"We are born astride a grave - WaynesWorldStage.com

disorder was out of remission. She had beenadmitted to the hospital for tests and observation.She was being transferred to the critical care unitat Sloan Kettering. Someone needed to be thereto check her in and pay the ambulance drivers.Pay the ambulance drivers? I swear to God that'swhat they told me. My sister was in criticalcondition and they wanted to make sure thatsomeone was there to pay cash to the ambulancedrivers. I guess they feared that if she died, theywouldn’t get paid.Reason, at this point, would say cancel theshow. But this was an Off-Broadway productionunder the auspices of the unions. There werecontracts that could not be broken. "The showmust go on" is not an old saying; it's a uniondemand.I got a call from our press agent sayingthat John Simon of New York Magazine couldn’tmake it on opening night. He wanted to come thatnight. "But this is our first rehearsal on stagewith props and costumes," I said. "I urge you tolet him come," the press agent said. I told him,“If Simon comes tonight, He must agree to statein anything he writes that he saw a rehearsal, nota performance. He must not pretend he was at aperformance and write a review."314