there will be LIGHT

Supernova: What’s one thing you want to do before you die?

November 28, 1998.

I don’t remember how we got the tickets (later I found out my grandma treated the family), nor how I was feeling leading up to going. I remember walking into the theatre – I turned back and remember seeing a bunch of buildings and a clock with a smiley face on it, with the arms going in opposite directions. To the right of us was a poster of the show we were about to see - Peter Pan. 

I remember sitting and reading through my playbill, flipping the pages. I remember the beginning narration being heard opening the show. What I remember most from the show fifteen years ago was the flying. I remember when Cathy first flew into the nursery – the doors flew open and in she flew. I remember when she taught the Darling children to fly, sort of swinging back and forth across the stage. Yes, you saw the wires a bit, but I kinda didn’t care. It made my sister upset a bit. I remember clapping to save Tinkerbell. Now, I was a special child and every time there was a countdown or the TV telling you to say something, I would freak out and start screaming and crying (I don’t even know). “If you believe, clap your hands.” At first I was hesitant, but then I started to do such, and I got over the weirdest thing that could probably trigger someone. I didn’t want to be that person to not clap and not help bring Tink back. Spoiler: she got better, and I helped. I remember the ship sword-fighting scene, and how so much was happening at once. The last thing I can vividly remember seeing was the audience flight. We were sitting Row N in the Marquis Theatre, which at the time I thought was so close to the stage (ha ha ha). But after the curtain call, Cathy just flew out into the audience, just missing being over our heads. I remember looking up and seeing her throwing fairy dust all over the place, and looking up ahead and seeing a girl and her dad in the front row with their arms up trying to catch it all in. 

I remember leaving the theatre on such a high and amazed at all of the visuals that I just saw. My parents got my sister and I the souvenir book and I remember being back home and laying on the floor looking at all the pictures and reliving the memory. I remember seeing the commercials and shouting, “we saw that!” The next year for Halloween, I ended up being Peter Pan and my next door neighbor (a girl two years younger than me) was a pirate and we had an epic battle in the front yard. I had my own patch of fairy dust (because in the show it’s Peter that has it, not Tink) and I remember throwing it on everyone. 

The year after that, A&E was doing a special on Cathy and a 12-hour marathon of a proshot of the show. I felt cool because I got to stay up late to watch it. I think I got through two rounds of it before going to sleep. But we had my grandpa video tape it for us so we could keep watching (and I believe we still have it). 

I started getting more into theatre in 2003 with Hairspray, and I remember a couple years following, it was announced that Cathy was going to be on her Farewell Tour with Peter Pan. My parents and us went to the city on the final day of that to see the Christmas sights and I remember just glancing at the signs and stuff all over Penn (it was at the Garden) and just felt happy I was in the same city as the final NYC performance. 

Fast forward to Fall/Winter 2010, when the cast of Peter and the Starcatcher was announced and as the titular character was Adam Chanler-Berat, who I got to know a little bit from my show-obsession with Next to Normal (and who am I kidding, it will forever be an obsession). I remember congratulating him at the stage door after the next time I saw the show (which at that time was either every week/every other week), and telling him, “it’s kind of funny because Peter Pan was my first Broadway show.” “Oh,” he said, “this isn’t like that show at all. But it’s still a full circle in a way.” He was right with that first part – while my experience with PP (sorry, getting lazy) was all visual, PATSC is so imaginative to create the visuals for yourself. Nonetheless, PATSC is fantastic and although it can be its own thing, it fits in well with the PP tale and answering how things come to be. I saw PATSC three times at NYTW and ended up really hoping for a Broadway transfer. I got to start talking to Celia Keenan-Bolger, and Adam introduced me to Rick Elice, the playwright (and the last time I saw it at NYTW when some of the other N2N cast members were there, that was an experience to remember). The show closed that run in April 2011.

December 2011. Cathy is on another tour with a holiday stop in NYC. I am now dorming in school, away from the folks saying what I can and cannot do with my time and money. I decide that I want to go back, and being a college student, I look into the cheapest ways possible to get back. I ended up purchasing a $25 seat in the absolute last row of MSG. Now, MSG is not like a Broadway theatre. The stage is small and the ceiling in low (not smart for a flying musical). I am what seems to be a mile away from the stage: to one side of me a bunch of old ladies to the right, a bunch of drunk college students. In front of me, light-sabers. Joy.

But the show begins, and I turn seven again. I can hardly see a thing, but I know it’s the show that started it all. I laugh, I cry, I clap, I boo Hook. I end up having a great time, only wishing I was closer. Now, at that time, Ms. Rigby had just turned 59. She was still flipping and twisting, and it was crazy. But there was so much more I noticed now as an experienced theatergoer. The choreography especially, I picked up differences between the video I watched countless times and what I was watching. It was definitely an overwhelming experience to see how it all began, and I left the “theatre” right after the show to head over to the Beechman to see Alice Ripley’s concert. I was on such a high, I felt like I was floating. I was talking up 9th Ave. and I just needed to release something – I checked around, no one was there. I started crowing, and I tell ya, that was one of the most freeing feelings ever. 

When I got back to my dorm, I wrote a letter to send to Cathy at the Garden. I was unable to figure out if a Meet-and-Greet or a stage door existed, but I wanted to try to get an autograph and share my story a little. I ended up getting a response when I went home for Spring Break and freaking out and getting so happy that she knew my story and what I had become because of that one show in ‘98. 

Through the power of social networking, I was able to send Ms. Rigby a quick thank you for the response. Through my now super-theatre-nerdness, I discovered I saw the original movie Annie, Aileen Queen, as a Lost Boy back in '98. Paul Schoeffler, the original and current Hertz in Rock of Ages, was my Captain Hook. I was able to tell this-tour Wendy, Krista Buccellato, that she was freakin’ amazing in her Equity debut. 

Last spring, PATSC opened on Broadway with Adam and Celia transferring along. No matter how many times I see that show, I become seven again. I enjoy myself way too much and I just feel so rooted. Now the show is at NWS, and I again never fail to become that child amazed at the theatre for the first time. The PATSC experience for me has been beyond special – getting to know some of the cast and creatives, going to the events, watching Christian win his Tony, the final performances of the cast members, understudy fun, and being pointed out during the final curtain call speech. There’s so much that I never would’ve experienced if not for first being introduced to theatre.

When I brought my mom to see the show in October, there was a talkback with Sandy Duncan about playing Peter. It was definitely fascinating and hearing her tell her story with Peter and then Adam talking about Peter, it was crazy and amazing. That weekend, Cathy went to see the show and when those pictures of her with the cast were released, especially the one with Adam, I freaked. There my worlds were truly colliding, with the start and one of the many current. If I witnessed that in real-life, I think I would’ve cried or screamed and had all the feels. I had all the feels just looking at the picture, LOL!

When I realized that today marked the final flight of Cathy Rigby as Peter Pan, I got a rush of bittersweet memories. Confession: I even looked up if I could make it up to Boston to say goodbye on last time. That didn’t work out, obviously, but I hope my words can do a bit of justice to what I’m feeling right now. Cathy first appeared on Broadway in this role the year before I was born, and I’ve grown with this always in my life. I can’t imagine how she’ll be feeling, how everyone involved will be feeling. I hope it does get captured so that I may witness it. I hope to have accomplished something so memorable by the time I’m 60 years young.

As Michael Berry told me, “I never say goodbye to anyone I do a show with – I always say 'see you next show.’” So, Ms. Rigby I thank you for bringing theatre into my life, so much so that I wrote on novel here. Have a fantastic final flight and see you next show.