Today is Friday, July 12, 2024. This will be a very short blog since I decided at the last moment to take a break from all of the angst and Sturm und Drang of the presidential race swirling around poor Joe Biden, so I went into the city to see a play. I also wanted to escape the issues surrounding the car where we took the now-dented Nissan to a body shop to ask for an estimate, and we were given something in the $3,500 price range, with a week and a half required to make the needed repairs. When we got home, I looked up Yelp and called another body shop where I found out that the operation is a mobile one. I spoke to someone named “Dino” who gave me good advice, which was to wait until the other driver comes back with her report from the rental app where she got her vehicle that barreled into our car on Wednesday. This technician also said he could do the job for considerably less and said he could complete it within three days, not seven. So we’ll see; so far, I haven’t heard back from this young woman. It might take some time.

As for the play I saw, I saw a relatively new production at the Pershing Square Signature Center, on West 42nd Street, called From Here. The play centers on a thirty-something gay man called Daniel living in Orlando in the critical year of 2016 and his close-knit friends struggling with life, love, and relationships. Eventually, the real reason for the setting of the play is mentioned, but it’s at the end of the play mostly, which takes us to the horrific date of June 12, 2016, when 49 innocent lives were taken by a crazed madman in the gay club called Pulse. The great ensemble cast includes Blake Aburn as the amiable Daniel who addresses the audience directly at the beginning of the 90-minute play, his very good lady friend, Jordan, assayed by Michelle Coben, his estranged mother (Becca Southworth), his new squeeze, Ricky (Omar Cardona), and his boyfriend of two years, Michael (Jullien Aponte) who announces at the outset that he’s breaking up with him. Mostly throughout the length of the play, Daniel deals with getting back with his estranged mother, who has not returned his musical voicemails. Jordan has a cabaret act in which she invites Daniel’s mother to attend the show in furtherance of effectuating a reconciliation between the two. At her cabaret act, Jordan sings the wonderful “Gay Is Better.”

Towards the end of the play, Daniel gets a call about the goings-on at Pulse and the group comes together to collectively mourn and share memories of their experiences at the welcoming club. This is where one critic thought that we “stepped into a portal into an entirely different show, a sort of Orlando version of the post-9/11 Canadian tale Come From Away.” This critic, Melissa Rose Bernardo, from NY Stage Review, felt that the Pulse story was just tacked on. I thought this worked since the play is supposed to have been rendered chronologically, meaning that it starts in January and ends in June 2016. I thought it was still effective and it brought a tear to my eye, I must say.

Anyway, I still recommend the show for the magnificent singing voices of the cast, especially that of Omar Cardona as Daniel’s new Latino boyfriend. He can really belt out a tune.

Have a great weekend.

Stay safe and be well.