Here is Lillibet enjoying a celebratory evening at 54 Below.

54 Below is an intimate space and no matter where she sits Lillibet feels as if the singers are singing just to her.

Sometimes the shows at 54 Below feature current Broadway stars, sometimes people just starting out in their careers, sometimes big-name veterans that you may not have realized were still with us. No matter who’s up on stage, they have terrific stories to tell, and they always, always sing their hearts out on every single song.

Lillibet wonders what that must be like, to sing your heart out. Living in the city you don’t really get much opportunity to do that, especially not in your apartment. The neighbors would probably pound on the ceiling with a broomstick or else call the super.

What would it be like to stand up bathed in purple light that flatters all complexions and causes the sparkly things on your outfit to shoot off little rays, and sing as loudly and well as you possibly can?

Mandy Gonzalez performed here earlier this year. Mandy Gonzalez said, “People ask me, why, when you’re already doing eight performances of Hamilton each week, why would you come on your one night off to sing at 54 Below? Why would you do that? Why?”

Mandy Gonzalez answered her own question: “Because I can.” And began to sing “Raise the Roof.”

Lillibet resolves, in 2018, to raise the roof at least once.

Lillibet is made of midnight blue velvet, a fabric with no give, which is why she’s on the skinny side. Her midriff-baring sweater is an athletic sock, her underskirt a sparkly sock, her overskirt a piece of organza I found in a scrap bin a thousand years ago and had to take even though I foresaw no use for it. Her wrap is from fabric cut off from a formal dress that had to be shortened, and her clasp is a childhood barrette of my daughter’s. Her high-tops are made from gold fabric left over from a long-ago Halloween when I had a small King Tut as well as a small Cleopatra, both of whom required gold accents.

Let’s raise the roof
Let’s make a scene
Let’s hope the gods of love
Will shine above
And show the way.
Let’s call the shots
Let’s roll the dice
Take my advice
It always pays
To raise the roof!

—Andrew Lippa