After much deliberation, I’d bitten the bullet and bought six War Horse tickets. Even though I was pretty sure I’d be at least moderately turned off by the blatant sentimental manipulation, I wanted to see the only Tony nominee (and the winner) for Best Play that I hadn’t seen this year just to confirm that I would have awarded the Tony as a tie to Jerusalem and Motherf**ker with the Hat. I also thought it would be a great first Broadway experience for two ten-year-old boys. Alas, it was not to be. Nor were we meant to see the Harry Potter Exhibition before it moves across the sea. Hurricane Irene saw to that.

The good news is that before the storm hit, we had an absolutely picture perfect vacation in the Boston/Cape Cod area. Every day, our plans were executed seamlessly in absolutely perfect weather. And the good news is that because of the unprecedented shutdown of the city, I’m actually getting my money back for all the canceled events. And even more good news is that the city didn’t really suffer the effects as expected. The bad news? We’ll probably never see War Horse and we definnitely won’t see the Harry Potter Exhibition. My friends in New Jersey are reliving the devastating effects of 2000’s Hurricane Floyd far, far too soon. And, of course, there were still fatalities from this hurricane along the coast. Storms are frightening, but mostly they are humbling reminders of our general helplessness in the face of Mother Nature. There may have been much hype about nothing, but we know that it can happen. Does it really hurt if we’re prepared, or even over-prepared?

On the play front, Write This Way closed at Theatre Out in Santa Ana to a sold-out audience yesterday. I saw two brief reviews, both of which singled out Write This Way for mention; one called it “highly amusing.” Sometime today, I’ll probably get the last update, which will include the winners of the Audience Award and the Producers Award. (Fingers crossed!) All the playwrights have been promised a DVD of the performances; I can’t wait to see it!