"I Do! I Do!" and St. Louis

Corned Beef & Rye Broadway Stack

I left Friday night for St. Louis aboard American Airlines. They were full and when I asked for a window seat, they bumped me up to first class! I had a wonderful flight, if a little bumpy from air currents. I didn’t mind at all and the bumps didn’t bother me. I was looking forward to seeing all my friends and to, of course, seeing Scott and Chelsea in the play.  

After landing, I took a cab to the motel we were all staying at and plopped into bed. My roommate would not arrive until Saturday. Saturday morning, several Leapers showed up and we wandered across the street for a leisure breakfast, a group of about 10 of us. After breakfast, we split and some of us joined Helene and Barbara to see some St. Louis sites. Barbara had a friend in St. Louis who acted as guide.

 We parked at the Arch and walked down to the Mississippi River. Ann M. and Helene kicked off their shoes to stand in the water. Then we wandered into the sub-room at the base of the Arch to cool off a bit and see how long a wait we had to go to the top.  

Because of the length of wait, we decided instead to catch the train for Union Station and look around there. The temperature was over 100, it was mid afternoon (the hottest part of the day) and we were all feeling the heat. But after an hour of looking at the stores, we trained back to the car and drove to a Ponderosa for dinner. Then it was a stop at a local grocery store to pick up a few items and a surprise birthday cake. We said good-bye to Barbara’s friend, drove back to the motel, and watched some Scott movies and had the surprise birthday celebration. By this time, it was close to 1:30AM and I was fading fast so my roommate and I said our good-byes and headed to bed. Of course, we lay awake chatting another hour before calling it quits for the night.

 Sunday morning we again enjoyed breakfast at a late and leisurely pace, then back to the motel to change for the 2:00PM open call dress rehearsal. Monday’s performance was sold out. Sunday night’s performance was also fast closing, thus the generous offer of open seating for the rehearsal.

Three of us arrived about 1 pm for the 2 pm show. Thank goodness they opened the lobby very early so we didn’t have to stand outside in the heat and red alert air. We used the time to get the flower cards signed for Scott and Chelsea. We decided that since the charity was presenting flowers for opening night, we would give flowers and a card each to Scott and Chelsea for closing night.

 We figured this was our best shot at being front row center. Since we had to pick up the tickets each night, we had no idea where we were sitting for each performance.

 While we were waiting, those who had contributed for the flowers signed their names to the cards we were sending with the bouquets to Scott and Chelsea. We came up with a nice sentiment of thanks to Chelsea more easily than Scott. His thank you took a bit of group work. When both cards were signed, they were tucked safely away for Monday night. Since the flowers were about $75 with tax and there were 15 commitments, we set the donations at $5 with any surplus going to the charity. Many fans, seeing what was going on, donated and signed so we had $75 above flower cost for the charity. Then those of us who chose to donate more chipped in toward a brick. (By Monday, we had almost $200 for the charity.)

We got our tickets and when the doors finally opened at ten minutes to two, we bee-lined for front row, center. I saved my roommate a seat and she said afterward that this was the first time ever that she had sat front row center.

 When I bought 3! tickets for each performance, I was worried I would be bored with sitting through 6+ hours of “I Do! I Do.” Never to be the case. As it turned out, each performance, including the rehearsal, was Broadway quality and it was a unique experience to watch the subtleties of each performance.

Our group made up a large segment of the audience. The place was about one-third full for the rehearsal. The band was putting the finishing touches on their last rehearsal without an audience. We were told they had done a run-through just before the dress rehearsal, but from what we heard later the 2 pm show was the first one where every element including Lights/Darkness etc. were all included. The musical director turned around and commented to us about the fact that they had barely played together at all.

 Needless to say, with no one but the orchestra between us and the stage, the performance (rehearsal) was very personal as if (to quote Daniel Roebuck from Orlando Leap) they were performing just for me!

 Several of us were dabbing at our eyes when the lights came up after the bows. The second act brought a flood of emotions to the surface and I was weeping when I reached the lobby. I hadn’t realized how intense the experience was until that moment.

 (From another POV) The theater had an L shaped lobby. The long side ran parallel to the parking area and had the doors that went backstage as well as entrance doors from the parking lot. The short side had the entrance to the theater and the ticket booth. It's doors led out to a drop off and pick up area in front. I had parked in a handicapped space because one of my passengers had a handicap access pass. After the show, we were hanging around in the lobby talking to each other. Jo and her roommate were composing themselves because both had burst into tears at the end of the show due to the touching nature of the play. The lady in charge, Jessica, came out as if she were looking for someone.  Then she asked if we were the ones waiting for autographs. I told her we did not expect that because we were told there would be no autographs or pictures. I added that we were just visiting, because I thought she was going to kick us out of the lobby into the hot humid St. Louis air.

 A group of us were still standing in the lobby, talking about what we were going to do next (it was cooler in the lobby than going outside) when Jessica came out to see how many of us were still there. I thought she was there to shoo us out. Then she went back and came back out again to say Scott would be coming out! This was a total surprise.  

Chelsea came out wearing an ice pack below her right knee. We all applauded her when she came out. Scott had told us that this was the first time she had done a lead performance. We were stunned. Just as with Scott, we thought she had been doing this forever.

 Then we left and got ready for the evening performance. There wasn’t even time for dinner. Just time enough to shower, change, chill for a few minutes and head back to the theater.

 This performance was tighter than the rehearsal. The audience included many couples and the men were enjoying it as much as the women. I noticed they solved the alarm clock problem but they left in the ad lib from the dress rehearsal about the symphony.

I didn’t hang around after the show because I hadn’t eaten since 10AM and I was starving! A group of us headed to Malloys for a late night dinner. We got in just under the wire as they were closing the kitchen. Back at the motel, we all crowded in Helene’s room for more Scott videos but I said good-bye after an hour and a half and headed for bed. Verna was still awake so we chatted in bed another hour and it was 2:45 before we finally called it quits.

 (Another POV) On Monday my roommate and I got up earlier than we had hoped so we had breakfast with the early risers and a nice visit, then we had coffee with the next set of risers. Then Jo, her roommate, and I went to get the flowers and bring them
back to the hotel after another errand. We put the flowers in the room and Jo and her roommate retired for an hour’s nap before dinner. At 4:30 we ate at Fazzoli’s, then got ready for the final performance.

 We prepared a little card to the charity with the extra money we had collected. We told him the money was a gift in honor of Scott and Chelsea from their fans. No one signed names to this card.

We met the charity liaison and gave him the flowers and cards that went with them to be delivered backstage before the performance. For Scott we decided on a bouquet of spring flowers with a single red rose. For Chelsea we chose a bouquet of white roses with a single red rose.

This evening’s performance was fantastic. The show was a sellout and the audience loved it. Some of us did hang around after this performance to see if Scott and Chelsea would pop out again because we wanted a chance to say good-bye.  

		from Barbara	Also from Barbara
These are all from Verna, who had presence of mind to continue taking pictures when I couldn't any more. I don't even know where her photography and mine separate because we were both shooting with her camera. I'm not commenting on the position of Denise's hand!