Last night was the second (annual?) Waterwell Cabaret Benefit at Joe’s Pub.  It started off good, and I was definitely having a fun time, until the evening came to an abrupt end in the most random and disappointing of ways.  Not even halfway through the set, while the lovely Hanna Cheek introduced the next song, a large portion of the attendees began noisily making their way toward the door.  When the disruption finally couldn’t be ignored any longer, she asked what was going on, and it turned out there was a fire downstairs, and the room was filling up with smoke.  Awesome.  The ensemble did their best to persuade the audience not to retrieve their coats and to wait in the lounge next door until the smoke was cleared, but eventually we had to be evacuated as the fire department axed their way through the floor of the venue.

Words can’t express how bad I feel for these guys.  All the schmoozing and crazy amounts of organizing that it took to set up this show, with all the sponsors and performers and auction items and everything, and it all ends because of a stupid fire.  I didn’t see anyone buying a 50/50 raffle ticket on their way out either.  The thing is, it’s incredibly expensive to put on an independent off-Broadway show, and the proceeds from the benefit were going to be a big part of the funding for this year’s show.  So if you have any tax refund money left over that you don’t know what to do with, or if a wealthy relative unexpectedly dies and leaves you with a huge inheritance, it would be really cool if you could head on over to waterwell.org and put a drop in the bucket.  And if you STILL have money left over, there’s a sale at Threadless!  Wooo.