THE LITTLE MAN

Since I moved to the fair city of San Francisco. I have been so amused by this Little Man. When I first moved here I remember pouring over the theatre reviews, trying to decide what to see and since I did not know the "scene" I was dependent on "the little man" to tell me what was good. I would say to my self, "gosh, should I see the new Charles Mee show at Berkeley Rep?, Well "the little man" is standing on his chair and he looks ecstatic. It must be good.

You see in DC, we did not have any such thing, there were no pictures of Peter Marks or Lloyd Rose, jumping out of their seats in an ecstasy of applause at Shakespeare Theatre's latest offering and honestly, I have met both of them and neither one of them are as cute as "the little man"

"The Little Man" was my own private thing I called it, in my head. I was sure he had a name or something that I did not know about. I was not "in the know". So I called him "The Little Man" It seemed like a nice enough name and it described him. He was little and he was indeed a man.

"The Little Man" can tell you a lot about performance. If he is sitting there with no reaction. Then the play ain't that great. If he is asleep, then its a stinker (or perhaps, he has gone on vacation and my father has taken over reviewing theatre. My father once turned to me during the play we do not mention in our family, and complained "this play is so bad I cant even sleep through it" ) If he is clapping politely, then its good but its not earth shaking or anything. If he is jumping on his seat like Tom Cruise on crack and clapping wildly, then it is something that is not worth missing.

Recently, I got an email from an actor friend of mine who is pretty savvy about sending emails out every time he has a play or a movie out. The title of the email read"reviews are out! The little man ecstatic about Our lady of 121st street!". And it struck me, that little character, is just called "the little man". Its not Clarence or Bob or Topher, It is "The Little Man" I was right all the time, that was his name. I was so excited to learn this. Somehow, I felt like I was "in the know" all the time.

In general I think that The Chronicle is a pretty crappy news paper, especially in comparison to The Washington Post, which I have been reading for over a decade, But that little man is so darn cute, I know he could never steer me wrong.