By Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel
SOLANA BEACH, California — My daughter Judith and I had tickets for the North Coast Rep on Sunday afternoon to see A Walk in the Woods with David Ellenstein, and J.Todd Adams. We arrived at the theater in plenty of time to pick up our tickets , get seated and read the program notes. At 2 p.m. right on the button at show time with everyone quietly seated and eager for the show to begin, Ellenstein, Director of the Rep who also plays one of the two leads appeared on stage alone .
It appeared he was going to say a few introductory words about the play , and indeed he did. He announced that there would be no show that afternoon, and added that he had never in his 40 years in theater experienced anything like this. Frankly , neither had I , and same for people in the audience. .
His co-star, J.Todd Adams, obviously had to make a last minute cancellation, and the Rep did not have an understudy. Ellenstein said there would be a show, however, in the evening allowing just enough time for the replacement actor to have a quick rehearsal and then perform with script in hand. Ellenstein explained that everyone with a ticket in their name would be called by the box office to arrange another show time. Others should stop at the box office
The Marketing Director called me when I returned home to arrange tickets for next Friday evening. A special reward was to meet and hear playwright Richard Baird after the performance. Maybe they should have had him step in to read Adam’s part from his own script. Well, perhaps all is well that ends well , and as they say in the theatre, “the show must go on “ especially if there is an understudy. Finally, I’m left with a story about a play that did not play !
I’m sure when you purchase tickets to see this excellent play at the Rep, you won’t experience a “show stopper “ as Judith and I did!
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Merel is cantor emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego. He may be contacted via sheldon.merel@sdjewishworld.com
I hope that J. Todd Adams is OK. When we were called by the box office and we rescheduled for three weeks out, we were told that the role will probably be played by another actor.