 years hit my hot button as only she knows how. Some people just make you smile – all the time.
One of the things we’ve done for decades together in New York theater. Living there, she sees just about every play or musical that’s worthwhile.
She’s a true theater buff. In fact, she has collected the Playbill from every evening or matinee she’s attended for the past half-century and her ticket stub is stapled to the inside cover. As much as Ginger enjoys a good film, the stars in her celebrity vocabulary are Broadway. She speaks fluent Sondheim, Albee, and Fosse.
New York theater has always been one of my first loves but since I moved to Pennsylvania 40 years ago, I don’t get my fix on a regular basis. For a dozen years in the 80’s and 90’s, I went to the Big Apple on business buying trips 2 or 3 times a year. I made it a point to schedule my Wednesday appointments on the west side of the city so I could be near the theatre district on matinee day. The merchant showrooms were all within 10 blocks of the half-price TKTS line which usually had a single seat for a desperate country girl. I saw Bernadette Peters from one of those cheap seats – in the fourth row and Angela Lansbury from the first-row balcony.
So Ginger took all this desire of mine to heart. She not only gave me theatre tickets for a retirement gift, she managed to cross off an item on my bucket list.
I’ve never been struck by the celebrities of the entertainment world. The years I was a stewardess for American Airlines cured me of any awe-struck inclinations. Most of them were nice enough and behaved properly, but there were also the jerks that you get to witness in action when you’re locked up with them for five hours in a silver tube. There have, however, always been a few I’ve had a fondness for. Frankly, as I analyzed it I realize that they have all have something in common – a prodigious talent that exists within a complicated life. I have always reserved a special little corner of my heart for Johnny Cash, Barbara Cook, Jonathon Winters, Brian Dennehy, and Bette Midler, among others. But I’d never seen Bette Midler in person. I never saw her touring comedy revues or made it to her long Vegas stint because either the timing or the availability stood in the way. I had to be content with occasionally catching her on TV or the movies. But this summer, Ginger made it happen.
My girl Bette starred in “Hello Dolly” last year for 9 months. I couldn’t get there and the more frustrated I became, the more I wanted to see it. When it closed I said to Ginger, “Well, that’s that. At her age, she’ll probably never take on another Broadway show.” End of an era I thought. Get over it, old girl.
Then the producers announced the closing date of “Hello Dolly” as August 25th and they were bringing back Bette and her co-star, David Hyde Pierce, for the final six weeks of the show. Ginger, naturally, had already seen it, but she bought two tickets for me – as a retirement gift. As I said, this girl knows how to give a gift. She possesses the art of the grand gesture. Oh, and she added “My Fair Lady” at Lincoln Center to the package. I love this woman.
I assumed she would go with me but she insisted I invite a friend. “I’ve already seen it. I’ll go to a nearby play and we’ll meet afterward,” she said.
So I invited my other best friend, my daughter, who also happens to be Ginger’s Godchild.
Alix took the train down from Boston the night before and we three shared a girlie laugh-in for the next day and a half. Alix sat beside me as the curtain went up, grinning when Bette made her entrance. I was crying. I couldn’t help it. Dream-come-true type of happiness usually brings me to tears.
And, as I expected, Bette was wonderful. With an energy at age 72 that had to be seen to be believed, she sang and danced her way through, making hilarious asides to the audience, her “in-crowd.” Just changing heavy, period costumes the number of times she did would have put me on the dressing room floor. I was thrilled and in tears again when we met Ginger outside.
I’m still enjoying the glow from the New York week and still overwhelmed by the generosity of my dearest friend. In the fullness of time, Ginger’s lovely gesture, this thoughtful recognition, will join my memory bank of special occasions. I know full well that a Broadway musical is a mere blip in the importance of life experiences, but in this instance, it was the gift, not the play that meant so much. Sometimes our friends know us and our hearts’ desires better than the family does. This was the embodiment of affection between two old pals.
A life-long friendship is one of this life’s greatest gifts. Ginger always wraps the present with a satin ribbon.
Marcy O’Brien is a longtime local columnist of the sign of the times, and longtime executive director of Struthers Library Theatre.
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