‘Oh my god, this is the best thing ever,’ he said breathlessly.
‘See, I told you it’d be all right on the night, didn’t I?’
‘I’ll never doubt you again.’
The show was a triumph, a lively, perfectly balanced mix of humour, pathos and sentimentality. The audience laughed, sang and shed a tear or two, swept along on a wave of joyous festive cheer, and the actors exchanged elated smiles as the curtain fell, knowing it couldn’t have gone better.
‘How did you enjoy your stage debut, Sam?’ Mimi asked him as they stood in the wings. They could hear the audience applaud as the members of the ensemble took their bows.
Sam shook his head, his face split by a grin. ‘It beats watching hands down. It’s the best thing there is, right?’
‘Absolutely,’ Mimi said with an approving look.
‘I wish we could do it all again right now.’
‘Well, pace yourself,’ Mimi said drily. ‘You’ll be doing it again and again for the next two months.’
‘Can’t wait!’ Sam said, undaunted.
Then it was their turn. Sive took his hand and they ran onto the stage to take their curtain calls. The applause got gradually louder as more and more actors took to the stage, reaching a crescendo when Mitch and then Donal joined them and the audience rose to their feet.
They were holding the after-show party at the theatre, but there were too many people between cast, crew and invited guests to squeeze into the green room, so they were having it on the stage. While the performers changed out of their costumes and adjusted their hair and make-up, Cara and her team of stagehands transformed the stage, joining a series of trestle tables along its length that they covered with cloths and adorned with an assembly of candelabras and decorative centrepieces. They unpacked boxes of glasses from the local pub and laid out the food that Chloe had provided.
By the time Sive returned to the stage, the party was already well underway, members of the company mingling with invited guests who had been in the audience. She immediately spotted Irene, Ciara and Maria chatting, glasses of wine in hand, while their respective charges tore around the stage.
‘Congratulations, Alex!’ she called after him as he raced past. ‘You were great.’
He gave her a wave of acknowledgement as he headed for the wings pursued by Jack.
She joined the Tiny Tim chaperones and was introduced to Maria’s husband and James’s parents who had seen the show for the first time tonight and were enthusiastic in their praise. She in turn was able to tell them with complete sincerity how marvellous their children were and what a joy they’d been to work with.
‘I see Jack’s off his crutches,’ she said to Ciara. ‘The plan worked, then?’
‘Like a charm! Thank you. That eel pie was a stroke of genius.’
‘I must say, I did feel rotten doing it to him.’
‘Oh, don’t worry about that. He didn’t eat a bite of it, and honestly, I think he’s relieved to give up the whole Method thing. It was getting him down not being able to run around like the other kids. The idea of missing out on a pizza was the last straw.’
Sive had invited Ben’s parents to the opening night, and she spotted them on the far side of the stage, glad to see they’d come. She excused herself and made her way over to them.
‘Thank you so much for coming.’ She kissed them both in turn.
‘Thank you for the tickets,’ Bridget said. ‘It was wonderful!’
‘It was,’ Cal said. ‘Terrific!’
‘It was so lovely and Christmassy – really put you in the spirit, didn’t it?’ Bridget said to her husband.
Cal nodded. ‘And the mince pies were fantastic.’
Bridget rolled her eyes and Sive laughed.
‘Where did it say they came from?’ Cal frowned, consulting the programme in his hand.
‘The Halfpenny Place, the bakery on the corner,’ Sive told him.
‘We’ll have to pay a visit,’ Cal said to Bridget.
