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MEETING JOHN (and Henry!)
(TWO reports of TWO meetings! by Aimee La Fountain) No photo available

Report 1

I took my mom with me, (she always loved both John and Henry) and my dad offered to drive us in..... I was too excited!! It was magical for us because the traffic was easy! It's usually about a half an hour with traffic to go through the tunnel to get into NYC from NJ, and we left really early in case of traffic...... but we got there 45 mins early, so we walked around the city a little... (the theater wasn't open yet) Then we went to the bathroom to fix our make-up before the show and I kept singing the "Three's Company" and "Happy Days" theme songs!!! Oh, by the way....another magic moment was that when two nitwits didn't arrive at the show, we got moved up 7 rows!! SO we were right at the front of our sections. This has, mind you, never happened to me at a Broadway show. We were on the second tier, but the Music Box is so old (elegant but old) you could still see the faces and everything perfectly!! And it was fun because at times like when John is listening he would look up, and I swear he looked at me!!! Plus, when Henry is writing the word "NEVER" in the air, and ignoring his ex, he was looking up at me, I swear! There were also very moving moments, and the ending wasn't like a "happily ever after" ending for all 3 couples....and when you left the show, you still couldn't be sure (or at least I couldn't) whether these couples would get back together. No moment was all serious!

As you know, John and Henry are real life friends, and have a great, witty chemistry off stage too. I hear that Henry and John were the first actors Neil thought of when he finished the play. The last Simon play I saw was "The Sunshine Boys" and he cast Tony Randall and Jack Klugman ('The Odd Couple') who were thought of immediately for that play, so you can tell Neil's great sense in witty friendship characters. I also heard great reviews from DC. I remember seeing John and Henry on the 'Today' show and hearing the reviews way back in September,,,,, and I thought "You know, I'm pretty sure they're going to take this to Broadway". I couldn't wait for the curtains.... heck as soon as the lights dimmed, I saw John's feet getting ready... and when they finally came up, I'm like "MOM! That's John! " and she, thinking I was totally nutsy cooco, said "Yes Aimee I know!" I read from some lady that said in the playbill when she saw it in LA it was "John Ritter's Shoes by..." I think a few things here and there were changed in the playbill, because I didn't get that in my playbill. By the way, I saw the play with Penny Fuller, (who had experience with Len Cariou before on Broadway, as a couple, which worked out really well) Veanne Cox and Jan Maxwell. John has great physical sense of comedy. I think the audience should have been more attentive because they totally missed a couple of his great movements! Even in the beginning, when he pauses and cocks his head.... the audience missed that the first time! John Rando really did a great job directing this didn't he? Everything down to a 'T'! He was also very dedicated. I think he looked into all the actors' backgrounds and found their acting strengths. Now this may seem normal, but unfortunately some directors aren't as dedicated. I'm telling you, it was just a magic night! There was really tight security; I think the exit was sort of planned, because everyone came out separately. Len, Veanne, and Jan all came out first and were given about five minutes. Then...! Henry came out. And they gave him about 20 minutes. And there was a cop behind the door checking when Henry left. Henry also thanked my mom and shook her hand... and I had a deeper conversation with Henry. He's very courteous, and sweet too! Henry's short; I'm only 5"1 and he seemed to be only a few inches taller than me! It was easy for us to be eye-to-eye! I took a picture for another couple, and dropped my stuff to do so, and the people around laughed, and at the end I said it looked great and Henry gave me the biggest smile and a wink. When he came out, John had on a dark green coat and the cap he was wearing was blue, with the NY Mets symbol on it. He had a green backpack as well. Oh, and black gloves. He had this surprised face for everyone.... and then I was there first and said "Hi John! I love you" in this kidding groupie face and he dropped his stuff for a long hug too, and went "MMMMM I love you too" !! I couldn't think of anything else to say until the next day when I thought of millons of things I could have said! He's such a personable guy! After he kissed me, he said goodbye. I remember him mentioning that when we said how expensive the college is these days and he said: "Oh, I know, that's why I can't even stop working." Jason was mentioned in the playbill that he goes to NYU. It's a family thing! Looks just like his Dad! Poor Henry, he had a 'snowed-on' black car waiting. And not only was there a sign saying it was his car for everyone to see, but the driver spelt his name "Winker"!!!! How rude is that?! I felt like taking out a marker and fixing it, even on the glass! I wondered if Henry would think of me later, because when he got in the car, he even pulled down the window to shake my hand again, and wave goodbye!! I was totally on cloud nine the whole night.

THE END