BWW Blog: Ed Dixon of Pittsburgh Public Theater's L'HOTEL - Opening Night

Tuesday, November 18

I woke up early and went to Starbucks. I did not, however, check the weather forecast before I did. It was seventeen degrees with a wind chill of zero. After the "balmy" weather that preceded it, downtown felt positively Arctic and the whole Polar Vortex thing from last year came flooding back. On my way home, my legs stopped working. Pittsburgh has the highest curbs in the country (maybe the world) and I found myself stepping off them like a toddler so as not to tumble like and octogenarian. We had a brief brush-up rehearsal and got ready for the first show of opening week.

The weather did not go unnoticed by the audience and many of them chose not to show up that night. (I wouldn't have either if I hadn't written the play. We had a small quiet house and I went home cold and sad.

Wednesday, November 19

The weather zoomed up into the thirties again and it felt positively tropical. There was NO rehearsal and the show had a much better audience who were very responsive. My old friend John O'Creagh , with whom I did PIRATES! appeared (he was born in Pittsburgh) and it was great to see him. The performance got a lot of laughs and then a big standing ovation. I went home not cold and not sad.

Thursday, November 20

Okay, press night has finally arrived. I didn't think I was nervous, but I met someone really creepy in the lobby before the show and then found out he was a critic... and I thought, "Good gawd, that OGRE is going to be reviewing my show???" First time I really had nerves in the whole process. Then I walked into the house and realized it was the first time we had truly been packed. You know that noise a big house makes before a show... they were making it. The show started marvelously and I was sitting there thinking, "Look at me, I am actually enjoying sitting here as if I'm an audience member... and then without warning, someone dropped a line during an extremely animated scene where everyone is onstage and a cascade of bloopers followed. As I learned later from the husband of one of our cast members, it wasn't noticed by the audience, but the cast and the author were apoplectic. Five seconds later, one of the biggest laughs in the show landed like a freight train and I thought, "Oh, we're back on track, thank gawd!" At the end of the evening there was a real standing ovation (real is when everyone comes up at once, not a few stragglers) and bravos, especially for Brent Harris as Wilde. (Wilde is really the "hero" of the show.) I should have been exultant since all the critics were there that night, but instead I was like a five year old, "That flub, that flub, that flub!"

Friday, November 21

Well, after years in the making... my play is finally opening. I went over to the theater in the afternoon and left champagne for the cast, staff and crew. There are lines in the play about champagne in both acts and I thought it was the only option. (One of the cast members is sober like me, so they got a Starbucks card... not as glamorous, but more suitable.) That evening I got dressed up for the first time in the whole process. When I arrived, I had my photo taken with two major theater donors, Tony and Linda Bucci, who had paid for my residency. They could not have been more charming. Before the show, I ran into Lenora Nemetz, George McGuire from the old STUDENT PRINCE days and Jordon Ross Weinhold. Was so happy to have so many pals in the audience.

I actually enjoyed the performance... except for one man who insisted on stuffing his face with candy in cellophane wrappers during the two quietest moments in the show. (What on earth makes people behave like that? They can't go ONE HOUR without food???) And the ovation at the end was monumental. Through it all I just kept having this amazing sensation of, "Well, honey, you dreamed this up a VERY long time ago and worked on it for years and years and look here... here it is!" The party was lovely. I met a lot of very rich people who were ever so nice. Then I went home and slept like the dead. I did NOT pack.

Saturday, November 22

I woke up really, really early since I hadn't packed. I went to my favorite Starbucks and said goodbye to my favorite barista, Jenn Duceour, and had WAY too much coffee. I came home and packed in a few minutes, (when you've done it this many times...) and at ten on the dot, Nick Noone, alias Mother Teresa del Automobile, pulled up out front. On the drive home we did a post mortem on the whole Pittsburgh adventure, most of which has been chronicled here and solved all the problems of the world.

In the following days a series of glorious reviews appeared. They included: L'HOTEL AN AMBITION TREAT OF A WORLD PREMIERE, The Post-Gazette; L'HOTEL A HIGH BROW COMEDY FOR LOVERS OF THE ARTS, The Owl Scribe; INTRIGUING CONCEPT AND WELL TIMED HUMOR, Timesonline; FROLICKING LITERARY/CULTURAL FARCE, Entertainment Central; and AN AMUSING EVENING OF THEATER WITH VIVID CHARACTERS AND CLEVER DIALOGUE, The Tribune.

In the middle of all this celebration upon my return, my dear friend Carole Haber succumbed to ALS. I wouldn't mention it here, except that her husband, Bill Haber, the producer, told me that in their last conversation before her passing, all she would talk about was the success of her friend's play, L'HOTEL.

MEDIA VITA IN MORTE SUMUS... in the midst of life we are in death... a reality... and the topic of my play.