tribute to an outstanding performer

You know how every once in a while you go to a show, expecting it to be fine (but not mind blowing -- you are a jaded New York actor, afterall), and the show will turn out middling at best, but one performer will just jump out at you and stay with you for hours and hours afterwards?
That happened to me this weekend with the Brick Theater's production of Greed: A Musical Love $tory and one colossal performance from Moira Stone.

I've been friends with Moira for a few years, and I saw her play Amalia in She Loves Me at Hofstra a while ago, and she was terrific. But in Greed, she's outstanding. The show itself made little to no sense to me, the songs and lyrics were extremely odd, and while there were moments that were very entertaining, what I would go back to see is the way Moira can sing lines that make no sense without even looking like she's acting. It's unreal. And her voice is outrageous.

In one scene, her character is sitting on a subway car with a microphone in front of her in which to voice her inner thoughts. They generally don't make anything resembling sense (I wish I could quote one here to show you, but I can't remember any of them), but Moira pulls off these monolouges with such skill that you begin to believe that that's precisely what the accountant in the suit sitting across from you on the ride home is thinking. These mumbly, rambling passages that often have just syllables masquerading as words make all the sense in the world to her, and you begin to buy it, too.

But the moment in the show that refuses to leave my head comes when Moira's character, Lydie Bloom (I think), goes to a Chinese restaurant by herself and eats dinner. The scene goes on about five minutes, during which nothing more happens than the pianist plays The Rose, and Moira eats Chinese food alone. The pathos, the overwhelming loneliness and isolation of the scene is soul-crushing, and not once do you ever feel like Moira is even acting.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

Please, casting people of the world, discover Moira. She is an undeniable talent that I would watch in marathon readings of the phone book.