Too Good To Be True...

...and yet it is. Recently received from a contrite patron who attended the musical I was part of a few months back. Addressed to the director, Yvonne Conybeare:

RE: The Devil and Tom Walker
Friday, May 9, 2008 performance

Dear Ms. Conybeare,
I write - tardily - to apologize to Michael Durkin, Justin Flagg, Erik Gratton, Rebecca Hart, Sarah Hund, Michael Jerome Johnson and Robert Kendt for my rude and inexcusable behavior in failing to turn off my cell phone, thus interrupting an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking performance on the evening of Friday, May 9, 2008, when I enjoyed The Devil and Tom Walker along with my fiancee, Barbara Lommen, my son, John Bargiel, and his good friend, David Vining.

It is my hope that we will again have the privilege of witnessing a performance at The Metropolitan Playhouse when next we visit New York (at which time I faithfully promise to turn off my cell phone).

Yours very truly,
Charles (Chuck) S. Bargiel

I can only hope that Vanessa Redgrave received a similar apology from a few matinee patrons of Year of Magical Thinking, whose cell phones marred the most intimate moments of the show the day I saw it. Come to think of it, is it odd that I remember that rude afternoon, but can barely recall Mr. Bargiel's ringtone ruckus at a show I performed in? Is it possible that such interruptions have even more impact on fellow patrons than on performers? Maybe an apology to the entire Devil and Tom Walker audience that night would be in order--but then, with this kind apology Mr. Bargiel has already gone well beyond the heedless hordes of ringers that plague our playhouses. We'll leave it at that.