We've Got Elegance.

The city arts council could not have chosen a more beautiful place for us to perform in if it had had its pick from all the places in the world, I think.

I really am a very simple person. I am not wildly devoted to things beyond my means (except for perhaps the occasional item from Anthropologie or Banana Republic). I should like to be cushioned and comfortable, but the words “grandeur” and “elegance” make me feel distinctly uncomfortable. To live in grandeur would be like eating an entire store full of Godiva’s chocolates—the idea sounds delicious, but the reality is far too much to take… hardly palatable.

The Northampton House, however, has entirely unseated me. If there must be elegance, I prefer it to be understated; but there it’s lavish in the most Victorian manner I could have dreamed of. Grand staircases, stained-glass windows; flowers and greenery in every corner, wound through the spokes of the banisters, seeming to spring from the trellis on the ceiling. Our staging area could not be more perfect; it’s like strolling through a riotously beautiful English garden. In the dead of winter, it’s just exactly what I need.