And a Happy Friday to all of you out there in Internet-land. Hope where you are is warmer than it’s been in NYC this week. While I watch some playoff football this weekend and get mad once again that the Jets blew that freaking game last Sunday and therefore aren’t playing, I give you a Broadway review and two great video stories for Good News Friday.
First, the review. Since high school, I’ve been a big Arthur Miller fan, probably once I read “Death of the Salesman” and several of his other “greatest hits.” The Dustin Hoffman movie of “Death” is incredible, and I’ve seen a few other Miller plays staged over the years.
But nothing prepared me for the sheer power and awesomeness that was the “A View from the Bridge” production my wife and I saw last weekend on Broadway. Imported directly, cast and all, from the London show, it’s the story of Eddie Carbone, a 1950s-era Brooklyn longshoreman, his wife, their 17-year-old niece, and two Italian immigrant cousins who come to live in their apartment, illegally.
The acting was amazing; Mark Strong as Eddie (above, middle) put one of the most powerful performances I’ve ever seen. For two hours (with no intermission, so pee before or hold it for us audience members), he commanded the small stage and showed you how a man could become obsessed, unhealthily, with his niece, and form a rage against the cousin who falls in love with her (or is just using her to stay in America legally).
I have to say, there was a lot of this play that resonated in 2016 with me, as far as immigrants coming to America and searching for a better life, and the desperation they felt.
The script was superb, the direction was great, and it was the quietest theater I’ve ever been in; all 500 of us in the crowd were hushed pretty much the whole time.
When it ended, I literally said “Wow!” If you’re in New York, or visiting anytime soon, I highly, highly recommend “A View from the Bridge.”
It reminded me how incredible live theater can be, when it’s done to perfection. I hope it wins a boatload of Tony Awards.
Next up today, these kinds of stories always amaze me. A woman named Heather Krueger in Frankfort, Ill. needed a life-saving liver transplant. A total stranger, and former Marine named Chris Dempsey was moved by her plight and decided to donate 55 percent of his own healthy liver.
The two got to know each other during their hospital stay and recuperation, and fell in love. Then they got married.
Watch the video above, and tell me fate doesn’t exist.
Finally today, yet another gem from Steve Hartman and “CBS Sunday Morning.” This one involves a tough police detective from Pittsburgh, two boys being raised in a terrible situation, and how opening his heart and home to them led to so much more.
Great stuff.
Wide World of Stuff 