Wednesday, September 30, 2009

A Steady Rain

Welcome back, Stage Rushers! A new Broadway season has begun, and I don’t know about you, but I feel absolutely overwhelmed by all the shows that I want to see. So let’s start off the 2009/10 season with a bang.

I was terrified to rush A Steady Rain. I couldn’t even fathom the masses that would flock to a production starring the men that brought the Drover and Tuvia Bielski to life on the big screen. (Sigh) Ok, fine—Wolverine and James Bond! This play starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig stands as one of the starriest marquees in recent memory. Sure, there’s been Julia Roberts, Geoffrey Rush, and Jane Fonda in recent years, but both of these actors in one play is huge. The last films in their respective franchises each earned over $150 million domestically, and they also share critical adoration. Their appearance in a 1,071-seat theater is something of an event, to say the least.

In preparation of my plans to rush the show last Friday while it was still in previews (it opened last night), I decided to swing by the Shoenfeld Theatre the day before on my way to work to scope out the rush crowd. I was trying to gauge what time I should arrive at the theater the next morning. Times that were running through my head were 7, even 6 a.m. But to my great surprise, at 9:35 a.m., there were only eight people in the rush line for A Steady Rain. I didn’t know how it was possible, but I ditched my next-day plans and got in line right away. There’s no time like the present, right?