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[Paisley]

Originally posted by Gattigap
I know everyone has been waiting to hear me brag about my kid, and it's been about a year, so I can restrain myself no longer.

Yes, folks, it's the Holiday Show time of year again, which means that Gaplet is working on his Actor's Equity credits. He's been cast in another Civic Light Opera production:



.. in an Ensemble role. Difference between this and Oliver! is that he's one of about 4 kids, instead of one of about 30.

As an aside, Gaplet seems to have a knack for winning roles in end-of-year plays. It'll be interesting to see if he's successful next year, when the CLO presents in its 2008 holiday season:



As the theater's producer put it, "Why? Because NOTHING says "Christmas" like Fiddler on the Roof. Let's paint the tree blue and sing Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel, because it's their turn."

*****

Anyway, last night was Opening Night. We got Gaplet the Thespian to the theater in time, hung around the lobby for much longer than God intended, and as the lights went down I settled in my seat secretly and fully prepared to hate it.

Let me unpack that a little bit.

I don't mean to suggest that I was going to hate seeing my kid, not at all. I fully knew that he would be fantastic and I would love seeing him there. It's just that -- well -- the material for this particular play is a bit dated. It's Cinderella, for heaven's sake. It's not as if the plot would contain any surprises. And while I've never watched the Rodgers and Hammerstein version of the play, I've listened to the soundtrack over the last few weeks. Interminably. It's nice, but it's not really filled with songs that have become standards in the decades since. It also has Julie Andrews and many other people singing in the style of 1957, and sounding much like this cover would suggest it would.



So, I was prepared to suffer a bit. To watch and listen and wait for my boy to appear on the stage with the rest of the ensemble, to come see what I really wanted to see.




I don't know what the hell I was thinking. It was awesome.

I had forgotten that people don't have to sing in the overly formal way of 50 years ago, and that a live show invariably is a better experience than a recorded soundtrack. The set was whimsical (they even used a friggin' 20-foot-tall book as a transitional piece for a couple of scenes.) The techniques to deal with the transformation of the pumpkin, the dress, etc. were clever. Cinderella and the Prince (and for that matter the rest of the cast) were immensely talented, and made otherwise tired material seem fresh.

And my kid killed.

I think I mentioned last time around that the house holds about 1400 people. It was just about full, and by my estimate about 350 seats were filled with 5-6 year old girls dressed in little gowns. Small parts of the cast go out to the lobby after the show, in costume, for a meet-and-greet with the audience, and the Gaplet was mobbed. ("Dad, I went out there after the show? And there were ALL these little girls there. And some wanted to take their picture with me!")

So, for the next 3 weeks, I'll either be watching the show or be waiting in the theater parking lot waiting for the show to end to pick up my kid. If y'all could hang around late at night and post interesting things for me to read while waiting in my car those nights, that'd be great.

Gattigap

So when do you give up the day job and become a stage mom?