‘As If We Never Said Goodbye,’ Broadway ‘s Reopening Night: VIDEOS
For his musical, Sunset Boulevard Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote, “As If We Never Said Goodbye” for a woman returning to the world of storytelling, artistry, wonder, and magic from which she’d been deprived and alone for too long.
Don’t know why I’m frightened
I know my way around here
The cardboard trees, the painted scenes, the sound here
Yes a world to rediscover
While Weber wrote it for a film actress starving for the embrace of Hollywood once again, the yearning and desire to be part of an artistic community resonated with screen and stage making it and instant classic of the Broadway songbook. Now four decades later and eighteen months after a pandemic shutdown the Great White Way, it’s lyrics and emotions also transcend the footlights to audiences with a new and profound meaning.
I don’t want to be alone that’s all in the past
This world’s waited long enough
I’ve come home at last!
And this time will be bigger
And brighter than we knew it
So watch me fly, we all know I can do it
Could I stop my hand from shaking?
Has there ever been a moment with so much to live for?
That moment was last night as four of Broadway’s biggest shows re-opened to rapturous enthusiasm and overwhelming emotions everywhere you looked even before they started. Here’s how the productions recorded their re-opening nights on Instagram.
Pre-Show warm-up with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ham4Ham
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A WICKED Drop-in
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Curtain up!
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Start to Finish at The Lion King
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CHICAGO Curtain Call
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Hamilton Encore
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Yes, everything is as if we never said goodbye
If you thought we weren’t going to include “As If We Never Said Goodbye,” then you don’t know what kind of show queen writes here.
And… if you thought it would be anyone other than thee Patti LuPone, for whom the role was written and is the only actress to have performed it in its original key, you obviously don’t know who the Gay Saint of theOUTfront is.
