When epidemiology and fandom collide

I went to New York with a friend. Among many other things, we went to see Suddenly Last Summer. My friend is a big fan of one of the actors in it, Gale Harold. She got his autograph, and he gave her a hug, after warning her that he had a cold. She didn't care.

She got his cold.

She gave it to me.

We have now brought Gale Harold's cold to California.

How was the play? Better than I expected, by far. I'd heard Gale Harold wasn't great in it, and he actually was decent in the first half and nearly brilliant at the end. It's a pretty pivotal role, however, and most of it has to be done with body language, as he has very little dialogue and no speeches. He seemed much less comfortable, physically, at first, but when he got into the zone, during Catherine's horrifying recount of the fate of her cousin Sebastian, that all changed. His delivery of the final line took my breath away.

I was with a few friends who had, among them, seen a good dozen other performances, and they agreed it was his best performance.

Carla Gugino, who plays Catherine, was simply brilliant. She was edgy and fragile and tough and witty and fell apart with great passion. She delivered my favorite line in the show... "I came out in the French Quarter long before I came out in the Garden District".... just the way I've always heard it in my mind.

It's not really my favorite Williams play, and I'm not a huge fan of Williams in the first place, but I actually really enjoyed it.

Until my friend decided to give me Gale's cold.

Comments

[Alison]

Maybe the germ sharing gig can become something along the lines of the "3 degrees of separation" games that people play. And then you and your friend can be oh so famous for starting the trend . So how was the rest of the trip? Inquiring minds wanna know.

[Christie]

I had a dangerously good time... much eating and shopping and laughing and dancing and silliness ... I needed it. I seriously needed a few days of mindless frivolity in my life.

I am now paying for it.

[Melanie]

Christie I'm so glad you had a blast...looking forward to my own trip in April there. Of course, it won't be on broadway but I will get to play in Times Sq and Chinatown.