Meeting Mark: Moriah Take 1
Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (October 17, 2003)
Yeah. I met Mark. Thank the rain for that.
I'm a college student here in New York. I've been here since August. Long before I came I caught wind of Six Dance Lessons... when it was still playing in the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida, and I had the strangest inkling that it would end up in NY eventually. Well, my instincts proved correct.
I learned of the production completely at random from your website (found by search engine), and I thank your up-to-date news for informing me of it. I got tickets the next day, and just saw it tonight.
Good Lord, it was fantastic. Piss-your-knickers funny and heart-breaking all at once. I highly recommend even non-Mark fans to see this show simply for the gem that it is, and the marvelous performance he brings to it. As ridiculous as it sounds, from the way he held Polly Bergen (I loved her as well; she's a splendid comedian and an excellent actress!) during their numbers, I almost wished I were the one up there dancing with him. He just has this remarkable ability to make you FEEL his performance down to your bones. It was lovely at the end.
Now, to the important part, as brief as it was. Vain idiot that I am, I decided to brave the cold and wear nothing but a jeans, heels, a satin camisole and a "supermodel" blazer. I felt like giving vent to some particularly colorful expletives when I stepped out of the warm theater into a wet, arctic night that was so cold it numbed my hands instantly. And it was still raining. I had no umbrella and needed to make a four-street jaunt to the subway. Damn. Naturally, I had been hoping that sometime during or after the show Mark would pop out of somewhere and do his thing, but it didn't seem as though it was going to happen. I was reluctant to leave and get soaked, despite the fact that I knew the rain wasn't going to let up just for me in a few minutes.
So I waited, shivering like a shaven chihuahua, when I suddenly heard something that sounded suspiciously like "The Voice." Turning around, all I could see was the tip of a gray ski cap behind a group of tall old men gabbing and laughing. I thought it was some skater punk who just happened to sound like Mark, but I decided to take a quick look.
Well, hello, sunshine.
I couldn't have spoken with him more than a minute. I don't blame him -- or the dude who was with him, some kind of quasi-bodyguard, I don't know -- for wanting to get out of the cold and scram home. He was signing Playbills for the old guys, and the guard asked me if I was waiting for one, too. Sure, why the hell not? So Mark greets me, asks me where I'm from -- I'm a native Texan -- and I find out he has a ton of family in Austin. Whaddya know? We exchanged some pleasantries, and then he was off, giving his regards to Texas.
You could say that any actor is going to put on a nice front for fans, and I won't venture to say that Mark doesn't, but he's definitely disarming. He shared a few joking dance steps with one of the old men. It's quite obvious that he shows a great deal of courtesy when it isn't required of him. And thank goodness he didn't have a limp handshake.
The performance is a pretty intense workout in itself -- lots of loud vocalization and hardcore sweating. Serious sweating.
I hope this production continues to do well to garter more recognition for Mark. It played to a full house when I went. I think I'll be heading back for a second viewing, this time with a partner. Better yet, I hope Mark fully rekindles his interest in the theater. He has so much magic to offer on the stage that it can't afford to go to waste.