Today, 13 years ago, I discovered Broadway.
For my 16th Birthday my Mom & Dad gave me a ticket to the Broadway musical, Les Miserables. My Dad made the trip with me. It was life changing for me. It was my first Broadway show and also marked the first time that I’d gotten to meet Deborah Gibson.
Deborah was making her Broadway debut in Les Miz and since I knew that theater was a much more intimate venue, I had heard that meeting Deborah – at that time known by the Pop Music world as Debbie – was a lot easier. I’d read that, even though she was a the top of her Pop Music game, she exited the theater by the stage door just like everyone else.
I believed that this birthday trip might be my chance to meet her. Deborah’s last CD at the time had been called Anything Is Possible. I decided to embrace that, so I sat down and wrote her manager (and mother) a letter. I didn’t know what would happen but I thought it would be worth a shot.
A couple months later, a few weeks before my Dad and I flew to NYC, there was a message on the house’s answering machine from the manager’s assistant. The message informed me that Diane, Deborah’s mother, had received my letter and was going to making meeting Deborah a possibility.
In my letter I explained that I was traveling with my Dad and was hoping for the opportunity to go backstage and meet Deborah. The assistant explained the closeness of the theater’s backstage area and said that going backstage wouldn’t be a possibility but Deborah’s bodyguard would bring me to the stage door and Deborah would meet me there and pose for a picture.
My Dad and I flew to New York and loved the show. I soaked in every moment. I didn’t know the story or that the entire show was sung beginning to end. But I feel in love with it. The MTV crowd was there cheering on Deborah every time her foot hit the stage. It was truly a magical afternoon.
After the show I went to the stage door and asked for Deborah’s bodyguard as I had been directed. To my surprise he took us right inside. Deborah was upstairs changing, so he invited me to climb on the show’s barricade and pose for pictures. A few minutes later my Dad and I were ushered upstairs to meet Deborah. As we climbed the narrow, winding staircase I could hear the actor who had portrayed Jean Valjean vocalizing in his dressing room. Within seconds we were standing on the landing just outside Deborah’s dressing room.
Deborah came out and spent several minutes with me. We talked. She signed autographs and posed for pictures. She opened a small gifted I’d brought her and we talked about the album she was working on.
That was the first time I met Deborah.
Over the last few years, making the theater rounds, I’ve been able to meet her on several occasions. I’ve met her on the road in Boston and Indianapolis, at the AIDS Walk in Atlanta, and several times here in New York. With a string of sporadic meetings, it’s fun to see her now and the way she recognizes me. Who would’ve thought?
The other night I was able to take in a small show she did at the Canal Room here in NYC. It was a fun evening and she split the show in two, performing material from her Broadway album in the beginning the closing the show with her Pop Music tunes – as well as beautiful covers of songs by Hall and Oats and Carole King.
Below you will find pictures chronicling most of my meetings with Deborah (note the hair loss. Ha.).
Enjoy!
