Late in 2013 our tour of SISTER ACT: THE MUSICAL spent a week or two in Las Vegas.  One of our backstage dressers (wardrobe people) there in Sin City was a tiny, giggly, little old lady (“old” meaning that she was probably several years younger than I am right now.) She always smiled and said ‘hi’ but I had little to do with her.

Then one night (October 20, 2013 to be really painfully exact), she came up to me backstage and said (actual direct quote): “I worked with Joe Maher at Manhattan Theater Club years ago. I thought he was wonderful and I think you’re wonderful too.” Then she patted me on the shoulder, smiled and walked away. 

Uhhh…………..what?

This seemed maybe the strangest thing anyone had ever in my life said to me. What on earth did it mean? What possessed her to say it? I knew that Joe Maher was an actor, but … so what? Tom Cruise was also an actor. As was Tom Hanks. And Henry Fonda. And Henry Irving for that matter. What the whaaaaat? I was utterly mystified. It occurred to me--swear to God it did--that the little lady might actually be cracked.

Then, many weeks later, long after we’d escaped Las Vegas and long after I’d forgotten the dresser’s comment, it popped into my head, a flash out of the blue. --  In the movie SISTER ACT, Joe Maher had played the same role I was playing on tour. 

Oh. Okay. Now I get it. Thanks, little not-that-old lady, you’re wonderful too.