My Bernadette Experience
I'm a Performing Arts major at the Community College and in the summer of 1998, we put on our own production of "Into The Woods." I had never heard of this musical before, and I had gotten a backstage job, doing the spotlight. During my first rehearsal, I heard the music to the show for the very first time and right away, I loved it! It was so catchy that I found myself singing the songs every single day, all day. I'd go home after the rehearsals and performances and couldn't get the songs out of my head. I even woke up singing the music. To tell ya the truth, that became quite annoying! After a while I went out and bought the soundtrack (which features Ms. Peters). I enjoyed it so much and then my mom ended up ordering the movie (which also stars Ms. Peters) through a cataloge. That's when I realized what a talent Bernadette is!!!!! All of a sudden, I thought her voice was so adorable (along with the rest of her). Although, I must admit, that I thought our production of Into the Woods was better then the VHS version, but that may have something to do with me seeing our production performed everyday for a month!
Now I can't imagine Bernadette without that cute voice! It's sort of like a trademark. It's better to have a voice that distinguishes you from all of the other actresses out there then to sound like everyone else! Pretty soon I was online, getting all the information that I could about Bernadette. You know, I thought she was still in her 30's! When I found out her real age, I thought....."I hope I look that good at her age!" I was so stunned at how gorgeous she is! I was used to the Bernadette I saw a hundred times in "The Jerk," a movie that does not do her justice at all!
I eventually went out and bought Bernadette's CD, "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight." My first reaction when I heard it? WOW! I remember when "Cupid" came on and I just had to push repeat on my CD player. I must have listened to it twenty times before I finally listened to the rest of the CD. Even now, that and "No One Is Alone" (also my favorite "Into the Woods" song) are my favorite songs on that CD. Being a college student means being low on funds and so the only other Bernadette CD that I own is "Annie Get Your Gun". But as soon as I get my finances in order, I plan on buying many more! Every year my school's drama club, in which I am an active member, raises money to go to NYC in the spring. Last year I went and saw Les Miz (which was okay) and The Diary of Anne Frank (the best play I have ever seen). This year, I made sure I went to see "Annie Get Your Gun." But I didn't want to risk going to the TKTS booth because they might not sell tickets to that show and even if they did, I wouldn't be guaranteed good seats. For Les Miz they gave me awful seats, way up in the balcony, on the side, so most of the stage was cut off! For Anne Frank, I got 7th row Orchestra seats, which were awesome, but as I said, I couldn't be guaranteed that I'd get good seats like that again, esp. for AGYG. So I went online and through Ticketmaster, paid full price to get orchestra seats and wound up in row N (not very bad if you ask me)! I pretty much emptied my account, but I was determined to get as close as I could. This was my very first time seeing Bernadette (or any major acting star) live, and I was determined to see her up close and personal! And you know what? It was totally worth it! Read my review of it here on my site to see what I thought of the show!
I wanted to stand by the stage door to meet her but I was too chicken! Maybe if she's still there next spring, I'll get the guts to do that! I wouldn't know what to say, esp. to someone who I admire so much, not just as a star, but as a person as well! Now I consider myself one of her biggest fans and I created this site to show my appreciation for someone so talented, loving, and sweet! I hope you'll enjoy experiencing my site as much as I enjoyed experiencing Bernadette Peters live! I don't know if watching theater can get any better then that!