Made it to "Seminar"

I got the train up to Times Square about two hours before the show.  I ate at a quiet pizza place, and had a tasty, albeit rather greasy, calzone.  It was a pleasant enough experience.  Then I went looking all around Times Square.  That was really neat!  All of these signs are moving, so it's very colorful and busy all the time.

Then I went inside a wine bar that was playing Motown music and had a glass of red wine, which seemed like a nice thing to do in Times Square after a greasy calzone.  I enjoyed that, but obviously it would have been better with a friend.  It was a nice way to spend that last 30 minutes before the theater opened.  

I went into the theater as soon as we were allowed to go inside.  My seat was way up at the back, but so much more comfortable than those weird seats in the nosebleed section at the Harvey Theater last year. These were normal, comfortable seats, with a very good view.  The John Golden theater is small but pretty inside.  The back row soon filled up with college students who all seemed to know each other.  At one point, one of them came back from the bathroom and announced, "Oh. My. God!  You'll never guess who I just saw in the bathroom!!!  Emma Stone!"  All of her friends were just beside themselves.  Emma Stone!  Oh my god!  Emma Stone!  I haven't the foggiest clue who Emma Stone is, but they clearly did, and were fascinated that she'd go to a play on a Friday night.  They snuck around, plotting and scheming ways to take a picture of this woman, despite the "no photographs in the theater" rule.  One girl said, "Hey guys, don't bug her.  She's here to see a play," but no one seemed to hear her.  

Okay, I just decided to look her up on imdb.  Let's see....

Uh..okay.  I'm not even going to post a picture, because they only have a crappy picture of her.  I don't recognize her or any of her movies.  I guess that's me being an old fart.  Some young whippersnapper.  Hope she was able to enjoy the play without being accosted too much.  

Anyway, we watched the play, and it was great fun.  

As soon as it was over, I went outside and gathered in the spot that was obviously for people looking for autographs.  Luckily those annoying students weren't there.  There was a pretty big crowd, more so that at John Gabriel Borkman last year, but it wasn't bad.  First to come out was Hettiene Park, who played Izzy.  She went down the line and signed playbills.  Here she is:  

Next was Hamish Linkletter, who played Martin.  

Then Jerry O'Connell came along.  He interacted with the crowd a bit, and seemed like a nice guy.  Apparently it was his birthday, so several people sang Happy Birthday to him.  Here he is:  

I had a couple of closer pictures, but they didn't turn out.  

Lily Rabe never came out at all, so I didn't get her autograph.  Oh well.  

The important thing is this guy here. 

 He was in full stage-door mode, even more so than last time, because of course there were a bunch of people.  Most people just handed him their playbill and didn't say much.  When he was signing mine, I felt very comfortable and not nervous at all, like I kind of know him (having already done the whole "Squeeee!!! I'm really standing next to Alan Rickman" thing).  I thanked him for coming out here and signing our playbills, and said, "I flew out from California this morning especially to see you," and he, "Really? How nice!"   So that's neat.  It feels good to have that, 'cause I didn't manage it last time.  

After that, I walked to the subway station on W. 42nd, managed to get on an express train that whizzed past my hotel, and had to walk 15 blocks back uptown.  That was fine, though, because my friend Paul called, so it was like having a companion the whole way.  The weather was perfect.  With my coat on, and with the extra excursion of walking, I was neither too hot nor too cold.