When I first saw Broadway’s The Prom back in the fall of 2018—before it officially opened—the curtain rose to reveal a woman with a microphone in hand. She stepped forward and introduced herself for the "broadcast": “It’s Olivia Keating from BroadwayMania here on the opening night of Eleanor! The Eleanor Roosevelt Musical.”

Olivia, as a character in a Broadway musical about Broadway musicals, was clearly a loving homage to the Broadway press corps on opening nights. In case you haven’t seen what I do with my colleague, Felicia Fitzpatrick: We work the opening night red carpet of every single show on Broadway and we livestream from Playbill’s Facebook page, and my opening words are always, “Hey guys, it’s Ruthie from Playbill.” Seeing an onstage homage to the work we do blew my mind.

A few weeks ago, I—and many of my red carpet cohorts—were each invited to join the company of The Prom for one night only as ourselves in the opening scene. Which is exactly what I did May 16. You can see the whole experience in the video above!

To be a part of this show, even for only a few minutes, was incredible. Thank you to The Prom for delivering that big, big hug to me.