I'm Not Dead... Yet! (16 page)

but I couldn’t stop expressing my love. I immediately began writing songs for her. I couldn’t believe it—was this really happening to me?

Karla had been working nonstop
since she was nineteen and had never seen any of my films. I thought... ‘cool.’ When Karla took over the role of Mabel in May, the creative team were away opening productions in L.A. and London.

Rex Smith, who played Frederic, only gave Karla 15 total minutes of rehearsal before her official opening. A week later, he refused to take the set bow at curtain call with Karla: Frederic and Mabel; together—just as Linda Ronstadt had graciously allowed him to take his bow with her. Rex explained that he was competing for applause and the only way to tell ‘who won’ the night was to do his bow alone...

When Mr. Papp was informed he chided Rex that it ‘wasn’t in the spirit of the show,’ and then filled Karla’s dressing room with flowers apologizing for her leading man’s behavior.

I learned a lot of the show from the orchestra pit and from Dan Berlinghoff. I wasn’t one to schmooze and I always felt awkward if I wasn’t working, so I stayed far away from backstage and getting in the way of those who had to do their jobs.

From our first rehearsal in the basement of the theatre (we both had colds and Wilford had us mime through our blocking), I was in heaven! Karla was a true pro: she was as passionate as I was about her work; she was ‘in the moment’ and when I came at her with comic ideas, she said she felt like she was back studying at Second City. We incorporated all the new bits into the show with Wilford and Graciela’s blessing, and Frederic, the Slave of Duty, selflessly gave Mabel many new laughs, as did Mabel for Frederic.

I couldn’t believe it, Karla was a magnificent talent but she was giving and compassionate and never pulled a hint of the star power I was used to in these situations.

At every performance, when Frederic and Mabel pledge their love at the red center line of the downstage platform, our kiss was magical. Long after we had left, when
Pirates
closed, the stage hands saved that piece of the platform and shipped it to us as a wedding gift.

Karla and I played our first show together on July 28, 1981. Getting to work with Kevin Kline (and original cast members Estelle Parsons, George Rose, and Tony Azito) was a thrill—but all that paled next to being onstage with the woman I loved.

Love became the elixir for my heart.

‘Oh, here is love... and here is truth...’

But was she in a relationship?

The relationship? Our love? It was a bridge we would have to cross.

A complicated, awesome bridge

but it wasn’t
impossible.

I heard the basketball coach in my head:

I imagined carrying Karla away, high above the city. Just the two us.

I knew I wanted to spend my life with her.

I would carve her name into the earth!

I would wear sneakers with her name on them!