Dance 10 Looks 10

Sigh! I have lived my life trying not to be a sheep, trying not to be like everyone else, not to do what everyone else does.

I was late to computers for my writing ("If a typewriter was good enough for Hemingway," I would say, "then it is good enough for me."); late to satellite TV ("What's wrong with cable?"); late to DVD ("What's wrong with VHS?"); late to TiVo. Now all of those things are integral parts of my every moment.

And now it has come to this.

YouTube. YouTube. YouTube. It was not my idea. It's Matt's fault, actually. First he showed me a clip from the original cast of "Dreamgirls," then I started looking up Broadway shows. I found more "Dreamgirls," Sondheim by the bushel (Sondheim is the greatest. Period.), and more.

I even found this: not the greatest quality image, but a clip of one of the greatest Broadway performances in my lifetime. Of course, I mean Donna McKechnie, as Cassie (pictured), in the original production of "A Chorus Line."

During my 30 years as a journalist (I started young, really) I have interviewed many famous, important people; but none hold the memories of the several times I interviewed McKechnie. I just missed seeing her in the Los Angeles company in 1976, and had to wait 13 years to see her. (She got a laugh out of that when I told her.) Finally, I got to see her in a national touring company of the show, re-creating her part and looking as if no time at all had passed between 1975 (when the show opened) and 1989.

So, thank you, YouTube, for giving me a chance to see this again -- and Jennifer Holliday in "Dreamgirls" and Stephanie Mills in "The Wiz" and "Avenue Q" and....