At the Stage Door

Felicity's close encounters of the Keeley kind!

Stratford Ontario Wednesday August 9th 2000

A red letter day if ever there was one. My first face to face meeting with this actor called David Keeley. I had no idea what to expect, I didn’t know if he was happy to meet fans or even if he would sign autographs. I’d heard he made quick getaways after performances; indeed I had missed him altogether after my first attendance at Stratford 5 days earlier so this day I didn’t dawdle on my way to the stage door! No sooner had I arrived, (dragging my son Martin with me!) than he appeared at the top of the steps, he is just about to bound down when he notices two children sitting to the side of the stage door, he appeared to know them and chatted to them for a short while before continuing his descent. (Very shortly afterwards I discovered they were Hannah and Jack Gross, Paul’s children.) Before he reached the bottom step I moved in swiftly and asked if he would be kind enough to sign the cover of my Two Houses CD. He was delighted to be asked and even appeared to be a little surprised that I want his autograph, he asked how I spelled my name, but he knew really as he said the letters at the same time as me. I noticed that he had lovely green eyes and was very tall, I asked him how the new CD was coming along (that was Love and Carnage) and he said that they had finished recording all the songs and it just needed the finishing touches, and hoped it would be out soon. I found David extremely friendly and very easy to talk to, he also signed Martin’s poster before he thanked us and continued his way home.

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 Ok! This is what I wrote in my notebook after seeing Urinetown for the second time on             14th August 2004

Well ladies I've seen Urinetown and I'm pleased to report that it lives up to expectations and more. I enjoyed it so much on Tuesday evening that on Wednesday I went straight to the Box Office and booked another ticket for Saturday afternoon! Our man David is terrific and very funny in his role as Officer Lockstock. It's a very witty script, cleverly and ably acted by a great cast of actors. OK we all know that the upfront story is that of a city which is allowed to pee only in public amenities and then has to pay for the privilege or face the grisly consequences.
So yes this is a very funny story but there is, underneath it all, a
very serious and important message to us all regarding unsustainable
resources.
 (David makes us all fully aware of this message near the end of the show)
On this musical's journey we pay a tongue in cheek visit to just about every famous musical ever written, parodies of Fiddler, Chorus Line, Les Mis, West Side Story are all in there and the way the cast plays it absolutely straight makes it all the more amusing. David's role is that of one of the Policemen who makes sure nobody pees in private or behind bushes, and most importantly he is also the narrator (aided and abetted by "Little Sally", where he hams it up beautifully and even more so in the song and dance routines. He also looks totally gorgeous in his police uniform and speaks in a very deep voice! I caught up with him at the stage door on Saturday afternoon; he looked tanned, relaxed and healthy with small beads of perspiration on his face, just absolutely yummy! I didn't waste any time grabbing his attention as he bounded up the steps,
 "Hi David, could you sign my poster please?"
 “Sure, no problem- who shall I make it out to?"
 "Felicity"
 "OK… You'll have to help me out here.."
 "F.E.L. - I.C.- I.T.Y."
 "See I knew I'd mess this up!"  As he hurriedly tried to insert a
missing "i"
 "That's OK" I squeak as I start to feel a little hysterical.
 "May I take a photo?"
 "Yeah, that's no problem"
I take one.
 "Why don't you have one taken with him!" yells another actor.Now why didn't I think of that?!
Steve my youngest duly obliges as I hug David tightly around his waist.
Looking back it was probably rather too tightly but he didn't complain and it stopped me from falling over as he grabbed hold around my shoulder! I took a few more photos and asked him what he planned to do after the show completes its run.
 "I think I'm going to have a rest."
 "Yes you've been working hard for quite a while."
 "Yeah it's been great but very tiring."
All too soon we say our goodbyes and thank yous.
I'm delighted to say David is still the same hunky, nice, polite guy I met in Stratford 2000.... Oh and yes we're all going again next Saturday (that was the 21st) hopefully I'll remember to mention CherryBeach this time........ (I did!)
 I also got a few more things signed, {one for Jill}, and I also received instructions to pass on “my very best wishes to her” which of course I duly did on my return, and as I had a spare Toilet brush [a freebie given out at the performance] Jill had one of those too! She was delighted, as I remember, and had the cleanest loo in all Northampton 

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Some comments I made on the cherrybeach list, in reaction to my photos of the event:-

He was really warm and cuddly! I've just added a couple more photos to the album. As you will see he is still wearing the same shirt :) - which he joked about when I asked him to sign a photo I'd taken of him in it the previous week. He's only got the one shirt apparently - a likely story! He'd definitely had a haircut by the second Saturday too.

Maria  asked me if there were any particular scene(s) in which David appeared that "blew me away?" Songs in which he took the lead?

I replied:-

Now this is very difficult to pin down! Because every scene and song and dance routine he took part in was great. In fact even when he
wasn't taking the lead it was great but if I had to pick a couple of things...

Firstly at the beginning is "Too Much Exposition" where he sets the
story line with Little Sally, he has some great lines here all delivered deadpan with such a deep voice you think it's going to disappear into his boots!

Then there is the "Cop Song" which he sings with Officer Barrel I loved that one, and the finale of course "I See a River" That is so funny, and in between there is a scene on the balcony where he gets very upset because he is not the hero of the story and therefore doesn't "get the girl" so to speak, hilarious!

If you can get hold of the Broadway original cast recording I strongly urge you to do so because it contains an awful lot of the narration in the lyric notes that David spoke together with a précis of the story. There is a website with Broadway memorabilia here.
www.broadwaynewyork.com/search.asp?searchby=keywords&keywords=urinetown&affiliateid=69
And I believe Amazon.com also has it and a paperback book version.

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