This Sunday, we’re trying something a little different. We’re writing a kind of love letter. This particular letter isn’t to a specific person, but to a St. Louis institution — the Muny.
For those of you completely unfamiliar with this theater tradition in St. Louis, every summer from mid-June to mid-August, the Muny produces seven musicals on its half-a-football-field size, outdoor stage. Tonight is the last night of their 96th season, so they’ve been doing this for a while.
It’s so much a part of summer for St. Louisans that some former residents (aka – 2WC) even make the journey in from out of town each summer to see a show (or two).
This past Friday, the 2WC made the trip in to see “Hello, Dolly!” this season’s final show.
Unfortunately, some rain clouds chose to make the trip in as well. However, the events that took place prior to the inevitable rainout more than made up for the evening being cut short.
After two rain delays in the first half of the show, we finally made it to the second act, and then the skies opened. What started as a light drizzle, slowly turned into a steady rain.
Now this is usually when the house lights come up and the actors clear the stage, but the timing of this particular deluge happened to be at the very beginning of the shows titular song.
What happened next was kind of amazing.
As it dawned on the audience that they weren’t stopping the show, we all started to cheer on the cast. While Dolly (played by the phenomenal, Beth Leavel) and her army of waiters danced and sang their way through the rain, we let them know we were out their beyond the stage lights, and appreciated their performance. We were all dripping wet, and knew we would never see the show’s conclusion, but it didn’t seem to matter.
By the song’s end, Dolly’s feathered hair decoration was drooping into her face, and the waiters looked like they’d been run through the dishwasher, but that didn’t stop the entire audience from jumping to their feet or a few cast members from jumping out of character to show their admiration.
So why have we chosen to share this little anecdote on this particular Sunday. Well, aside from the fact that it was an amazing theater moment, it also serves as a reminder of what kind of community St. Louis is.
As all of you should know, St. Louis has been in the news a lot this past week, and not for the best of reasons.
The event responsible for this media attention is a tragedy, and our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected.
On behalf of ourselves, as well as millions of other current and remote St. Louisans, this event and the events since do not define our city.
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…just for fun:
