| All That Jazz |
| Saturday morning, Lennie crawled out of bed early, careful not to disturb Jack. It was a good thing he could still 'program' himself to wake up early without an alarm clock when he had to. Closing the bedroom door behind him, he ducked into the bathroom. He rummaged in the back of the linen closet for the package he'd secreted there yesterday � hair color. Once in the shower, he followed the instructions, making sure the dye was well distributed. He washed up while waiting the required time, then leaned back to rinse the stuff out. When he was finished, he got out and quickly dried off, avoiding the mirror at first. Finally he couldn't put it off any longer. The face that looked back at him was one from his past. Damn if he didn't look 20 years younger! He grabbed a comb and slicked it back, admiring the effect. This might just work after all! Wrapping a towel around his waist and gathering the 'evidence' of the dye job into a plastic grocery bag, he exited the bathroom. He'd stashed his clothes for today in the guest room so he could dress without waking Jack. Once dressed, he crept quietly down stairs. The grocery bag he buried in the trash can underneath the remains of last night's dinner delivery. He didn't even bother to make coffee, wanting to get out as quietly as possible. He left a note for Jack on the fridge under a magnet telling him he'd be gone most of the day, not to worry, poured some food into Shadow's dish, and slipped out the door. The auditions were being held in the rec center at One Police Plaza, in what was usually a basketball court. Lennie was surprised at how many people had turned out for the auditions. A very large number of younger cops, physically fit and in their prime. And he had a chance? // What the hell, Briscoe, you're here. Give it your best shot. // There was a sign in sheet, asking for name, rank/assignment, and role you were auditioning for. He glanced over the list, surprised to see some familiar names. And not all were police. Looked like several folks from the DA's office, some from the ME's office, and a variety of other related agencies were represented as well. Hesitantly, he decided that for the moment he'd leave the 'retired' part off and just say he was a homicide detective. If anybody asked, he could say he'd retired after taking a bullet on the job. It was the truth, anyway. After signing in, he wandered over to the bleachers and took a seat, looking around. Off to the left, the choreographer was working with a group of young women mostly dressed in tights and leg warmers. There were one or two guys there as well. Lennie chuckled as he realized why they had opened the auditions to the other agencies � where the hell were they going to find six good-looking young male cops willing to admit they were dancers? Even if they had the talent, it would be suicide to admit it! Off to the right somebody had set up an electronic keyboard. Several people were gathered around it, presumably the director and others involved in the decision process. That was where he�d eventually end up. It looked like they were just getting ready to hear the first singers. �Well, fancy meeting you here!� Lennie looked up at the familiar voice of Anita Van Buren. �Hey, Lieutenant! What are you doing here?� She laughed and sat down beside him. �Same thing you are, I guess! How�ve you been, Lennie?� He shrugged. �Hanging in there. So what role are you auditioning for?� �Mama. What about you? You are going for Billy Flynn, aren't you?" Lennie blushed; but her enthusiasm bolstered his confidence. "Yeah, I am." Having a friend to chat with certainly made the morning go much quicker than it would have otherwise. Eventually the dancers moved into another room when the voice auditions were ready to begin. They sat and listened to a steady stream of singers of varying quality. Some were clearly wishful thinkers. But some were amazingly good. One in particular blew Lennie away. A woman with long curly dark hair who Lennie didn�t recognize let loose with the show�s opening number, �All That Jazz.� A rich throaty alto, with amazing power behind it. She moved well, too, really getting into the spirit of the song: �Come on, babe, why don't we paint the town �. And all that Jazz!� When she was finished, everybody in the room knew who would be playing Velma. Lennie looked at Anita. �Tracy Kibre, I think they said? You know her?� Anita shook her head. �I think she works in the DA�s office. Jack probably knows her.� The group around the keyboard finished conferring and called the next name on the list: �Lennie Briscoe!� // Shit, I gotta follow THAT act? // Lennie took a deep breath as Anita squeezed his hand for luck. �Knock �em dead, Lennie.� He smiled at her, grateful for a friendly face, and walked over to the director. �Hi, Lennie. I�m Anthony Stevens, I�ll be directing the PBA show. So, you�re a Homicide detective? First thing I�ve got to ask is are you sure you can commit to the hours this is going to require?� Time to hedge. �Well, to tell you the truth, I�m retired. Took a bullet in the line of duty last year. Decided I�d risked my life enough.� �OK, that�s much better. I don�t want to disqualify anybody because of their job, but there are jobs, and there are JOBS in this line of work, you know?� Lennie just nodded. �OK, so what part are you auditioning for?� He hesitated � Amos was easier. But he wanted the meatier role. And he'd already told Anits � �Billy Flynn.� �All right. Which song?� �Razzle Dazzle� �OK, Lennie, go for it.� The accompanist played a few bars intro and nodded to him to jump in. Give 'em the old razzle dazzle Razzle dazzle 'em Give 'em act with lots of flash in it And the reaction will be passionate Give 'em the old hocus pocus Bread and feather 'em How can they see with sequins in their eyes? What if your hinges all are rusting? What if, in fact, you're just disgusting ? Razzle dazzle 'em And they'll never catch wise! Eh Eh Eh Eh Ah! Ah! Ah! Give 'em the old razzle dazzle Lennie put everything he had into that performance, turning on the charm, making eye contact with his audience, getting into the part of the slimeball lawyer. He hadn�t done anything like this since high school. God it was fun! When it was over, he was pleased to see heads nodding. // Maybe I�ve got a chance after all! // The director smiled at him. �Lennie, that was great. You�re welcome to stay and watch the auditions or head out and grab some lunch. At 1:00 we�ll post a list of who�s asked back for a second hearing, we�ll start those around 1:30.� Lennie had a feeling from the director�s tone that he�d be one of them, but he tried not to let himself get too excited just yet. So he nodded, said �Thanks!� and headed back to sit beside Anita in the bleachers. She grinned broadly at him. �Lennie! Where have you been hiding that voice all this time! That was amazing!� He couldn�t help smiling at her praise. �Thanks, Lieutenant.� She glared at him. �When are you gonna stop calling me that?� He nodded, chastised. �Anita.� �That�s better.� Her smile reappeared. They sat together for the rest of the morning listing to the �competition.� By the time they finished the first round, Anita was certain he was by far the best Billy Flynn they�d heard. Which was fair, because Lennie thought she was the best �Mama� too. He'd thoroughly enjoyed her performance of "When You're Good to Mama," especially the verse that went: They say that life is tit for tat And that's the way I live So, I deserve a lot of tat For what I've got to give She even gave a shake of her shoulders, emphasizing her ample bosom. Lennie chuckled, thinking that she was a natural for the part. When the last singer finished, he looked at her. "Well, now we wait. Want to go get some lunch?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jack rolled over and suddenly realized he had way too much room in the bed. His eyes opened and confirmed the fact that Lennie wasn't there. That was odd � He stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. Lennie's towel was wet; obviously he was already up. Jack quickly showered and shaved, looking forward to the fact that at least there would be coffee waiting downstairs. He was surprised at how quiet it was as he descended the stairs. Lennie usually had something on the stereo even if he was just sitting in the living room reading. Not a sound greeted him as he called out, "Lennie?," except for a soft "meow?" from Shadow. The cat was curled up in a patch of sun on the sofa, not demanding food, so Lennie must have fed her. Perplexed, Jack wandered into the kitchen only to find the coffee maker cold. Grumbling, he put on a pot. What would have made Lennie leave before coffee? He finally noticed the note stuck to the fridge with a magnet. Which told him nothing. What the hell was going on? When the coffee was ready, Jack fixed himself a large mug and headed out to the front door to retrieve the morning paper. As he bent down to pick it up, a rather oversized fly buzzed into the room. Shadow's head perked up at the sound, and the great grey huntress sprung into action. Jack had to laugh � for such a tiny little cat, she thought she was a tiger when something that looked like prey showed up! She leaped off the couch, chasing the bug into the kitchen. Jack heard the unmistakable sound of claws clattering on the linoleum as she lost her footing on the slippery floor of the kitchen, then a 'thud' that made him groan. He put his coffee and paper down and followed the sound. Somehow, the 9-pound cat had managed to knock over the kitchen trash can. She sat there by her food dish, trying to look innocent. 'Who, me? No, I didn�t do that!' Jack groaned as he saw the mess. The bag from last night's dinner delivery was halfway across the kitchen floor. And behind it was a plastic grocery bag with a box halfway out of it. As Jack grabbed it to toss it back into the trash he realized it was a box of men's hair color. With an empty bottle inside. He lost track of how long he stood there staring at it before he finally tossed it angrily back into the trash and finished picking up the rest of the mess. By the time he got back to the living room, his coffee was cold. Disgusted, he headed back into the kitchen and poured a new cup, then finally went back to his paper. But he couldn't concentrate even on the headlines. // Why would Lennie dye his hair? Is there somebody he's trying to impress? Is that who he's with now? Somebody younger? // Jack knew he'd been pulling a lot of long hours lately, and that Lennie wasn't exactly pleased about it. He'd said he was 'restless.' Then there had been the questions about Abbie. Had Jack gone back to his old habits of dating assistants? He'd tried to reassure Lennie, but it didn't seem to have done any good. He thought about how much his life had changed in the past year. If things hadn't gone the way they did, if he and Lennie hadn't gotten together, he probably would have made a pass at Abbie Carmichael. She was very beautiful, and very intelligent. He liked sparring with her at work. // Well, if Lennie can have a young stud on the side, why can't you have her? // He felt a stab of guilt at the thought, but then the anger came back. Lennie was the one who was out impressing some young romeo. Why should he sit at home alone, waiting? He got up and retrieved his brief case, digging out his cell phone. She had given him her cell number � ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lennie and Anita pushed their way through the mob of mostly disappointed people to the gymnasium doors until they got close enough to see the list of four names under each character. Or at least, Lennie could see them; Anita was too short to see over the person in front of her. She felt his hand tighten on her arm. "Hey! We're both there!" Then Lennie was tugging her along as he pushed out of the throng to stand off to the side, grinning like an idiot. She grinned back at him. "You wouldn't kid a girl, would you?" "Not a chance! We made it!" For the moment, they both managed to forget their past as boss and employee as Anita grabbed him in a bear hug. Eventually, the crowed dissipated as most of the disappointed folks went home and got on with their weekend. The few lucky ones who remained were let back into the gym at about quarter of two. Looking around, Lennie realized that he was the oldest guy there by far. At first he was worried; how could he compete with them? Then he realized he already HAD competed with a lot more of them, and ended up in the final cut. Whatever else happened, he had gotten this far, and nobody could ever take that away from him. This time around they were given scripts and paired up to do some scenes from the show. Lennie faced off with a young woman auditioning for the lead role of Roxie Hart while Anita got teamed with ADA Tracy Kibre playing Velma. Once again, Lennie had more fun than he'd had in ages as he slipped into the role of the slimy defense attorney putting words into the mouth of his client. // Lord knows I've seen enough of them to base the performance on! // The final stage was another song. Lennie and his 'Roxie' were teamed up for "We Both Reached for the Gun," where Billy Flynn plays Roxie like a ventriloquist dummy, singing her lines in falsetto. Anita and Tracy Kiber did "Class." And then it was over. The director and the others on the decision team huddled together. Everybody else was hushed, not sure if the decisions would come now or if they'd have to wait. The hall seemed filled with nervous energy. Finally the director called them all together. "OK, folks, first of all I want to thank everybody for coming out today. You all did a great job, and I'm sorry we can't use all of you. But this is show business, and that's the way the game works. So. We'll be announcing the final choices and an understudy for each part." He consulted his clipboard, and slowly worked his way through the list of speaking/singing parts from smallest to largest. At each part was announced, the group got smaller, as the winners went off to celebrate and the losers consoled themselves. "Matron 'Mama' Morton. Understudy: Carrie Robertson. Performance: Anita Van Buren." Lennie thought he was going to lose the hearing in his left ear from the squeal she let out. Not to mention the bruises he was going to have on his arm where she was clutching it. But it didn't matter as he laughed and hugged her. "Way to go, Anita! Or should I call you 'Mama' now?" But then the director was speaking again. After announcing the role of Amos, he finally got to the big 'three': Billy Flynn, Velma, and Roxie. Lennie's heart was pounding as he waited. Now it was his turn to clutch Anita's arm. He didn't recognize the name of the understudy. And then he heard "Performance: Lennie Briscoe." "Holy shit �" he whispered softly. A lifelong dream was about to come true. He was gonna sing on Broadway! Continue on to Chapter 4 send me some feedback Back to the main Story Index Disclaimer: These characters belong to Dick Wolf and NBC; I'm just borrowing them for fun, not profit. |
| Chapter 3 |