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Overcast. Low 21F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph.
FROM THE PUBLISHER | Bridget's Homecoming
Ned Seaton nseaton@themercury.com
Let me say first that I have not seen Bridget Everett's new show, set to air on HBO this week.
So I can't offer a critique. I fully expect it to be great – Bridget is a real talent who I've seen perform live several times. Full disclosure: She's also a friend, and I'm friends with her brothers. Our families go way back. I think she has actually referred to my brother in her show, a fact that made him want to duck under his chair.
Anyway I'm not really here to provide a critique. I just want to point out the direction she's going with this show, which I think says something about Manhattan.
The show, "Somebody Somewhere" is largely an autobiographical story about a young adult from Manhattan. That person is evidently something of a misfit, but she finds her voice with singing. How that happens and where the story goes, I don't know.
Bridget herself left Manhattan to go to Arizona State to study singing, then found her way to New York City where she eventually hit it big enough to, well, to make this show. She came up with it. She's the star. It's about her. It's not that she was a moody outcast growing up here, full of teenage angst. Heck, she was the Homecoming Queen at Manhattan High! She may not have been the lead in the fall musical – a point she has made a few times – but she was a star swimmer and a bright light.
But let's acknowledge that everybody everywhere eventually feels the restrictions of where they're from, Bridget included. Teenagers are full of angst, wherever they go to high school. "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place," said The Animals, in the anthem of teenagers everywhere forever. Let's also acknowledge that there are far more limits in Manhattan than there are in New York City.
My point is that a lot of people who go away – and that's most people who grow up here – eventually come around to seeing the good in this place.
Again, I don't exactly know how Bridget will portray her hometown, but she's mostly describing it in loving terms. She told us in an interview that she wanted to show lots of purple, and that she wanted to show Varsity Donuts, and Reed and Elliot jewelry store, and touchpoints of the place she comes back to, a place she now describes with words that include "cool." Family and the roots here have become increasingly important to her, she said, even as she recognizes the limits.
"I hadn't really thought about doing a show set in Kansas because, you know, I left for a reason," she told us. "There was a time I didn't go home for like five years. But as I've gotten older, I have a new appreciation for it. And I see a lot of beauty in things I used to not want any part of."
I suppose that's common to lots of places, but my point here is that it is certainly true of Manhattan. Reunions, ballgame weekends, weddings, funerals – whenever I bump into my old-school pals, they say the same thing. They thought they hated it here when they left, but, you know, it's really pretty great, and…home is home. Always will be.
Bridget Everett
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