Jesse Tyler Ferguson live onstage.
I’m looking around with my huge, unbelieving eyes right after saying that. It’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Live onstage!
Usually I’m the one missing out on all the amazing performances that my fabulous friends get to go see – since they’re busy living it up in the greatest city in the world. But not this time, suckas! Tonight, it’s LA – 1, NY – 0. (Victory dance.)
I could easily write a whole post loving on Jesse Tyler Ferguson (and I might just do that next week). But for now, let’s talk about going to see The Producers.
Now that I’ve opened with Jesse Tyler Ferguson – let’s take a total tangent, and start with the beginning of the night.
I met the two most enchanting women – D’Anna and Zoe – on the shuttle from Hollywood/Highland to the Hollywood Bowl. They were so fun, sweet, and adorable. As I often do with strangers, I asked them about their dreams in life and what they want to be when they grow up.
I won’t give away their dreams, or doubts, but one of them thought she might be too old to go back to school for something. Of course, I immediately look at her with the “fire in the eyes” look, letting her know that she’s definitely not too old to do anything. And then she tries to trap me! She gives another example. “Well, it’s too late to become a ballerina.” Well, no. It’s not. It might be too late to take the traditional path to being a ballerina. But it’s not too late to take dance classes and become awesome at ballet and rock your community dance scene. There’s always some way to do something.
D’Anna, Zoe, and I had some lovely conversation on the shuttle, and again as we waited in line together at will call. We left off mid-conversation right before we got to the ticket window. After I got my tickets, I looked around for them. At first, I didn’t see them, but we ended up finding each other. This when they were the sweetest of sweethearts.
They said, “We were looking for you – telling each other, ‘I wonder if she was just an angel sent to bring light into our lives, and tell us that we can do anything. Then as quickly she came, she vanished.’” How sweet was that? I am being totally conceded, printing it on the blog. But, it was one of the sweetest compliments I’d ever gotten (especially from strangers), and it made me feel so amazing, loved, and happy – too amazing, loved, and happy to not put it in here.
We eventually part ways and go to our seats. This was my first time seeing something at the Hollywood Bowl. And there’s something weird about that place: People don’t go to necessarily see the show that’s playing. People go to have a night out and picnic, or because they’re subscribers. I have never in my life walked into a Broadway show, asked the person next to me if they’re excited to see [insert name of musical here]; and had them reply, “Well, my boss has season tickets, and he’s out of town. I didn’t even know I was coming to a musical.” I didn’t even know I was coming to a musical. What?
On the one hand, I guess this is possibly cool, because maybe it introduces more people to shows they haven’t seen, or to the glory of musical theater. On the other hand, what kind of audience is that? Literally not a single person around me cared about the show or knew who was in it. Oh, actors, I hope you’re not getting a weird vibe in this venue.
Of course, the actors did have people supporting them there, so hopefully they were getting loving vibes. As I was walking around before the show, I instinctively stopped when I saw Justin Mikita (Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s boyfriend) talking to someone. My first reaction was to go up and gush with him about how we’re both so in love with his boyfriend. Then I remembered I don’t actually know this man. At all. I’ve only ever seen him from afar on Twitter. He doesn’t have a clue who I am. Not only that, we don’t even have an actual mutual friend, since Jesse Tyler Ferguson also does not know who I am. Then, Justin looked over at me, and I realized I was just standing there, staring at him.
I turned and walked away.
I’ll pick up with my thoughts on the show soon (after talking about this weekend’s races).