By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
Chip.Chandler@actx.edu
One of my favorite concert experiences was one that almost didn’t happen.
In 2014, Broadway and TV star Megan Hilty was booked to perform for Amarillo Little Theatre’s summer benefit concert, but a storm back east and mechanical difficulties on her plane left her stranded in Charlotte, N.C. ALT supporter Seth Williams picked her and husband/guitarist Brian Gallagher up in his private plane and got them to town right around the time the show was scheduled to start.
Eventually, Hilty – who also was about 6 months pregnant at the time – was only about a half-hour late for the show and wound up giving one of the best performances for the fundraiser that I can remember.
Turns out, Hilty still remembers the concert well, too. In a joint interview with Gallagher for Playbill that went online Sunday, the duo recalls the show:
Do you have any good stories from the road?
BG: We had a show one night in Amarillo, TX.
MH: I was very pregnant.
BG: We were supposed to fly out the day before, but there was a huge storm and our flight got canceled. It looked like we were going to have to cancel the show, but they sent a private plane to Charlotte to pick us up. We were in the air when the show was supposed to start. When we landed there was a car waiting to pick us up and drive us to the venue.
MH: I was still wearing my maternity pants and shirt and a jean jacket. Somebody let me borrow heels at the theatre.
BG: The one thing she refused to do was to walk onstage without heels, so someone at the theatre provided her with heels. She literally walked onstage wearing a huge sweatshirt, jean jacket and heels.
MH: It wasn’t a sweatshirt. It was a nice maternity shirt. I didn’t look like a hobo or anything.
BG: You didn’t not look like a hobo.
That “someone” was Amarillo actress Terry Robertson-Baker, who had just played the role Hilty, whom you may remember from NBC’s “Smash,” had originated in the musical version of “9 to 5.”
It’s doubtful that this summer’s special performer will need similar footwear. Amarillo native J.D. Souther, a musical legend who helped build the California country-rock scene, will perform at 8 p.m. June 11 at the ALT Mainstage, 2019 Civic Circle. Tickets go on sale May 2.
