"Who does the little shit think he is, just waltzing out of my office and onto the streets of New York? He'll get lost! He'll get hurt! He's never been here before!" Max exclaimed loudly to Leo as they walked rather quickly down the sidewalk in the direction that Charlie had run.
"Well, how do you know he hasn't been here before, Max? Maybe he has!" Leo told him.
"Nonsense! If Evelyn were trying to keep him a secret from me, she'd never bring him here! And either way, he hasn't been here long enough to know it!" Max shouted back at him. "Oy, when I get my hands on that boy…"
"You'll do what? You can't hit him! Even if you are his father!" Leo told him, grabbing Max's arm and stopping him.
"Then how is he supposed to know to never do it again?" Max asked him. "If he gets himself killed, Evelyn will kill me!" He pulled his arm from Leo's grip and started off again. "That little idiot… New York is too big for someone like him! He'd have to have lived here his whole life in order to navigate through this big city!"
"Just relax, Max… Maybe he's in the park!" Leo suggested, and Max looked at him.
"The closest landmarks to my office are the park and that little square of theatres… You go and check the park and I'll check the square," Max told him, and he ran off as Leo nodded.
"Right… To the park! Wherever that may be from here…" he muttered to himself, and ran in the other direction. Max, meanwhile, was in a furious run towards the square, pushing past many unsuspecting citizens that were unknowingly in his path. When he made it to the square, he ran into the first theatre that he found, which was the theatre that the rehearsals for that night's performance of 'Springtime for Hitler' were taking place. Max looked around at the seats, and suddenly, he spotted someone who looked rather young sitting in one of the rows close to the stage. Max approached the person carefully, and as he got closer, he realized that it was Charlie sitting in that seat. Silently, Max took the seat in the row behind him, watching as his son was fascinated with the rehearsal.
"A nice play, isn't it?" Max whispered into his son's ear, who jumped and turned to look at Max.
"It's a funny one… The man who produced it must have been a genius…" Charlie said back, turning and watching the people on stage. "I've always been interested in being a Broadway director… There's so much that I could do."
"The man who produced it is sitting right behind you," Max told him. "And give it a shot! It's always the young ones who make a break in this town."
"You produced this?" Charlie asked his father, turning to him. "And is that what you did when you were my age?"
"I was nearly in my thirties when I first started producing Broadway shows, but your mother was a beautiful aspiring actress who was young, gorgeous and talented," Max replied.
"Is that so? Maybe I'll meet someone like that…" Charlie said, leaning back in the chair and sighing dreamily.
"Well, give it a shot. If you'd like, you can be the assistant director to my next Broadway show," Max suggested, and Charlie's face lit up and he turned around.
"Can I? Oh, can I really?" he exclaimed excitedly, and Max laughed.
"Of course you can, Charlie! But you can't do it without reading the play! Come with me and we'll read over it together," he said, and he stood. Charlie did the same, and the two of them left the theatre together.
"What play is it that you're doing? Is it new?" Charlie asked his father.
"No, not really. It's over twenty years old. We're doing Anything Comes, which is the play that your mother first auditioned for and how we first met all those years ago," said Max.
"Anything Comes? That's a great show… I loved that movie that they made back in… What was it? 1957?"
"I guess so. I wanted nothing to do with it."
"Well, either way, it was fantastic! I can't wait to help direct it!"
"Kid, you'll be going places…" Together, the two Bialystocks waltzed down the street arm-in-arm happily conversing about the play that they were about to revive.
…
It was later at night when Leo again returned to the office, and Max looked up at him with surprise when Leo stepped into the office soaking wet and dripping water all over the floor. Max stood, his reading glasses falling to the end of his nose.
"Leo… What the hell happened to you?" Max asked him, his face showing an expression of extreme shock.
"Don't you dare ask, Max Bialystock!" Leo snapped at him. Max raised his hands in surrender.
"All right, then. I won't ask. But do us both a favor, Leo, and wrap yourself in a towel or something! You're ruining my hardwood floors!" he told Leo, seeing how Leo was dripping water all over the floor. Leo angrily stormed into the bathroom and slammed the door. "Hmm… What's biting him in the ass?" A moment later, Max heard the sound of Leo screaming and then a crash in the bathroom. "Leo? Leo! Are you all right?" Max raced to the door started rattling the doorknob, but it was locked, so he started banging on it instead. "Leo! Leo, are you hurt?"
"I'm fine!" Leo shouted from inside the bathroom. "Just go away! I can handle myself!"
"Oh… Okay then," said Max, stepping away from the door. "Well, Leo, would you like to explain what happened?"
"I asked you not to ask!" Leo snapped. "Did you at least find your son?"
"Yes, Leo, I did," Max told him, suspecting that his former backers had something to do with Leo's irritability. He was right when, just as he was getting ready for bed, he heard moaning coming from the bedroom. He cracked open the door and peered inside, and Leo was tossing and turning on the bed, moaning things that Max couldn't make out until he got closer.
"No… Lick Me-Kick Me, don't touch that! No, Hold Me-Touch Me, I don't want to hold you! No, Suck Me-Enter Me, don't bite that! That is not something to be bitten! AAAAAHHHH!" Leo had been screaming. Max couldn't help but laugh, so he had to leave or he would have woken Leo up and infuriated him.
…
"Evelyn, will you be auditioning?" Max asked Evelyn Saunders only a couple of days later. They were now holding auditions for Anything Comes, And Max wanted Evelyn, more than anything, to audition for the role of Betty Hilbracker, which was the role that Evelyn had once auditioned for many years ago when Anything Comes was new to Broadway.
"I don't think I have it in me, Max. Betty Hilbracker is a young and beautiful girl who can dance and sing and do things that I don't think I'm capable of doing anymore," Evelyn replied.
"Well, that's what makeup is for! You might not be young now, but if I remember correctly, you still can sing and dance! Need I remind you of that day that we first met again?" asked Max, his hands on his hips.
"Oh, don't throw that at me. That was casual singing and dancing. This is Broadway, which isn't casual singing and dancing. I have to throw myself around in ways that just may break my bones," Evelyn told him.
"Evelyn, you're not even fifty! You're still young!"
"You said it yourself, Max; I'm not so young anymore."
"But I also said that you were beautiful. And like I also said, that's what makeup is for! No one has to know that you're a lot older than you'll appear! You know that show, Hello, Birdie, right? The one with Emile Shautner and Becky Morris? Well, Becky Morris is fifty years old, and no one knows that but the cast and crew!"
"Please, Max, I knew that Becky Morris was fifty."
"Because you knew her personally."
"People know that she's older than she appears, Max. There are generations of people who have seen her on Broadway for decades!"
"But that isn't my point. My point is, no one would be able to tell that you're nearly fifty. Come on, Evelyn, just give it a try!"
"I'll give it a try, Max, but just because you're still in love with me, don't give me the role. Only if I really deserve it will I let you give me the role," Evelyn told him, and then she quickly went backstage to prepare for her audition. Max sat down at the table and waited for Leo to show up, and when he did, they called out the first name.
"Er… Elizabeth Chambers?" Leo called, standing. A pretty young girl who didn't look much older than twenty entered the stage.
"Hello! I'm Elizabeth!" exclaimed the young woman.
"Yes, we are aware. What song would you like to sing?" Max asked, wanting to get to Evelyn's audition.
"I would like to sing 'Swanee River'," said young Elizabeth.
"Sing away," said Max, and the piano player began to play. As soon as Elizabeth had started to sing, Max interrupted her. "NEXT!" Elizabeth stopped singing and looked shocked.
"You don't know real talent, Mr. Bialystock!" she exclaimed, and she stormed off stage.
"That's right… That's why I'm still here as a producer and you're not," Max said as he left, and Leo looked down at the paper again.
"Maisie Swift?" he called, and then a redhead stood on stage before them.
"Hello, Miss Swift. What would you like to sing for us?" asked Max, his hands folded neatly.
"I'd like to sing 'In the Mood', please," said Maisie, and then the piano player began.
"NEXT!" Max shouted just before Maisie began.
"Oh… All right, then," said Maisie, and then she walked off the stage.
"Max…" Leo said to his partner, and then he looked back at the list. "Evelyn Saunders?" It was more like a shocked exclamation than a call, but Evelyn arrived on stage and looked at Max and Leo. Max was suddenly interested, and Leo looked at Max with suspicion.
"What would you like to sing, Evelyn?" asked Max.
"Well… I guess I could do 'Angel Baby'," said Evelyn, referring to a sort of newer song by a British band, Rosie and the Originals. The piano player began, and before Evelyn even opened her mouth, she was interrupted by Max.
"PERFECT! She's in the show!" he shouted, standing and clapping. Evelyn sort of glared at him before walking off of the stage, and Leo looked up at Max with shock. So his partner was now being influenced by love… Leo remembered what it was like to be corrupted by love… He had betrayed his own best friend because of it, and now, Max was betraying his job for love. "What?" Leo was then snapped out of his thoughts.
"Nothing…" said Leo, looking away from him. He then pulled out a pocket watch to check the time and stood. "I've got to go and see my father at the hospital before they don't allow visitors. I'll see you later, Max."
"All right, I'll see you tonight, then," said Max suspiciously, watching Leo leave. He was acting fairly strange… Did he not like the way Max was running things? Well, that was too damn bad! If Leo was really dedicated to being a Broadway producer, then he ought to learn how to do it from a professional. Max was surprised at Leo's disrespect! How could he be so rude? To bite the hand that fed him? Max sighed, and decided that he ought to write out the cast list at that moment now that auditions were over.
