“I’m sorry,” I said, standing over her table as she ate shrimp cocktail, “I couldn’t help but notice you from across the restaurant.”

I never just walked up to someone famous and told them how much they meant to me.

“You’re Angela Lasbury, right? Of course you are.” Of course she was. Who could mistake the incomparable beauty of Angela Lansbury?

“I just wanted to say that you’ve meant the world to me.” She has. It was probably cliché to tell her but it is so true. “I went into musical theater because of you and now, well, my life is so complete.”

I was eating dinner with my friends and co-founders of the theater we created, our space being downtown near the arts commission office.

“It started simply enough. I was cast in Pippin and then Guys and Dolls, and then in so many musicals I can’t even think of them all. From The King and I to Cats to Sundays in the Park With George. I was really good in that.” And I was. “And it’s because of you, Ms. Lansbury. When I was a kid I saw you in the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks. You were so great! Then I saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and it truly, honestly inspired me.”

How could it not? Angela Lansbury’s performance was nothing short of miraculous. “And that inspiration, you, Ms. Lansbury, spurred me to try out for all those musicals, pushing me to go to Julliard, got me to Broadway, helped pave the way to establish my own theater company.” It was doing well. We were at dinner to hash out the coming seasons’ productions. “Well, I won’t keep you, Ms. Lansbury, but I just wanted to tell you how marvelous you are and how much you’ve meant to me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!”

She looked up at me with those bright beautiful eyes of hers. “I’m not Angela Lansbury. My name is Lois. I work at Home Depot.”

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