There's something about Mary...
Mason left the hospital almost as soon as Mrs Carmichael returned, as he wanted to go and check in with the director to see if their missing star was en route today; something to set his mind at ease before he had a quiet evening in with his wife. He did not know if the latter would be easy though, as Jane had begun her nesting phase and it was getting out of hand… he knew it was normal in pregnancy, but it was out of control at times.
His visit to the production office let him know that all of the cast were now in the city, with the exception of the one missing diva. The director could only shake his head sadly, then say, "It is getting ridiculous now. We have this morning negotiated a possible lease of a top floor apartment, overlooking Central Park, in the Dakota Building no less, because it seems that the modern penthouse that we had chosen, with its views over the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty wasn't good enough. She wants to be in a historic landmark, and well, the Dakota is about the best known apartment building in the city. I am fully expecting a call to ask whether Yoko Ono is still in residence…ideally as her next door neighbour! I am assured however that she will arrive tonight on the late flight, and I have booked the best available suite at the Plaza for her until she can view the potential properties."
"If she wants to live in a historic landmark, couldn't we just set up a camp bed for her in the crown of the Statue of Liberty itself?" said Mason sarcastically. "Honestly, she is acting like she's Hollywood royalty. I mean, if she requests a huge mansion upstate with a helicopter to shuttle her back and forth to the city, would we give it to her?"
"I would laugh at that, Mr McCarthy, but she just might do that! I should have gone with my original gut instinct and insisted on an all new cast, but some of the backers felt that we needed an original name to draw in the crowds. It is what it is, and we can't alter it now…"
Mason had nodded, then headed for home. When he arrived there, he was surprised to hear voices, and he walked into the sitting room to find that Jane had company, namely Kitty, Marley and Unique. He took a seat, and was instantly bombarded with questions about how Seth was by Kitty; that over, the talk went back to their current lives. Unique was about to head off on a national tour of an old fashioned revue show, and Jake was amongst the cast. From the way that she talked about him, it was clear to them all that the two of them had become really close, but surviving the earthquake in L.A. together had created a bond between them.
All eyes then turned to Marley, who seemed a little more reticent, and eventually said, "I am still singing with the radio orchestra for now, and still enjoy it immensely. It might lack the ambition and status of the stuff other people do, but it pays quite well, it is a steady role, and above all else, I am happy."
"You might be happier if Ryder finally got around to proposing to you," said Kitty in a quiet voice, and Marley blushed at once.
"Not at all; what we have works well, and we are both happy. In the end, that is all that matters…" she replied.
At that point, Jane decided to change the subject by asking Mason to do his best cockney accent; he obliged, and had the three visitors smiling and shaking their heads in seconds. However, Marley surprised them all by answering him back in the kind of clipped tones that people associated with the old fashioned English accent of the black and white films….
Across town that evening, at NYADA, Santana was preparing to head for home after teaching the last of her students for the day. She was finishing later than usual as she had been covering for an absent colleague; Brittany had not been pleased about that at first, but she had decided that there were things that she needed to buy for a plan that could now go ahead due to events that day, so she accepted it, arranging to meet her wife outside NYADA so they could travel home together.
Glancing at the time, Santana checked the room, then turned out the lights, heading out into the now quiet and empty corridors. As she made her way to the front exit where Brittany would soon be waiting, she heard a noise, which startled her a little. She turned towards it, and saw a shadowy figure down a side corridor, looking at the memorial that had been erected for Kurt and Blaine. She looked again as she saw that they had noticed her and were now walking in her direction. She dug in her pocket for the nail file she kept there as a precaution, then saw the face of the person clearly as they stepped into the better light. She gasped at the sight, a sudden blast from the past…
"Well, well, they told me that you worked here, but I wasn't expecting to see you this late. It has been a long time…"
Santana nodded, and folding her arms across her chest, replied, "Yes, it certainly has been a long time, Adam…"
He looked back to where he had just been, to the simple plaque on the wall, and said, "I still find it so hard to believe that something like this could have happened to him, even a decade on. That a life that was so vital could be snuffed out and his talent lost, all over a stupid show choir competition…"
"That is what happens when someone's psychopathic father trains them to be little more than a killing machine, and eliminates any trace of humanity…."
"I saw the film; I didn't want to at first, but then something compelled me, and well, it chilled me to the bone. That he was willing to subject his own brother to the things that he did…"
"Well, fascinating as reviewing Artie's film is, I have to ask what you are doing here now? I mean, I know that you and Kurt did not part on the best of terms, but you didn't even get in touch when he died. I mean, Rachel and I half expected you to show up for the funeral…"
Adam sighed, then with sadness in his eyes replied, "I would have been there, had I been in a position where I was aware of what had occurred. I had barely been back in Britain for a week when I was offered a good part in a film that a friend of mine was involved in, that was being shot in a remote corner of France - and when I say remote, I mean the edge of civilisation. There was no mobile phone reception or internet, and that was actually part of the whole premise. We were cut off from the world, and given a few ideas and then it was all improvised. I was away for three months, and when I came home, there was a massive pile of mail, and to be honest, the NYADA Alumni Newsletter was not top of the priority list. It was a Sunday afternoon when I finally got around to opening it. The way it was folded in the envelope all I saw at first was Kurt's face, and I smiled. Then I opened it and saw his name, the dates and in memoriam… I ended up crying for half an hour, and then I read the words, about the memorial, Blaine's subsequent death and the cause, and I cried all over again. It was of course far too late then to write to you all, to come over, but I sent a cheque to the memorial fund. I guess I was scared that if I came back then you would all think that I hadn't cared enough to turn up then, so I took the easy way out…"
"You were probably right there; at the time it was all just a little too raw," admitted Santana.
"As to why I am back now, well that is for work. I have been reasonably successful since I left here, done a few minor film and TV parts, some plays outside the West End, but I was not so lucky to break into those illustrious stages at first. Then, on a whim in 2022, I went to an audition, and got cast in The Mousetrap. They change the cast every year, and as it is the world's longest running play, I instantly became a part of British theatre history. It also got me noticed…"
"A week before my stint in the play finished, my grandfather passed away, and that was upsetting for the whole family, so I took some time off to be with them, and it was nearly the end of last year before I went back to auditioning. When my agent put me up for the one that I am here thanks to, I was surprised, and even more surprised to get the part. I guess that the NYADA connection helped out there. I am playing the small, but not altogether insignificant, part of Robertson Ay in Mary Poppins…"
Santana laughed, and said, "Alongside Mason McCarthy, who was here too, and also attended McKinley High in Lima not long after me and Kurt; and of course, the legendary CJ Hummel-Warbler…"
"Yeah, that is quite a name…"
"It certainly is, but I can see why he no longer wanted to be Cooper Anderson after his brother Blaine died…"
Santana tried not to smile as it suddenly dawned on Adam for the first time. "He is Blaine's brother… I seriously had no idea, but the whole Hummel and Warbler combination should have been a clue! Then again, he is such a prestigious talent, and Kurt once told me that Blaine's brother was a Hollywood obsessed no-hoper!"
"He changed a lot after his little brother died; I think that he felt that he had failed Blaine by not being able to save him, and so he owed him and Kurt to try and crack Broadway instead, and by God, did he ever! Carmen had a hand in that, of course, as she does in so many things. I think that she is part of a secret Broadway mafia, high up if not the godmother herself. She deserves it, given that she also gave a break to a certain Sebastian Smythe…"
"Whom I do recall being called a meerkat by Kurt in one of his moments when he was raging about Blaine…"
"Yeah, I still call him that. I can arrange for the two of you to meet up, if you would like…"
Santana took a note of Adam's cellphone number as they headed out, then had an idea. Adam looked worried for a moment when Santana asked him to pose with her for a photo, the two of them with their heads together in a selfie, but then she said, "It is always fun to wind up Rachel, even now that she is married and highly successful in her own right. Perhaps you have seen her husband, Sam Evans, on television…"
"Wait, Rachel Berry is married to Darrin! I love that show! Let me guess, he is also a friend of yours, and probably a former NYADA student?"
"Of course, the last of the group of three of us whose names started with S that year after Kurt died… I can't wait to see how Rachel reacts to the news that you are back in town!"
"We will all have to have a proper catch up sometime - we could all meet up at, say, the Spotlight Diner, that is if it is still there! So much has changed since I left!"
"Oh, it is, under new youthful management," said Santana, deciding that the revelation that she part owned it could wait. They parted then, and Santana sent the photo she had just taken to Rachel, knowing that she would just have broken for the interval in her show. She was pleased with the almost immediate response; even more so by the fact that she had no idea why Adam was back in town, and she usually prided herself in knowing all that was going on. She looked up, and saw her wife approaching, and as she walked towards her, she suddenly realised that Mason had no idea of the whole story either. He obviously had no clue who Adam Crawford was to all of them…
Mason was of course shocked to discover exactly who Adam was, as although they had met before his return from England to New York, and he knew that Adam had been a student at NYADA, it had never occurred to him to ask exactly when he had attended. That he had been there at the same time as Kurt and Rachel was not too much of a shock, nor the fact that he knew Santana well too. It was the fact that he had dated Kurt for a short while, but had never met Blaine that blew him away…
Santana had of course been unable to resist calling him up quickly the previous night and filling Mason in with those details, and went further, telling the young man how he and Kurt had been gradually getting closer, and how both she and Rachel had come to approve of the idea, but then Will and Emma's aborted Valentine's Day wedding had come along, and the whole thing had fizzled out after that…
"To be frank, Kurt and Blaine reconnected in the most physical of ways at the wedding reception that never was, and that was the start of the repairing of their relationship after Blaine's indiscretion. Adam did not stand a chance when he was up against the love of Kurt's life, and I felt sorry for him at the time; I think he had some pretty strong feelings for Kurt. The long and short of it was that once he knew Kurt and Blaine had come back together, he couldn't stand to be around him, and we hardly saw him after that…"
Mason couldn't help but see the tragedy in what she had just said. He wondered what might have happened if Kurt had not attended that wedding, had not returned to Blaine, had not have restarted the relationship they all knew as Klaine. Had he been with Adam, would Kurt have survived, not been pulled into the whole Hunter debacle? If he had though, would he have been happy? That was another story, as he would still have lost his stepbrother, and his first love. If there had been no wedding to target for Hunter, then would he have gone through with his more nefarious plans for the other Warblers instead?
He resolved there and then not to raise the subject when he was around Adam, although he did wonder quite how Cooper would take it when he found out that the man playing the man servant in his Cherry Tree Lane home was an ex of Kurt's. As it happened, his worries were unnecessary. Cooper had made it a habit to do some research into the background of those he was cast with to avoid any awkward faux pas. Even that had been a little over the score in this case though; as soon as he had read Adam's name and where and when he had studied, he recalled a huffy little brother telling him all about Kurt having a new boyfriend, whose name he had pronounced with more venom than Cooper had ever heard his brother use before. He also resolved to say nothing, as it was all water long passed under the bridge now…
Mason pondered all of this as he headed to the office of the show's director, where he had been summoned by a cryptic text he found on his phone when he woke. He had been asked to come at his earliest possible convenience, as there had been a development overnight. For a moment he wondered if Adam, having realised who they all were, had quit, but then chided himself, as his departure would not be deemed a reason for urgency in all likelihood. He had therefore hurried through all of his morning routines, helped by the fact that Jane was already awake, and knowing he was wanted, had done all she could to speed his departure.
He was in the door of the director's office just a few moments after 8am; he took one look at the young woman that was currently serving as the director's PA, and knew exactly what had happened. "She didn't come, did she? She has missed the flight and put in a few more days of delay?"
"Worse," the young lady whispered, then pointed him at the open door of the inner office.
Mason headed in to find the esteemed director sitting in his chair with his head in his hands. "Ah, Mason, good of you to get here so promptly to share my misery and despair…" he said, holding out a piece of paper.
Mason took it and read it; then reread it, his eyes scarcely believing what he was seeing and his blood starting to boil. "We are not staging an amateur version of the show, and perhaps it is time that someone told this creature that the reason that none of the original cast were prepared to come here is because she is an obnoxious, toxic, heartless, well, female dog! And she is seriously saying that one of the largest apartments in the Dakota Building, right next door to Yoko Ono, was not good enough for her! What was she actually expecting!?"
"At this moment, her agent is wanting us to pay her six months wages as a fee for her inconvenience…"
"Six months!" exclaimed Mason, knowing such a demand could bankrupt the show before it even began.
As Mason slumped into a chair, the director replied, "Oh, don't worry, she can forget that; there is a clause in her contract that states that she is only owed a fee if she came to New York. She will try of course to wiggle out of that one, but I think that I have enough evidence from the former cast to destroy her carefully crafted public persona. If the press found out that she hated all of the kids…" The director sighed then, and continued, "The fact remains that we have a major casting problem. We have as of this moment, no Mary. The lady for this part will not be easy to find; she has to be, to coin a phrase, practically perfect, in every way. She has to have a wonderful singing voice; a sweet and natural look; the ability to do those clipped English vowels. Where even in New York City do we find that overnight?"
Mason would later describe what happened to him right then as his Sebastian moment, when an absolutely crazy notion came to him as desperation surrounded him, and he knew that there was nothing to be lost in speaking up and taking a risk. As the director began to talk of having to commence a lengthy audition process and postponing the opening, or possibly calling up her original understudies, and boy, were there several, and seeing if one of them would be willing to come, Mason knew in his heart that what he was contemplating was the solution to the issue.
"You look deep in thought there, Mr McCarthy? Care to share?" the director suddenly said, and Mason nodded before replying.
"I might actually have the solution to our present woes, but doing this is rather in the style of the move made by the young man that provided me with my Broadway debut. Can you give me an hour before we start on any kind of audition process, or phone calls to England? You see, I actually have someone in mind that is perfect, and well, I would like to approach her and see if she would do it first…."
"An hour - I guess another hour couldn't hurt. Wait, are you talking about Sebastian Smythe and what he did at Book of Mormon? This friend of yours, she is trained, isn't she?"
"Oh she certainly is, and the fact is that you have probably heard her sing at least once before now without even knowing who she was or seeing her…" With that, Mason headed for the door with the Rockefeller Center as his destination, leaving the director to ponder what he had meant, and who on earth he was heading to talk to…
Mason's destination was only ten blocks or so north of the director's offices, and it was a journey that would take Mason no time at all. As he walked, he suddenly had a terrible thought; what if the person he was heading for was not there, their usual venue altered that morning? He pulled out his phone, and as he walked, dialled the contact number he had for the reception area. A few quick words informed him that they were in the building, and a bit of sweet talk got the person that had answered his call to arrange for them to be waiting for him at the stage door. Then he was there, standing in front of the iconic Radio City Music Hall, and not longer after that he was heading in the stage door of the same venue, to find his quarry waiting there for him.
"Is Jane okay? Has she gone into labour?" were the first words to come out of Marley's mouth, and then she shook her head and laughed. "Ignore me; if she was in labour then you would be there with her, not here looking for me! That of course does leave me wondering exactly why you are here, and what was quite so urgent."
"Marley, do you recall the day, many years ago, when I received a phone call from an agitated Sebastian, telling me to get to the Eugene O'Neill Theater as he needed me right away? Well, today I am playing the part of Sebastian in that scenario. I need you to help me, Marley. There is a big problem, and I think that you might be the one that can solve it, although it is a big ask. What I am going to ask you to do is potentially going to turn your whole world upside down…"
Marley looked a little startled, then said, "I am not quite sure I understand, Mason…"
"What I need is for you to come with me right now, and I need you to sing. I mean, is that even possible?"
"Normally, it wouldn't be, but today actually… Between us, we aren't going to be rehearsing today; in fact, my job is more or less certainly at an end. There is someone new in charge at the network, and they have reviewed everything, and we are no longer going to be funded, as we are an 'old fashioned, outdated period piece that has no place in the modern era', to quote the lovely woman in a suit that was here not twenty minutes ago…"
Mason was at once conflicted, as he could see how upset Marley was, but then, it was also the best timing ever. "That is awful, but it also isn't… Maybe I am actually your fairy godfather, and this is all meant by those up above. Go and get your coat and bag; I will explain everything to you as we head back downtown…"
It was just a shade over fifty minutes after he had left that Mason opened the door to show Marley into the building that housed the director's offices. Marley had listened, and was now in shock, not sure if the task was something she could do. As they headed up in the elevator, Mason suddenly had another wild idea, and he pressed the button for the floor below their original destination. Getting out of the elevator, he dragged his friend into the room in which they had already began to accumulate costume and props before the theater was available.
The wardrobe assistant that was staffing the room had looked at him and laughed when he first made his request, but then when he realised that Mason was being totally serious, he went to fetch the articles in question. When she saw them, Marley was even more surprised, but agreed to his plan anyway, shaking her head occasionally. With everything in place, and the wardrobe assistant having agreed happily to take care of Marley's own coat and bag, they headed up to the next floor. Mason walked in to see the PA still sitting at her desk. When he walked in she looked up; when she saw the person following him her eyes widened, and then the frown on her face changed into a smile." On first appearance, it's a definite yes!" she whispered, then nodded him towards the door.
"Okay, Marley, give me two minutes, then knock on the door with the umbrella handle, walk in, and deliver the lines that I suggested to you in the voice that you used last night. You can do this - after all, Anything Can Happen If You Let It…"
The PA shook her head at his use of a song from the show, smiling in any case, and crossed her fingers. Mason walked into the office, closing the door behind him, to find that there were five people in there; the director, the actresses that were to play Mrs Banks, and Mrs Brill, the cook, Cooper and Adam. "Alright, guv'nor!" said Mason in his best cockney accent, "So I went on me mission, and I might just have found the answer to all of your prayers…"
"That voice is still uncanny," said Cooper with a grin. Meanwhile the director nodded, and the three others in the room, all appraised of the issue, looked at Mason in anticipation. When he said nothing, the director opened his mouth to speak, but before he could do so, there was a sharp rap at the door, and it swung open.
"Good Morning! I am here in answer to your advertisement in The Times for a nanny for Jane and Michael Banks. Has the position been filled?"
There was a stunned silence as Marley stood there in an ankle length red wool coat, a hat pinned to her hair, and holding an umbrella with a bird's head handle. Cooper burst into a smile, knowing of course who she was, and thinking that not only was it perfect, it might even be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The two actresses looked at Marley, then at each other, wondering what on earth was going on. Adam meanwhile just gawped, because everything about the young lady that had just arrived was spot on. As for the director, he could see a young woman of the right age, the right build, with the right kind of face, the exact speaking voice, and at that moment, the correct attire, down to her very sensible shoes.
"Mr McCarthy, have you somehow managed to conjure up the real Mary Poppins?" he asked eventually, which broke the silence, and set everyone, including the PA that was watching from the door, laugh out loud.
"Well, I hope that I have found our Mary. This is Miss Marley Rose, a fellow alum of NYADA, and in fact, a fellow student at my high school back in Ohio. At the moment, she is the voice that you hear alongside the radio orchestra, but from what she has told me, that might not be the case for much longer…"
"The radio orchestra?" said the director thoughtfully. "My God, then I have heard her voice, and it is magnificent. She has a full range and a wonderful tone. God bless Ohio! Of course, we will have to have been seen to have held an audition to satisfy the backers, but yes, she might well be the answer to all of our prayers. Young lady, in answer to your question, no, the position has not been filled, but I think it might just have been now."
"I hope that I can live up to your expectations; however, it will be the first time since I graduated from NYADA that I have performed on a stage. My voice might be perfect, but my performance might not be spit spot. There is no point in having the right voice if I cannot act the role, or perform the choreography."
"Actually, Marley, I think that you will be just fine," said Cooper, giving his backing to the young lady from Lima.
There was, of course, no time to waste, and before long they had all repaired to the little room in which there was a piano and a handful of chairs. As well as being the director's PA, the young lady that manned the front desk was also an accomplished pianist, and thus it fell to her to accompany Marley. With all of her time in the radio orchestra, she was not as used now as she once had been to performing something new at a moment's notice, but with Mason silently willing her on, and Cooper giving her a thumbs up, she was able to perform with precision, and help from the others deputising for Michael and Jane, the whole of Practically Perfect, her brain reminding her at the same time of the importance of keeping her accent just so. She could see in her mind's eye the figure of Carmen Tibbideaux, always the sternest of taskmasters, telling her what she needed to do, reminding her of the voice she needed, and the facial expressions that suited the words and character.
With the first song done, Mason got up and whispered something in her ear, a reminder of a performance they had done as a class project when they were at NYADA together, an old English song from the era in which Mary Poppins was set. Mason then headed across to Adam, and whispered in his ear; he laughed, then got up and stood on the one side of Marley; Mason would stand on the other after he had spoken to the young lady at the piano, who thankfully knew the tune…
As this went on, the others in the room had watched, mildly bemused, until the moment that the pianist began to play the jaunty music of The Lambeth Walk. Mason took the lead in the lyrics, in full cockney accent, joined quickly by Marley and Adam. The steps of the accompanying dance were simple, and came back to Marley almost at once; Adam was a quick follow, and soon mastered the steps, performing alongside them as Sam had done all those years ago. Cooper began to sing along, his toes tapping to the music, as the trio in front of them danced with the energy that the music provided them with. And then it was all over, and they could relax and enjoy the applause of their small audience.
"So, what do we think?" asked the director, who had a big smile plastered across his face. "Have we stumbled upon our very own Mary here in New York? Can I now send a suitably polite and yet scathing note to a certain lady over in England, telling her that she is the problem, and now that we have replaced her, the show will triumph?"
The resounding yes from every person in the room had Marley blushing, but at the same time looking forward to the moment when she could call her mom and tell her that she had just been cast as a lead on Broadway…