WITH SO LITTLE TO BE SURE OF
Ladies and Gents,
As the world careens from one man-made crisis to the next— mendacity, corruption, violence, and billionaires behaving badly (and, let me just say to my most affluent readers: #NotAllBillionaires)—it’s tempting to turn off the news, draw the blinds, and lose oneself in a lengthy spiral of historical fiction and fortified wine. (Or, more likely, draw the blinds, turn on the news, and lose one’s mind in a lengthy spiral of Twitter commentary and podcasts.)
And yet, just when the chaos reaches a shriek, the lights dim, the curtain rises, and a single voice—clear and true—cuts through the noise. The theater doesn’t solve our problems, dear reader, but it gives us the language, the breath, the space to understand them. Or at the very least, to sit beside each other and feel something real in a time when so much feels surreal.
Or, to quote Stephen Sondheim:
With so little to be sure of
If there’s anything at all
If there’s anything at all
I’m sure of here and now and us together
This new season kicking into gear a welcome balm. The promise of communion. A salve made of song, sweat, and shared humanity. The best kind of medicine: unprescribed, unregulated, and wildly effective. (If only insurance covered the ticket prices!)
It’s an odd thing, isn’t it? That a black box, a proscenium, a few lights, and a handful of dreamers can still remind us who we are. While the world spins wildly, the theater holds steady—fragile, yes, but unflinching. Resilient. Radiant. Necessary.
So here’s to the artists ready to risk it all, and to the audiences willing to go with them. Here’s to the season ahead. If everything else is uncertain, let the theater be the thing we count on.
Tidbits from around town…
Overheard Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bernadette Peters gushing like proud stage parents after Myles Frost’s pitch-perfect rendition of “Human Nature” at the American Theatre Wing Gala, which I hear raised a record-breaking sum.
Caught Adam Driver smoking the slimmest little cigarette you ever did see on a late-night walk-through Brooklyn Heights.
Spotted Lucie Arnaz enjoying a single scoop of Moose Tracks at John’s Drive In in Montauk on an unseasonably warm September evening.
A toast of something sparkling to you and yours!
Kisses,
