It was 1985. I had directed “The Miss Firecracker Contest” in New York. The show was a hit and we moved to a larger theater on the West Side. Holly Hunter was still in the show. She still was dazzling. I went to every performance. I had to. It was part of my routine. Another part of my routine was going out with the cast after the show. We would go to a bar, or a comedy club, or a bar that was a comedy club. New York had laws about how late bars could stay open. There were midnight bars. 2AM bars. And the rare, often seedy, often necessary 4 AM bars. The 4 AM bar actually closed at 3:30. We found a nice one close to the theater. Charlie’s on 45th and 10th Avenue. Don’t think it’s there anymore. When you go to a 4AM bar you have a couple of obstacles you have to face. The biggest one is that you are going onto the streets of New York, probably drunk, at 3:30 in the morning. Five of us left the bar and made the calculation that at this late hour we would be well advised to walk to 45th and Broadway to get a cab. This meant walking through Hell’s Kitchen. The five of us headed down 45th. Our intent was to walk the two big avenues to get where there were signs of life. As we walked and talked, one of our cast members, the late and almost great, Budge Threlkeld, came up to me and said quietly, ‘Hey Tobo, I think we’re going to get killed.” That got my attention. I looked ahead of us and four dangerous characters were walking slowly towards us. They spread across the street to cut off any escape. I looked behind us. Four were behind. They spread out and started calling to us. The two lines of converging mayhem were only twenty yards away. Budge looked at me and laughed and said, “Nice knowin’ ya, pal.” I alerted the rest of the group we were about to be rolled. But then, from out of nowhere, a Yellow Cab turned down our block. The Yellow Cab was the only cab in New York at the time that would pick up five people! I waved. He stopped. The five of us jumped in and we went home. Sometimes the miracle is what didn’t happen.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 03:25:29 +0000
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