SETTING:

The big top. It has been decorated for DAVID and ANGELA'S wedding.

AT RISE:

The ceremony is beginning. The bleachers are filled with the people of the circus. Many of the performers are in costume. DAVID is waiting at the front with the PRIEST. One by one SUE, TERRI, and TONI walk up the aisle with MR. BEANS, MAN 1, and MAN 2 respectively. THEY sing as THEY walk up the aisle. THEY split to either side as THEY reach the front, where DAVID and the PRIEST are waiting. MR. BEANS is the best man and stands closest to DAVID. SUE stands closest on the other side. LAURA is sitting with TIM. FIRENELLI cannot be seen.

SUE

HERE I AM, ONE MORE TIME,

ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID.

WHO WOULD EVER THINK TO SEE ME?

WILL IT EVER EVER BE ME?

ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID,

NEVER A BRIDE.

TERRI

LOOK AT ME, HERE I AM,

AT LAST, A BRIDESMAID.

I'LL CATCH THE BOUQUET. MAYBE, WHO CAN SAY?

AT LAST, A BRIDESMAID.

(SHE drops HER flowers and picks them up, embarrassed. FIRENELLI enters, unobtrusively.)

TOMORROW A BRIDE.

TONI

I WONDER HOW I LOOK?

I WONDER IF HE SEES ME?

THERE'LL BE A MAN SOMEDAY TO MAKE IT RIGHT.

HE'LL WANT ME ALL MY LIFE, NOT JUST ONE NIGHT.

SOMETIME A BRIDESMAID

MAY BE A BRIDE.

(ANGELA starts up the aisle with MIKLOS. THEY are partway up the aisle when FIRENELLI intercepts THEM. HE is dressed in a tuxedo. HE takes ANGELA'S arm from MIKLOS and continues up the aisle with ANGELA. MIKLOS sits.)

CHORUS

BRIDESMAIDS, BRIDESMAIDS,

ALL IN A ROW,

STANDING JUST SO,

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT

WEDDINGS AREN'T OVER WHEN

THIS ONE IS PAST,

BRIDESMAIDS TURN BRIDE

AT LAST.

BRIDESMAIDS, BRIDESMAIDS,

PRETTY AND SHY,

WONDERING WHY

EVERYONE CRIES, FOR

WEDDINGS AREN'T OVER WHEN

THIS ONE IS PAST,

BRIDESMAIDS TURN BRIDE

AT LAST.

(ANGELA reaches the front. SHE parts from HER FATHER and joins DAVID. The PRIEST begins the ceremony.)

SUE

I WONDER HOW I'D LOOK

WALKING DOWN THE AISLE?

TERRI

I WONDER IF I'D CRY?

TONI

I KNOW THAT I'D SMILE.

(Trio, each GIRL repeats HER own verse.)

SUE

HERE I AM, ONE MORE TIME,

ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID.

WHO WOULD EVER

THINK TO SEE ME?

WILL IT EVER EVER BE ME?

TOMORROW A BRIDE.

TERRI

LOOK AT ME, HERE I AM,

AT LAST, A BRIDESMAID.

I'LL CATCH THE BOUQUET.

MAYBE, WHO CAN SAY?

AT LAST, A BRIDESMAID.

TOMORROW A BRIDE.

TONI

I WONDER HOW I LOOK?

I WONDER IF HE SEES ME?

THERE'LL BE A MAN SOMEDAY

TO MAKE IT RIGHT.

HE'LL WANT ME ALL MY LIFE,

NOT JUST ONE NIGHT.

TOMORROW A BRIDE.

(The ceremony continues. DAVID and ANGELA taking the rings, etc.)

CHORUS

BRIDESMAIDS, BRIDESMAIDS,

ALL IN A ROW,

STANDING JUST SO,

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT

WEDDINGS AREN'T OVER WHEN

THIS ONE IS PAST,

BRIDESMAIDS TURN BRIDE

AT LAST.

BRIDESMAIDS, BRIDESMAIDS,

PRETTY AND SHY,

WONDERING WHY

EVERYONE CRIES, FOR

WEDDINGS AREN'T OVER WHEN

THIS ONE IS PAST,

BRIDESMAIDS TURN BRIDE...

PRIEST

Ego conjungo vos in matrimonium: In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

CHORUS

AT LAST.

(The PRIEST gestures to DAVID and ANGELA. DAVID lifts ANGELA'S veil and kisses her. THEY are covered under a shower of rice and cheers. A reception party begins immediately. There is music and constant motion as everyone moves to congratulate DAVID and ANGELA. As ANGELA is surrounded LAURA moves away, off by HERSELF, away from all the people.)

FIRENELLI

Champagne! Where is the champagne? We must have a toast! To David and Angela.

(FIRENELLI drinks a whole glass of champagne.)

Where is Laura?

(HE finds MR. BEANS instead.)

George! You must drink to David and Angela.

(FIRENELLI forces a glass on MR. BEANS and they drink together.)

David, it is a great day. The day you marry a Firenelli you become a Firenelli. Today, I am your Papa! Laura, you must come drink with us.

(FIRENELLI embraces DAVID.)

TERRI

Angela looks so pretty. I wish I was that pretty.

TONI

At your wedding you will be.

TERRI

Thank you!

(TONI is uncomfortable at having said anything nice to TERRI.)

TONI

But first you'll have to find a blind man to marry you.

FIRENELLI

Wait! I am not done yet. Laura? Tim? I drink to you, and I drink to Bobby. I am not the man I should be, but I am the Papa! To the Papa, and his family!

(HE drinks again.)

George. I have always thought you were the most funny clown in the circus. Every time I see you I laugh.

MR. BEANS

Do you? I laugh when I see you too.

FIRENELLI

Laugh!? Today, in marriage of the honor of my daughter, A... A...

MR. BEANS

Angela.

FIRENELLI

Angela! I am going to do a quadruple Ratini with two full twists.

MR. BEANS

What's a quadruple Ratini?

(FIRENELLI sways slightly.)

FIRENELLI

Watch. I am doing one now.

(Suddenly FIRENELLI and MR. BEANS spin drunkenly in each other's arms. SUE crosses to MR. BEANS.)

SUE

It's not fair.

MR. BEANS

What's not fair?

SUE

For Laura to leave you.

TERRI

What if he was sick?

MR. BEANS

I never get sick.

(FIRENELLI listens in.)

SUE

What if you had an accident?

MR. BEANS

I don't like accidents.

SUE

What if you broke your arm?

(MR. BEANS retreats. SUE and TONI follow.)

TONI

Maybe your leg.

FIRENELLI

Best of all, both arms and both legs!

MR. BEANS

No!

FIRENELLI

Come, let us get some more champagne.

MR. BEANS

The champagne is this way.

FIRENELLI

I am going that way. It is the ground that is going the other way. David! Angela! You are riding the elephant today.

MR. BEANS

We've got to get that sign onto the elephant.

FIRENELLI

Did you get the tin cans and the old pair of shoes?

MR. BEANS

Yes.

FIRENELLI

Good. We will tie them to the elephants tail.

MR. BEANS

What if the elephant has to... uh... you know?

FIRENELLI

That is what the tin cans are for.

(The CHORUS GIRLS escort MR. BEANS off. FIRENELLI is about to follow THEM off but HE is diverted when HE sees LAURA.)

Laura. No, don't run away from me. Sit. Please. Today, in honor of the marriage of my daughter A... Angela, I am a different man. I am not a monster. Sit. The floor is moving.

(THEY sit.)

Bobby was a perfect son. He was a good man. He was a good man?

LAURA

Yes.

FIRENELLI

I am a good man too. You know, it is not easy to have a son like Bobby, because when he dies what is there left in the world? You know this.

LAURA

I know.

FIRENELLI

Bobby loved you. He was a smart man. Books, poof! He was a genius in his heart. The papa does not always love the woman that his son chooses, but I loved you. I miss the days you came to see me.

LAURA

We saw you every day.

FIRENELLI

I miss all of them. I was a lucky man. You know, his mother gave Bobby his head, but his heart it came from me. My father taught me the trapeze. I have told you that. I don't need to tell you again. It makes you angry. It makes you afraid.

(There is a pause.)

Off season, you will let me come visit you? I will be a very ordinary grandpapa. I will bring my grandson a red painted fire truck and I will take him to the zoo. I will do with him the things that the trapeze never left time for me to do with Bobby.

(LAURA can't stand it any more. SHE leans over to embrace HIM.)

I have made my daughter happy, and I have made you happy. I am a very poor monster.

(FIRENELLI gets up. HE crosses unsteadily to DAVID and ANGELA. MIKLOS crosses to LAURA.)

MIKLOS

Laura?

(SHE looks at HIM, but SHE won't say anything, more out of fear of what might come of it than out of any remaining anger. SHE gets up and crosses quickly away from MIKLOS.)

(to Jaspar) Jaspar. What can I do?

(TERRI and TONI enter and intercept LAURA.)

TERRI

Laura!

TONI

Laura!

LAURA

What is it?

TERRI

It's your father.

TONI

Don't be upset. It's nothing.

LAURA

What's wrong?

TONI

Stay calm. He'll be all right.

TERRI

Of course he'll be all right. It's just that he's so afraid of hospitals.

LAURA

Hospitals?! Where is he?

(SUE leads on MR. BEANS. HE is bandaged six ways from Tuesday, including HIS mouth.)

Daddy?

MR. BEANS

Mmgmph.

(LAURA gets the picture.)

LAURA

What happened?

(The GIRLS reel off the following story at ninety miles a minute. MR. BEANS mimes to their story.)

SUE

First he fell off a ladder and broke his leg.

TERRI

That was after he caught his wrist in the popcorn machine.

TONI

It was a cotton candy machine.

TERRI

That was his foot.

SUE

Poor George. Popped, buttered, and salted.

TERRI

After he got loose from the popcorn machine and the cotton candy machine he tried to run for help.

SUE

With a pink foot.

TONI

Next thing we know he was in the bears' cage.

SUE

Lucky thing bears like cotton candy more than they like clown.

SUE

After the bears there was the cannon.

TONI

Then the train.

TERRI

And the calliope.

TONI

And the high wire.

SUE

And the seals.

TERRI

And the tuba.

TONI

And the high dive.

SUE

He doesn't usually get into so much trouble before lunch. He needs a keeper.

(LAURA can't help laughing. MR. BEANS laughs with her. SHE hugs HIM.)

LAURA

He doesn't need a keeper. He needs an audience.

MR. BEANS

Whnught?

TERRI

How can you laugh? Look at him.

(LAURA laughs harder.)

LAURA

Let me help you out of this.

(SHE starts to undo HIS bandages.)

MR. BEANS

Nuehoow!

LAURA

It won't work Daddy.

MR. BEANS

Mdlg ajfsj?

LAURA

I am not staying to play nurse maid for my poor, clumsy, deceitful, funny father. It won't work.

(SHE pulls the bandage off of HIS mouth.)

MR. BEANS

It won't?

LAURA

No.

TERRI

Damn!

(MIKLOS crosses to DAVID and ANGELA.)

MIKLOS

Angela! Give me a kiss! Pardon me David. You laugh. Sixty years ago, if I kissed a man's wife he would worry. Now, I kiss a girl, I worry my teeth will fall out.

(MIKLOS gives ANGELA a kiss.)

What is this? Everyone is standing. We have music. Who can stand when there is music? Dance!

(HE dances alone.)

Come on now. Are you going to let an old man show you up? Allez! Allez! Come on boys! Kom mit! Kom mit! Come on David, Angela! Allez! Allez!

(MIKLOS dances alone to a Magyar gypsy dance. Everybody moves aside to give HIM room. HE dances very slowly, and sadly at first, but the music picks up and HE dances exuberantly. The others join in the dance. It becomes a Magyar gypsy circus dance. LAURA comes closer to watch. SHE is drawn into the dance. SHE moves in and out of the dance, drawn to it, but afraid to give in to it entirely. SHE withdraws. MIKLOS is quickly outstripped by the fantastic acrobatics of the performers. The dance reaches a wild crescendo, ending in a burst of bodies flipping, twisting, and soaring about the stage.)

MIKLOS

Yes. That was very nice. Sometime I will teach you how to really dance. I... What?...

(MIKLOS slumps to the ground. HE is quickly surrounded and guided to a seat on the bleachers. LAURA is at the back of the group.)

MR. BEANS

Miklos!

SUE

What's wrong?

FIRENELLI

Miklos, are you all right?

(EVERYONE has crowded around MIKLOS. HE tries to sit up.)

SUE

Don't try to get up.

(HE looks up weakly at everybody gathered around HIM. LAURA pushes HER way to MIKLOS.)

MIKLOS

I hope somebody charged admission. Let me up. I am all right.

LAURA

No you aren't.

MIKLOS

What? I should know if I am all right.

LAURA

You're going to bed.

(MIKLOS struggles to get up.)

MIKLOS

I am going to dance.

(HE collapses again.)

Don't stop the party.

(LAURA motions to FIRENELLI and DAVID.)

LAURA

Lie down! Somebody call a doctor.

MIKLOS

No doctor.

LAURA

Call a doctor!

MIKLOS

If you call a doctor I will get up and dance and die before he gets here.

(DAVID and FIRENELLI are holding HIM gently down.)

If you hold me down so I can't get up I will dance in my head and die anyway. No doctor.

LAURA

Why not?

MIKLOS

I will not die in a hospital.

LAURA

You're not going to die.

MIKLOS

We are all going to die.

LAURA

You can't die.

MIKLOS

No doctor?

LAURA

No doctor.

MIKLOS

All right, I won't die yet.

LAURA

But we're going to take you to your room so you can get some sleep.

(DAVID and FIRENELLI pick MIKLOS up.)

MIKLOS

Sleep? Who can sleep when there is music?

(DAVID, FIRENELLI, and LAURA exit with MIKLOS. The music is sad again. The lights dim. The party is over. BLACKOUT.)

End of Scene 3