Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Gilbert Blythe was trying to make Anne Shirley look at him and failing utterly

My mom gave me a copy of Anne of Green Gables (the book) when I was eight. By the next year I was obsessed. I convinced my parents to go on vacation to Prince Edward Island (beautiful, by the way), owned every book written by L.M. Montgomery, and soon knew the movies by heart. I still love all of that today. Gilbert Blythe was essentially my first crush.

Last night I went to see the musical The Drowsy Chaperone here in Boston. It was wonderful--fun and funny and charming, with just enough snark. I laughed so hard tears were coming out of my eyes.

What does this have to do with Anne of Green Gables? The main character in The Drowsy Chaperone, the Man in Chair, was played by Jonathan Crombie, best known for playing Gilbert Blythe in the Anne movies. He was fantastic as the Man, camping it up just right, and making me snort more than once.

And after the show, at the stage door (where embarrassingly I was the only person there for quite a while), I got to meet Jonathan. He was really sweet and all smiles, and we talked about Slings & Arrows, and it was really really nice. And I got a picture.

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I don't think I stopped smiling until after I fell asleep last night.

6 comments:

Amanda said...

OHMYGAWD! It IS! It IS!! He looks older. I mean, it's been a long time since they did the movies...but...he's still adorable.

Holy crap.

I <3 Anne of Green Gables!

And Gilbert? *swoon*

Anonymous said...

That's great that he's still getting work! It's seems like forever since the movies. Some day I'll vacation in PEI...

Jane said...

I am a huge Anne of Green Gables fan. Luke Skywalker was my first crush, but Gilbert Blyth was definately my second . . . and I still love him. I would have stood around all night to meet him too.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I've totally arrived here randomly. I love Jonathan and I'm planning on seeing him on tour as well and I was just wondering, how long did it take for him to come out the stage door after the show, give or take? I'd love to try and meet him but I have to leave early the day after and so I'm not sure I can stay for, you know, three hours.

Thanks very much!

Alexis said...

20 minutes? Half an hour, maybe? The cast started coming out pretty quickly. And they're all very nice.

Anonymous said...

I thought I posted a comment to say thank you but it hasn't shown up, so I just wanted to say again, thanks for the reply! :)