[ FANFIC ] An Unexpected Broadway Visitor (6×13)
By Wilde Abrams
== Richard Rogers Auditorium, New York – Late Spring 2020
Michael Chang entered the vast Broadway auditorium and found his way to his seat near the center and only a handful of rows beyond the orchestra pit. He hoped that the extra expense he’s incurred in getting such a good seat would make it easier for him to spot the person he’d been looking for, the person he’s come all the way to New York to see, in the hopes that she would be able to help him win back the heart of the love of his life.
As he scanned the cast on stage, looking for those familiar features he found her rather quickly. She had changed a bit over the years and was of course in costume, including period hair and makeup, but it was undeniably her. As he settled in to enjoy the show, he only hoped that she would be willing and able to assist him in his quest.
Kitty Wilde was really enjoying herself. After nearly a year on Broadway she had finally won the female lead in the Broadway edition of Rock Of Ages, the 80’s rock musical. After graduating from NYU with a Theater Arts degree the previous spring, Rachel Berry had performed some introductions and gotten Kitty her first role as an understudy. After a few months of that, a week long case or the flu for the woman Kitty was understudying got her exposure and shortly thereafter she was offered a secondary role and position as understudy for several of the main characters in ROA. Eventually when the woman playing Sherrie had been offered a position as the lead in another brand new musical, Kitty had been selected to take her place.
The musical was full of popular uptempo 80’s songs and Kitty relished every performance. She had worked so hard to get to this point! All it had cost her was the love of her life.
As Kitty sang the final song of the evening she glanced out into the crowd and her eyes happened to catch on a set of familial features. It took her a few moments to recognize them, but they unmistakably belonged to her old friend and sometimes mentor.
After the performance was over Mike made his way to the backstage doors, hoping to talk to Kitty, but he was stopped by the bouncer.
“My name is Mike Chang, and I’m here to see Kitty Wilde,” he told the tall muscular man guarding the entrance. “We went to the same high school. Can you tell her that I’m here?”
“That’s what they all say,” the behemoth told him, continuing to counter every move Mike made to get past him, blocking his way.
“Look,” he plead. “Trust me. Just tell her I’m here. She will know me. I was for choreographer of her very first musical, a high school production of Grease!”
But the man still wasn’t convinced.
Mike continued to try to convince him for several more minutes, but for bouncer still wasn’t budging. He was starting to lose hope when a familiar sounding voice said, “It’s okay Andrew, let him in.”
The voice belonged to none other than Kitty Wilde.
Mike smiled when he saw her. The bouncer gave out a grunt and reluctantly stepped said for Mike to pass. Mike smiled and gave Kitty a brief hug before she lead him deep into the bowels of the backstage area to her private dressing room.
“Oh my God Kitty that was amazing!” He told her. “If only Mercedes Jones could see her now!”
“Actually,” Kitty informed him, “Mercedes has seen me twice, as has Rachel, and in fact so has most of the glee club alumni have seen me at least once.”
“Oh,” he responded with surprise.
“You’ve been out of touch for quite a while,” she reminded him.
“True enough,” he told her.
The two of them launched into a conversation about what had been going on since they’d last seen each other.
“As awesome as it is to catch up this isn’t really the reason I’m here.”
She sighed, “I didn’t think so.”
“Tina and Artie are,” he finished.
“Not my favorite subject these days…” She said sadly.
“So is it true? Are they together?” He asked sadly.
“I’m not completely sure,” she told them. “They aren’t ‘Facebook Official’ but they arrived together, and there was definitely something going on between them at Rachel’s Tony party. They were definitely giving off that ‘couply’ vibe, and when I hugged him after Rachel’s win, Tina gave me an icy glare.”
“I don’t understand,” he told her. “I thought the two of you got back together at Brittany and Santana’s wedding?”
“We did,” she told him. “But the exact status of our relationship wasn’t clear at first, and after you turned down her proposal she and Artie agreed to one of those “if neither of us are married in ten years” things. Then she began giving off hints that her feelings for him were more than friendly whenever we saw her. When we talked about it, he blew it off and told me I didn’t have anything to worry about.
“When I moved to New York for college and Artie and I moved in together, things started to go really well for us. Tina was in college at Brown so things on that front seemed to settle down. Artie finished college two years later and began working on some small budget films here and occasionally other parts of the country, but he kept coming back here when he was done because I was here. Our relationship changed, but overall things were still going well.
“When I graduated and started working on Broadway, a little over a year ago, things began to change even more. He hadn’t realized what a commitment even being an understudy was. He wanted me to branch out into doing films as well, but I was always busy.
“We had a big fight about it and eventually decided that we needed to take a break, and re evaluate our relationship and priorities. He accepted the position of director on a film that took him out of the country to Toronto for several months. When he got back things between us were still strained and felt different. The producers he had worked with in Toronto agreed to finance and produce a film Artie had written with Mercedes in mind for the lead. Unfortunately she was unavailable because of her touring schedule.”
“Yeah,” he told her. “I seem to remember hearing something about that.”
“With Mercedes unavailable he approached me about it, but I had just won the understudy position for the lead in Rock of Ages, and the writing was on the wall that I’d likely be selected as her replacement when she moved on. If I left it would mean giving that up for a lead in a low budget Indie movie, and this was a huge opportunity for me, so I told Artie no. As you saw tonight, it turned out that I was right.
“We had the biggest fight we’d ever had and he accused me of not supporting his career and I accused him of not caring about mine. I’ve never seen him so angry and I was in tears. The next day he changed his Facebook status to ‘It’s Complicated’.
“Eventually he cast Tina in the role, and the next time I saw him he was kind of distant with me, and then when I saw them at Rachel’s party they gave off that ‘coupley’ vibe and she was even more cold to me than before.
“Clearly she took advantage of our fight and their close working relationship to get herself closer to him.”
“That’s what it sounds like,” he told her.
“Why do you even care?” Kitty asked.
“Because I want her back,” he told her
“What is it with you Glee Club alumni?” She asked, furrowing her brow. “You’re all so flakey. You launch off into the world to pursue your dreams, but whenever you hit a roadblock or decide that you want something new you come back and expect everyone left behind to jump to your whim and be happy to see you and help you get your heart’s desire. Then when you get bored or get what you want you take off again, not to be heard from for months or years until you want something or something else comes up to derail you and the cycle starts over again.”
“Life happens, Kitty,” he told her. “My career is important to me but so is my personal life. Tina has always been an important part of my life.”
“Oh, really?” She said. “Let’s review, shall we? You broke up with Tina after you graduated and then came back as choreographer for Grease and didn’t even give your ex the heads up.”
“Actually she broke up with me-”
“Like it matters,” she countered. “The point is you were both still recovering from a pretty painful breakup.
“Then the two of you decide that there is still spark between you and agree to try again. But you don’t. Every time you come back you put zero effort into rekindling your relationship. Then after she graduated you lead her on by entering a creepy texting relationship. Finally after like a year she takes matters into her own hands and proposes to you and you turn her down flat-”
“-I didn’t turn her down flat,” he explained. “I told her that I loved her and that I wasn’t ready to get married.”
“Like that’s any different. Bottom line it’s a repeat of the same pattern.”
“No it’s not.”
“Yes it is.”
“No, it’s not. … dammit I love her!”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I need your help to win her back ”
“And why should I help you?”
“Because you still love Artie and want him back too.”
She just sat there staring at him. She wanted to tell him he was wrong, but couldn’t lie to him anymore than she could lie to herself.
After a few moments of silence she asked
“What do you want me to do?”
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