Hand to God: 15 Hours Round Trip

At noon yesterday, six of us piled into a rented minivan and headed north.  As we said, a whole novel could be written about what it took for each of us to be ready to go at noon on a Tuesday. Most of us had gone to work early, arranged for an absence, and then grabbed our wallets and hopped in the car.

We went to New York to see Alex Mandell starring in a Broadway show. He is the understudy to the lead in "Hand to God," which is billed as a new American play.  It's a drama, the lead character plays his own role as well as a sock puppet named Tyrone who becomes increasingly strong willed and vocal.  Alex got to play the lead for a whole weekend recently and a lot of our friends and neighbors went to see the play then, but Jon and I couldn't get away.  This time, with one day's notice, we could.

Alex grew up in our neighborhood, part of a large, very close, blended family (he has four sisters), and started to bloom as an actor when he was in high school.  Then he went to the elite acting program at Boston University and then he decided to throw himself into becoming a professional actor.  He has gone to dozens and dozens of auditions, has had small roles and lead roles, and his trajectory is steadily up. Most important, he is the nicest guy ever. A true mensch.

Alex's parents are devoted to their children in every possible way.  They go to every event, plan elaborate graduation parties and create unique b'nai mitzvah ceremonies, and they have regular family meals.  Alex has two sets of parents who all get along with each other and work together to make their children's lives as good as possible.  This must be part of the secret of Alex's success.

Anyway, the trip north was easy for those of us who were not driving.  The turnpike was closed in both directions due to a major truck fire, but Jon and Cookie navigated while Paul drove and we got to New York on time.  We had a quick dinner and met up with Benjamin and Rebecca who had come down from Boston (on extremely short notice) and with Jesse and Shalini who live in NYC.  We also had Jim with us since he was going to visit Jesse, by coincidence, so he got in the car and came to the play too.

The theater was smallish for Broadway, and most of the seats seemed to be full.  The audience was so receptive and appreciative -- applause after almost every scene.  All five actors were excellent, and the story was full of unexpected twists.  Lots of profanity but after a while you just don't notice that anymore.  Alex did a great job. He is a physical actor and this was one seriously physical role, with the puppet taking over his mind and body.  By the end I had to cover my eyes, things were getting so out of hand (and bloody).  Alex got a standing ovation.

Afterwards, we stood outside the stage door and greeted our boy next door.  He is unfailingly gracious and humble, even with all this adulation (teen girls love him and there is apparently a huge world of Twitter conversations about him).  He took us on a quick backstage tour and showed us some of the tricks they used, and some of the incredible details that go into a set.

Becca took an 11:30 bus back to Boston, Benjamin stayed in NY to visit friends and we headed back down the turnpike (which was still closed), using the Garden State Parkway to skirt the traffic jams.  We got home at 3 AM.   All of us were back at work this morning.

It was totally worth it.  What a whirlwind, and how cool is that to have a friend who is starring on Broadway.  And to have friends who will rent a comfortable vehicle, stock it with Doritos and popcorn and bottled water, and drive us both ways.  Doesn't get much better than that.