February 22, 2016
The day was at hand, “lets start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”
Maestro please! The delight, the entertainment, the sonorously of songs, and some dance. OFF ! we went. WHERE ? the curious of my loyal readers cried. To and there, we were in the renewed and refurbished Capitol Theatre. Squished into red velvet seats seat’s for people who were apparently much shorter, smaller, and much less weighty in 1924. I felt like I was in economy in the airlines industry parlance. My knees were up around my ears, and stayed that way for 3.5 hours. The patron directly in front lowered her seat back into my lap, very friendly, not. Thus forcing MOI to twist my legs and the feet attached, into the aisle. My personal best at boot camp in skipping, surpassed 300 twice, I have become skilled at to breathing, while hopping rapidly, was easier. My knees knocked out of commission from sitting.
This, has been it seems to moi, a season of the song, as I have been to live version of opera from the Big Apple in New York this winter, twice in fact and reported here in great and copious detail you will remember. This was a much more local challenge. Nevertheless, the combined efforts of more local and imported talent, united efforts of the youth orchestra, the actors school, a women’s choir, seamstresses, lights, and even thanked profusely the provincial government, who threw in money it seems, for some machinery.
Even after the box office ticket fiasco, the Christmas season, the New Year, the following months. We had arrived. There we were at the sold out “Sound of Music” The sing along version. We hummed, we clapped, we bellowed, we were captivated, enthralled and yes indeed, charmed. The lyrics to the songs were profiled on a tiny weenie screen perched up at the top of the ceiling, with the 1965 family action stage production, taking place on the ground level. The crowd was very happy to listen while the actors from Mother Superior to Christopher Plummer stand in nattered and chattered, the crowd was polite, BUT when the leader of the band waved his hands the thrill of the verse was at hand.
Allow to run riot, set free, unleashed ( Lucy liked that ) my childhood. Overnights with aunties, stuffed into with the neighbor kids and friends, the trip into town in the station wagon. Brown galoshes, heavy winter coats, rubber pancakes. ( Auntie Margo will get that reference) lined up to hear that the hills were alive. So were we.
[singing] Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
Brown paper packages tied up with strings,
These are a few of my favorite things.
Moi