It’s a wrap! A closing weekend like none other, my friends! Of course, it’s likely that I say this for every Broadway Series production but there’s something about bringing our seventh season to a close with Once. The mega-watt jubilance and artistry of our community of music makers and songwriters onstage has reached the imaginations of those in our fair city of Aurora and the families and communities of those beyond as well.
More folks than I can count have seen our productions repeatedly and before the final show Sunday evening, I was greeted by someone who saw Once eight times!
At every viewing they are finding something new, something they hadn’t seen, heard or felt before. This is high praise for our cast, production and creative teams. The playing of the show matured more nuanced, achieving an exquisite sound and emotion as performances breathed and grew with the actors and their audience. This is the greatest merit of live theater. This kind of excitement cannot be matched!
Out latest work is consistent with the standard we have been setting these last few years, as our patrons comment on how this is their favorite, our best yet. Subjective as that may be, everyone seems to find their favorite from season to season. And ha! It keeps changing! To feel from so many in the crowds that our latest is the greatest is a gratifying reward for our collaboration with our audience and all of us producing the work. A grand finale indeed!
I have to share with you this story, just 3 days old, of a student who struck up an Instagram friendship with the “Girl” in Once, our leading lady, Tiffany Topol. Weeks ago, she had seen the show at a special student performance. Saturday night was her third time! Through Tiffany, this young girl gifted the cast with a handwritten letter and her hand drawn portraits of each one of them. She wrote:
“Seeing this show live is such a magical experience, and to have been on stage with some of you was so thrilling. It’s even better, because it doesn’t feel like you’re acting. It just feels like you are all just one big group of old friends sharing music together. I would see this show over and over again given the chance but I’m thirteen and I have no money, not to mention the fact that this show is closing. On that note, happy trails! I wish you the best in your future endeavors.”
Right there you can see the significance of supporting our student programs. While watching the final performances, and with the wrapping up this season, I heard a few lines from Once trigger and identify how I feel about everyone’s enthusiasm for Paramount in Aurora’s Broadway Series. Words like: “Ya can’t have a city without music. We need ya.”
And this, dear reader: “People who invest in culture, make the culture. Show the world we’re here!”
I realize and recognize that with you, we are “open for business!”
All my love & thanks,
Jim
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