I grew up watching a few musicals when the Beverly Dinner Playhouse was around in New Orleans. And I was luck enough to live close enough to the Saenger that I got to see all the Broadway shows as they toured through our city. I know many crazy facts about many crazy musicals because of this. I also know one too many show tunes and this tends to annoy my co-workers and my son, but I press on! Anyway, TomTom's time had come.
Tickets were only $10 because it was the first show of 2011 so it was a steal! I invited a local friend who I knew enjoyed live theatre and it was a date. I bought tickets online not knowing what we were getting in to the Friday before the Saturday showtime. The tickets said they would ship, but I knew there was no time for them to get here. I tried calling the office, but could not get in touch with anyone and left a message. No one returned my call.
The night of the show we left our house at 6:15 and arrived in the parking lot at 6:30, the show was starting for 7 PM. The parking lot was completely vacant, save one other vehicle, and I had doubts as to if we were in the right place. We got out and went inside. I saw my name on a card as our "tickets" and knew all was well in that department. Then we sat and waited because they weren't ready to seat us yet. Since we ordered tickets online our seats were all ready marked out inside the theatre according to the card. I also saw that my friend had ordered online and was much farther down the row from us. I asked if this could be changed since we were the only one there, but this seemed like too much of a task for the young girl at the table so i just told her not to worry about it.
Around 6:45 PM my friend showed up with husband in hand and I felt bad because I realized how far off Broadway this production was going to be, but it was all children so at least it would be fun for Thomas. My friend told us she had invited some of her friends too. I was excited they were coming because I hadn't seen them in awhile, but would have preferred it be over a cold beer instead of a play full of children. I secretly cringed over this news because I knew these were young outgoing people that had no idea what they were getting into. And the fact that the guys were going to be there, the good ole sports loving guys that they were, it just seemed miraculous that everyone was on board with this so I smiled to myself and my friend.
They finally let us go to our seats and there were maybe three or four rows of folding chairs as the seating area. We were in the first two seats since we took care to pre-order and avoid the crowd of twenty that showed up for the night. My friends were down on the other side of the theatre. I didn't want to disturb any of the fans that showed up so we decided to stick it out on opposite sides of the audience. While we were waiting for the show to start, my son was so excited to see his first play that he couldn't look up from his DS to say HI to friends or look at the stage.
The facebook comments my guy cousins left me were of the following nature...
"Poor TomTom, how could you do that to him?"
Then the show started and Thomas was an avid watcher. I don't know if it was the fact that the kids were on stage and a hairs breath away from him or that he was just exhausted from a long day, but he was very quiet and observant. It was hard for me to sit through. I was glad I was supporting the community, but it wasn't anything close to the Pirate Movie I watched and sang to in the '80's (a spoof of the Pirates of Penzance).
Intermission came and I scooted over to the other side of the room to visit while TomTom went back to his DS. It was at this time my friend told me there was an alcohol smelling homeless type person in the row behind her that was making her nervous. He didn't seem to know anyone there and I was worried we had a Chester-the-molester on our hands. Intermission ended and we were back to our seats.
My friends left as soon as the show was over and TomTom wanted to stay and grab something out of the treasure chest as he was invited to do by the hostess of the evening. We got to see the cast take a photo from their performance that night.
He grabbed a doubloon from the treasure chest and we sang our way home by way of Menchies!!!! The next play I will take him to is "The Music Man", one of my absolute favorites!!! I hope it is at least three steps closer to the sidewalk that leads you to Broadway than this gem of a play, but kudos to the kiddies that got up there and performed!
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