In part 3, I left off with the brilliance of Jason Michael Snow. Please enjoy this YouTube video of him performing one of my favorite songs (that he wrote).
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUnAuQ7GYTA]
Oh my gosh, I just love it too much. Jason Michel Snow is brilliant. Brilliant.
When I went to see Jared in the show, I was beyond excited to see him sing and act the heck out of it, but I was also unbelievably pumped to see Jason Michael Snow onstage again.
They didn’t do separate inserts for each understudy in the show that night. They had one insert with the night’s cast list in it. I didn’t read it thoroughly. I knew Jared was in. That’s what mattered to me.
The opening number started. I was so ready to hear Jason Michael Snow’s “hello.” But it wasn’t there.
Nick Spangler was there instead. Each actor is different and adorable in his own way. But in that moment, my eyes widened, I looked down at the insert and saw that JMS was out.
Now that I was on my new crusade for understudies, I couldn’t allow myself to be all that upset about it.
Flash forward to the next time I’m in New York a couple of weeks later. I’m walking down 8th Avenue one Wednesday. Brace yourself.
I see JASON MICHAEL SNOW standing outside of a restaurant with a group of his friends. I kid you not. Jason Michael Snow himself. At first I walked on by.
See, at this point, I had been awake for somewhere around 39ish hours. I knew I was a mess with coffee breath who could barely form any kind of coherent thoughts. I figured I should leave him be.
I walked right past him. For maybe 8 steps. I couldn’t. I could not walk right past one of the most talented performers I’ve seen in years without telling him how amazing he is.
I turned right around, and gently tapped him on the shoulder. I said I was so sorry for interrupting his time with friends. He very sweetly said, “No, please. Interrupt.” Then I went on a (probably non-sensical) rant about how crazy talented he is, and how he’s my favorite part of The Book of Mormon, and how I love his writing.
He said, “You are blowing my mind right now.” (He’s so sweet and funny!) I guess he might not recognized a super ton on the street… yet.
One of his friends who was with him was pretty much cracking up the whole time, likely due to the fact that I was almost certainly coming across as a total crazy person.
After I was done stringing words together, hoping to make some kind of thought that at least sort of made sense, I went back about my day. I almost asked for a picture, but – A) I didn’t want to bother him anymore than I already was. B) I’m a little vain and knew I looked tired and awful.
Let me interject here to say I’m learning slowly but surely that vanity is an enemy to things that are good. First, I didn’t want to use water to cool myself down at my hottest half marathon because I didn’t want to look wet in the pictures. (That mistake was remedied in Indianapolis when I ran through every available water source.) Now, here I am telling the story of the day I met Jason Michael Snow, and I don’t even have a picture to remember it!
Vanity is lame.
(I know I’m obviously not that vain, being that I barely ever wear make-up or do my hair. In fact, I’m gonna say it’s more insecurity than vanity. (We all feel that way sometimes, right?) The point is, vanity, insecurity, whatever it is – awful. It’s possible I need to work on it.)
So, I go about my business, freaking out, calling pretty much everyone I’ve ever met in my life. “You’ll never guess who I just met!”
After seeing Jason Michael Snow himself on the streets of New York, I just had to go see The Book of Mormon again. How could I not? I had wanted to avoid seeing it again since I’d already seen it twice, and the last time I’d seen it, Jared was in the lead role. I wanted my lasting memory to be of him playing the part.
But, I really, really, really wanted to see Jason Michael Snow again.
I texted Jared and said I was thinking about coming back. He texted back that he was going to be in the show that weekend. What?! Sign me up!
I’ll tell you all about going to that show in Part 5.