I Went On.

Oh yes I did, then went on again.

I'm speaking of the ultimate understudy dream... actually going on stage in a plum role in a hit play before hundreds of people.

Well, technically 135 people, but... still. I can now say I've had my Off-Broadway debut in a little gem called "The Four of Us" playing at Manhattan Theatre Club, City Center, in the heart of overpriced-deli-ridden Midtown New York.

And like dear old Shirley MacLaine in days of old, word came at the last second, literally minutes before I was to leave my apartment in Brooklyn. (However, unlike Shirley MacLaine I was not going to the theater to hand in my resignation. Apparently, she was.) In fact, I'd had warning that such a thing MIGHT happen, that one of the actors MIGHT be stuck on a film set out of town. However, by the time the day came, I had completely discounted the possibility. He had a 5am set call, and only one line of dialogue. It was not bound to happen.

But it did. For the matinee. And then it happened again that night.

I don't have a dressing room, but maybe someone should stick a star on my coffee mug or something. Or on the leg of that one chair I tend to sit on in the green room.