I did it! I finally went to my first opening night party on Broadway! W00h00!

My husband and I were lucky enough to get tickets to the BEAUTY AND THE BEAST opening night party for Donny Osmond on Sunday September 24 at Tony DiNapoli Times Square at 43rd and Broadway (thanks Susan, thanks Disney!). I saw the show the day before on the Saturday matinee with my daughter, and my hubbie saw it that night at 7pm with his own date...

I'd never been to Tony DiNapoli's before and it looked like a really cool place to go in Midtown. We were ushered downstairs into the party room where we surrendered our tickets (I was kinda hoping to keep mine as a memento...). What a fun party! They had a bar set up, and a whole buffet of hot Italian food. I didn't eat, but my husband can testify that it was indeed yummy.

At one side of the room they had the typical "show background" (see pics on left), sort of like BEAUTY AND THE BEAST wallpaper, where the pics of the attending stars would get their pictures taken. There were lots of young gorgeous things milling about the room (myself included) some I recognized, and some I didn't. I spotted the stars of TARZAN, Josh Strickland and Jen Gambatese, getting their pics taken. It was a really friendly crowd with people striking up conversations here and there.

My hubbie and I had a nice chat with Constantine Maroulis who is currently enjoying playing Sammy in THE WEDDING SINGER.

We were also able to have a nice chat with Sarah Uriarte Berry and her husband. It was great to be able to tell her directly how fantastic we thought she was, and she told us her strategy is to play Belle like a straight man to the other characters who are spinning around her.

I was also able to tell Christian Hoff from JERSEY BOYS how much my daughter enjoyed his speech to the Camp Broadway group, back in July. He seemed genuinely touched that his efforts had had such an impact. My hubbie and I had a great conversation with Daniel Reichard from JERSEY BOYS about how much we enjoyed his midnight Kegger ("so you're the ones who brought the kids...). We chatted about putting together the Kegger, his plans for more concerts, and all sorts of stuff. Both Christian and Daniel are really nice, down-to-earth guys. What fun!

The highlight of the evening (not to take anything away from Daniel and Christian mind you) was meeting and talking with Donny Osmond. He had done the usual posing for pics against the B&B backdrop, and they had unveiled the iillustration of Donny as Gaston to go up on the wall upstairs (The JERSEY BOYS picture and Hugh Jackman's picture as THE BOY FROM OZ is up there as well -- too bad I missed those parties!).

What a great guy, just chatting with us like he wasn't a pop icon and I wasn't an obsessive stalker. Now that's class. Actually it was a lot of fun to be able to tell him how much we enjoyed his performance, and he seemed quite touched when we said he was Gaston up on stage and not Donny Osmond. I guess that's a big hurdle for a big celebrity, to be able to become the show character and not simply their larger-than-life selves.

He agreed that the show felt like it had new energy, and he loved working with Sarah. He seemed genuinely thrilled to be part of Broadway again, especially since everyone keeps bringing up his LITTLE JOHNNY JONES fiasco of so many years ago (see, I said I wouldn't bring it up and I did!). He hoped he wouldn't close BEAUTY AND THE BEAST the same way he closed LITTLE JOHNNY JONES!

However, upon reading an old New York Times review, it seemed that Donny Osmond was the only thing Frank Rich liked in the show! How nice to finally meet an idol after so many years, and discover that he is a real gentleman. Sigh.

Wow. What an evening!

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