Dadadada, dadadada...The Addams Family!

Tonight Jim and I saw The Addams Family at the Fox Theatre. It was a fun show, with some really strong voices in it. The set design was awesome, as were the costumes. Well, except that Morticia wore a dress so low cut and revealing that I was positive we were going to see a wardrobe malfunction. They must have had the dress glued to her boobs. I haven't seen that much flesh since I was in New Orleans for Mardis Gras. To me it was a little distracting and I thought they could have done a low cut dress without also cutting across half of her breasts. But I'm sure the males in the audience would disagree with me. There was also more than a bit of sexual innuendos in the script, which didn't necessarily bother me. But I felt sorry for the dad in front of me as he was trying to explain to his pre-teen daughter what some of the lines meant. Maybe they had some sort of disclaimer out there about the play perhaps not being suitable for children - I'm not sure. Those of us who remember the television show would have imagined that this play would be fun to attend as a family. I guess that wouldn't sell too well on Broadway though, huh? Too bad.

I Got "High" Last Night

Last night we went to see the play "High" at the Repertory Theatre. I didn't know much about the play other than the fact that it starred Kathleen Turner and involved a young man with a drug addiction. Oh - and it was listed as being for mature audiences. I try not to talk to other people who have seen plays I am going to, and I don't read reviews because I so infrequently agree with them once I see the play (or a movie, for that matter). It was tricky with this one because lots of people were excited to have Turner in town, and our tickets are the last night's show. This play was actually written by a man who has a drug addiction, but who has been clean for 3 years now. There are predictions that it will head to Broadway, and I can see that happening.

There are only 3 actors in the play - a nun (played by Turner), a priest (Michael Berresse) and the young man (Evan Jonigkeit). While the subject matter is serious, there were some surprisingly funny moments in the play. The set was clever yet somber and didn't detract from the play. All 3 of the actors were excellent, with Jonigkeit doing an exceedingly credible job of portraying a drug addict. It was pretty obvious that Turner was not feeling well as she coughed a lot during the production. But she hung in there, and looked very relieved when her last line was delivered. The play has some interesting twists, and is definitely thought provoking. I "High"ly recommend it.

The Rep Does It Again

"The Diary of Anne Frank" finished off our weekend of plays. Sunday night we were at the Repertory Theater for the last night of this production. As previously hinted at by a friend of mine, the set was amazing, completely filling the stage with two plus stories of the building where the Franks took refuge. Every play we have seen at the Rep this season has had a creative set.

The cast was great, particularly Lauren Orkus in the role of Anne Frank. The new adaptation of the story moved at a nice pace, yet managed to still capture the essence of the two years the families spent hiding in the annex. Bravo, Rep!

Not So Fabulous Night at the Fox

Friday night we saw "August, Osage County" at the Fox. I knew nothing about the play, and I try not to read reviews because I so seldom agree with the critics anyway. I had heard that it had won lots of awards on Broadway though. The first thing we noticed is that the theater was not even half full, which is strange in and of itself. The lady who has the seats next to us asked if we knew that the production had two intermissions, and we admitted that we were not aware of this. She said her friend had seen the play and didn't get home until after midnight. By now I'm thinking that it better be a great play because I would be nodding off that much after my bedtime on a Friday night.

The set was awesome, as always, depicting the inside of a three story house. Sadly, that is all that was awesome about the production. The play begins with an obviously drunk man attempting to hire a native American woman to live in the house to help care for his mouth cancer stricken, drug addicted wife (played by the actress who was Roseanne Barr's mother on her show) so that he can continue to drink without having to worry about the little woman. His speech was so labored and hard to follow that I found myself silently cheering when he committed suicide early on in the play. The rest of the story consists of various relatives coming to the house for the funeral, all of whom are angry, bitter, and/or heavy drug or alcohol users. From pot smoking and sexual advances between a 30 something man and his fiances 14 year old niece to a relationship between what initially appeared to be first cousins but ended up to be half-siblings, the play trotted steadily downhill. There was a lot of screaming, dropping of the F bomb left and right and a small amount of humor dispersed.

I would have left at the first intermission (earlier were it not been for the fact that our seats are in the center of the row and we would have had to climb over people), but Jim wanted to tough it out. A good number of people did leave, including the two elderly couples behind us. I had to agree with the one man who said, "I come out at night to be entertained. This is not entertainment." I suppose I sadistically wanted to see if it could get any worse - it did. We pulled into our drive at midnight, and I was wondering if I could sum the play up in two words. I found that I only needed two letters - P U!

What's That Again?

Last night Jim and I went to see [title of show] in the Studio at the Repertory Theater. I admit to being a little confused when we first got the tickets in the mail. I should explain here that a friend of ours has great season tickets (second row, center) at the Fox and (fourth row center) at the Repertory Theater. He and his partner also own a condo in Hawaii, so when they are out of town we get first dibs on their tickets. This year for whatever reason the Rep had assigned them tickets to Rep and Studio shows for the same night, January 31st. Luckily they asked no questions when I called to exchange tickets, and we saw "39 Steps" Sunday night and the other show last night.

Anyway, when I saw that the tickets said [title of show], I assumed that the play had not yet been selected. Wrong - that is the name of the play. It turns out that it is a play within a play within a play. Mind boggling, I know. It is actually based on a true story of a couple of friends who wanted to write a play and enter it into a competition, where the winning play would be performed in a theater in New York. They just made the play up as they went along. It is a musical and a comedy as well, and we very much enjoyed it. Evidently we aren't the only ones as they added a second week to the production.

We are through with plays for the rest of this month, which is fine with me. I like them spread out a bit so I can anticipate date night with my hubbie. In the meantime, I now have construction dust from one end of the house to the other, so I have plenty of work to keep me busy. Yuck!

Three's Company

My husband's younger sister was visiting us from Iowa this weekend. She brought along her dog, so Kirby had a cousin to play with. Neither one of them has another pet in their house, so they are both pooped after a long weekend of keeping up with each other. The weather cooperated, thankfully, so we had a lot of outdoor time. Friday night we had tickets to the Fox Theater to see "Cirque Dreams". Since Katie is out of town for the DECA competition, we invited our friend Dale to go with us as we had four tickets. We grilled the Iowa steaks JoEllen brought down with her, and had a great meal before the show. The production was great, with lots of "guy candy" for the ladies. Wow - that's the first time I have ever seen a true 8 pack on anyone. Thank you, Warren, for the second row seats! The cast was extremely talented, and the two hour show passed quickly. Saturday JoEllen and I went to the Thread and Thimble Quilt Show to see over 300 quilts displayed. It is always educational for me to see what other quilters come up with. That evening she and Jim went to a charity event out in O'Fallon and I stayed home to get some quilting done. They did not get home until 2:30 in the morning! Needless to say, no one was moving too quickly Sunday morning. But we spent a beautiful afternoon at the Missouri Botanical Garden, where lots of trees, shrubs and flowers are already bursting forth with color. What a way to welcome in spring.

St. Kim I'm Not

We had tickets to see St. Joan at the Repertory Theater tonight. I was waiting to see how long it was going to take Jim to figure out that we were going to be watching a play instead of the Superbowl plays. It dawned on him this morning. He decided it was no big deal as he could watch the beginning of the game, and perhaps catch the end when we got home if the play didn't run too long. The last two plays we have seen at the Rep have run only 80 minutes with no intermission. As soon as we sat in our seats and opened the program, we heard the ladies behind us stating that they heard the play was pretty good but also long. Okaaaay...so much for seeing the end of the football game. The set for the play was very well done, and I eagerly anticipated the start of the show. It was quite a disappointment. I thought the acting was only adequate, and it definitely drug on and on. I nearly nodded off at one point. So we did something I can't ever remember doing before - we left at intermission. We were not alone in our escape to the parking lot. The theater had not been anywhere near full to begin with, but I imagine it was embarassingly empty for the second act. I hated to do that because having been in plays before I know how much work the actors put into it, but honestly it seemed like such a waste of time to sit there. St. Kim I'm not. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up some cookies to bake. I have not made use of the convection setting on the oven and wanted to try it out. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!) While enjoying the fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookies we got to see an exciting ending to the Superbowl game. The evening was salvaged!