26 years ago, it was Thanksgiving weekend in NYC. At a Thanksgiving dinner surrounded by family, I announced that I was going to try to get in to see Robin Williams and Steve Martin in Waiting For Godot at Lincoln Center. It was the closing weekend of this show, which was the hottest ticket in town that anybody had seen for a long time. The response was unanimous: There is absolutely no way whatsoever that you are getting into that show. No way, no how. I said I was going to try anyway. I should try, right? Why not? Yeah, good luck. So, that Sunday, I went to Lincoln Center for the final performance. I waited on line in the snow, cajoling ushers, security guards, anybody who walked by... PLEASE help me get in there. They all made the same face: I dont think so, kid. The time ticked by and it was getting very close to showtime. Things were not looking good. I made friends with everyone that walked by, and somehow... someone, I dont even remember who, but someone thrust a ticket into my hand and said Come on. You have two minutes to curtain. I ran in there to find my seat and it was like a dream. Every celebrity I had ever seen anywhere up to that point in my life was in this theatre. It was absolutely crazy. I found my seat and sat down next to Tom Cruise and his wife Mimi Rogers. I kind of stammered out that I was a big fan of his work and he seemed even more surprised than I was that I said it. The lights went down and the show started. It was magical. Was it the best representation of Samuel Becketts work? Maybe not. But it was truly amazing to watch, and at the center of it was Robin Williams, who was definitely Robin Williams in certain moments but the performance had this underlying sadness and frustration that felt all too real to me. Everybody in this show was fantastic: Steve Martin, F Murray Abraham, Bill Irwin, but Robin Williams... he was truly the star of this show. He gave a performance that had colors that Ive never seen him do again anywhere else. When the show was over, it was made clear to me that everyone else was going to a party that I was never going to get into, no matter how I tried. So, I walked around back and waited at the stage door for the actors to come out. I asked each one to sign my playbill and they all did. When Robin came out last, he was with a group of people and in a hurry, so I sort of thrust my playbill at him and asked him to sign. He quickly scrawled his name and as he was handing it back to me, I sort of blurted out Any advice for a young actor? (Thats what I was at the time.) Immediately, he gave me this look that said Youre not really asking me this right now, are you?, but then, he stopped for just a second. He looked me in the eye and said Just keep going. And then he turned and was whisked away in a second. Ive thought about this day every so often over the years, but never more than today. I really wish I could have returned this favor that he did for me many years ago, but I cant. Maybe nobody could. But Ive never forgotten it and its been at the core of what I do every day since. Thank you, Robin. Rest in peace.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 04:01:07 +0000
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