Beautiful!
Broadway’s best will be waiting backstage for Robbie Twible in July when the brave, 12-year-old boy battling an incurable deadly illness returns home from surgery.
The Long Island sixth-grader, who suffers from epidermolysis bullosa, will meet his Broadway idol Jarrod Spector and the cast of the Tony-winning musical “Beautiful” after he undergoes esophageal surgery and skin grafts in Ohio on June 24.
It will be the fourth time in 2014 doctors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center will open up his esophagus to help him eat during a rigorous five-day visit.
“We try to fight back, but it has a mind of its own,” said Robbie’s mom, Kathy, of the disease that causes blisters to form all over his skin and organs.
“I just have hope one day there will be a cure and he can move on and have a normal teenage life,” added Kathy, who said the disease covered her son’s eyes last week.
Robbie was not expected to live past birth, she said. But he endures excruciating daily treatments with the hope of someday crossing every item off his short bucket list.
He has visited Disney World, joined the Mets for batting practice and now he has two dates postsurgery in July to meet the casts of “Jersey Boys” and “Beautiful,” the story of singer/songwriter Carole King that earned lead actress Jessie Mueller a Tony award for her performance.
“I’m so excited,” Robbie told the Daily News. “I’m a huge Broadway fan. I’ve seen 21 Broadway shows. I watch videos on YouTube every night. All my wishes are coming true.”
That is, every wish except for one.
Visiting Ellen DeGeneres while his other idol, Justin Timberlake, is on her show still tops his bucket list.
“That’s the hardest one,” the hopeful boy said. “It’ll be a lot of steps, but we’ll eventually get there. And it’ll be awesome.”
