A Memory

In the spring of 1998, Partner At The Time and I went to New York for Spring Break. Ostensibly, we were going with a group of opera students from my college. They were going to spend the week going to various operas and museums. PATT and I were going to see just one opera, Der Meisterzinger von Nuremberg (or something close to that), four hours of Wagner at the Metropolitan Opera House. What we wanted to do instead of seeing a lot of opera was to see a lot of Broadway shows. So we did tourist things during the daytime, and in the early afternoons, we made our way to the TKTS booth in Times Square and selected a show for the evening. It was a great week.

The hottest show in town that spring was a revival of Cabaret starting Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson. I thought we should take a chance on tickets, so we stopped at the office for the Roundabout Theatre Company and stood in a very long line. Most people were walking away disappointed because the only seats left were what were dubbed "obstructed view." The other tickets you could purchase were for weeks or months in advance. I asked what views were obstructed and was told that some dancers would be above us at certain points in the show. I figured it was worth the risk and bought two.

What an excellent decision it turned out to be. The front rows of the show were set up as tables at a cabaret itself, so we had one all to ourselves. We were about 10-15 feet away from the stage itself, and members of the cast frequently walked by us on the way to the stage. In fact, at one point, Alan Cumming (as the Emcee) stood next to us while waiting for his cue. He turned and looked at us and winked. Hey, it's always nice to acknowledge the gay members of the audience, I'd imagine. The only part of the show we couldn't see was the dancing done by a couple of people above us on a metal walkway; in all, we missed about 30 seconds of something that wasn't integral to the plot.

The show was spectacular, an amazing recreation of Berlin's night life between the two World Wars. Cumming was great, a real scene-stealer. And Natasha Richardson was so beautiful and fragile as Sally Bowles, the singer who can't seem to make good decisions in her life. It's a part that allows actresses to show quite a range of talent, and Richardson did not disappoint. PATT and I both jumped to our feet at the end of the show to applaud her and the rest of the cast. Later that year, when she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, we cheered again (this time in our living room, though).

This past week, Richardson passed away after suffering a head injury in a skiing accident. I've thought several times then of that magical night in New York more than a decade ago. It's a special relationship that theater performers have with the audience. They know when they are loved, and they can sense when the crowd is on their side. Richardson was a gifted performer: a great actress with astonishing depth and a talented singer as well.

Richardson comes from a long line of actors and performers. Her mother is the always amazing Vanessa Redgrave, and her father is famed director Tony Richardson. Her aunt is Lynn Redgrave, and her grandfather was Sir Michael Redgrave. Her sister is Joely Richardson, perhaps best known for her performance as Julia on Nip/Tuck. Natasha was also married to another great actor, Liam Neeson. She was surrounded by so many talented people throughout her life. It was perhaps inevitable that should would demonstrate the same skills as an actor that they possessed; it was in her blood.

Natasha Richardson didn't have the traditional career of a movie star, perhaps, but she really didn't need to when she could perform on stage and in the movies with equal ease. She always brought to her roles a sensitivity that made you care about her character. I will always treasure having seen her work as Sally Bowles, particularly her performance of "Maybe This Time," one of my favorite songs from that show. Its words have haunted me since hearing of her passing.