That’s the name of a new series of stories I’m discovering and remembering.
I met Emma Powell at the Hong Kong Fringe Club last night. She played Rosie in the cast of Mamma Mia when I worked on that show in Adelaide 2004. At drinks after Flat on your Bacharach she was telling me that halfway through her flight from Australia there had been an announcement on the loudspeaker asking if there was a doctor on board. Shortly thereafter she noticed that the navigation page on the screen in front of her changed from reading 5 hours to landing to 50 minutes. The plane had been re-routed to Manila to get one of the passengers to a hospital.
It’s great that the airline was able to do that for their passenger. I hope that they got the treatment they needed and have a speedy recovery. Emma said there wasn’t too much moaning and groaning from the other passengers on the plane. No doubt it meant that some of them would miss their planned connection flights etc but they obviously understood the greater good that was being served.
I did stop and wonder how I would have felt if that had been the plane that my colleague Melissa was booked on. Due to illness of one of our dear friend Jo, who had been working wonderfully at rehearsing the show with us in the lead up to our trip to Hong Kong and then wasn’t able to sing, we had postponed the opening of our season at the City Festival. Mel who hadn’t come with us initially due to other commitments in Australia very generously jumped on a plane in the very early hours of yesterday morning. She left Adelaide as the sun came up and flew to Melbourne and then on to Hong Kong. She landed in Hong Kong around 6pm local time and after clearing immigration and customs was in at the Fringe Club by 7.30pm. Which left her with ample time to have a bite to eat and collect her thoughts before we went on stage at 9.30pm. Obviously it was cutting it quite fine and I am amazed at how great Mel was at that performance. We had a great audience who were with us all the way – singing beautifully by the end of the show!
But what if she’d been on the same flight as Emma the day before and had ended up spending an hour in Manila on the way? The night would have ended VERY differently.
Tags: Emma Powell, Flat on your Bacharach, Hong Kong Fringe Club, Libby O'Donovan, Mamma Mia, Melissa McCaig
