HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GEORGE SAND

Just got an email from my BECOMING GEORGE book/lyrics collaborator Patti McKenny reminding me that today is George Sand's birthday. She writes:

"George Sand was born 202 years ago today. There was a party; her father was fiddling a dance; her mother was dancing in a rose-colored dress, and suddenly said "Excuse me." A short time later George's aunt came down and said "Maurice, you have a daughter. She was born to music and roses, she'll love a life of beauty.""

This is from the Delacroix portrait of Sand, which used to be a double portrait of Sand and her lover Frederic Chopin, until an unscrupulous art dealer thought he could make more money if he cut it down the middle. Our whizbang set designer Jen Price recreated a version of the double portrait for Sand's study in BECOMING GEORGE, for the scene where she hears Chopin's music (is it his ghost playing the piano?) and sings the ballad "Letters to the Night". It's one of the scenes/songs in the show that everyone remembers and loves best.

Our MetroStage producer Carolyn Griffin said that whenever Kat' Taylor sung it, the whole crew would stop whatever they were doing and stand in the wings to listen -- usually with tears running down their face. Every night. For six weeks.