Singing in the Rain

After a morning of driving around, during which Katie was literally singing in the rain, we went to the "Good Bye Neil" party. There was lots of tasty food, lots of people (but of course no Emily), Grandma sang a song in which she said that we won't miss Neil (which seemed odd, but she didn't really seem mean we'd be happy to be rid of him), Banjo jumped on anyone who crossed his path and put everything possible into his mouth (including a bit of knitting), and Dad gave Neil some odd parting gifts.

Then, a few hours later Katie, Paula, and I were out for an evening at the theater. Paula had made reservations at a restaurant, then realized it was far (7 blocks, further than she wanted to walk) from the Paramount. So we decided to park at Pacific Place and eat dinner there. We had a very yummy dinner at Mexico and I bought a Harry Potter calendar really cheap (less than $2 with tax!) at Barnes and Noble. So half an hour before the show was to start, we headed up to the Paramount. When we were about a block away, we noticed a lack of people outside...and the Paramount's signs weren't lit up...something funny was going on. So Paula checked the date on the tickets. Yup, they were for tonight. "What theater does it say?" I asked. "The Moore." "Hmm...that's a strange place for a big show like Singing in the Rain." So we rushed back into Pacific Place, paid for our parking, and while waiting in a huge line to get out of the garage Paula said that if she'd realized it would be such a wait, we would've just walked. So we decided, we'd probably miss the opening number, but what could we do? We drove to the Moore and got the last spot in the paid parking lot adjacent to it. It was 7:04, and the tickets said 7 pm, but we were pleased to see that not only had the show not started, but people were still headed in. We weren't late. We found our seats (and ousted 2 people who were in the right seats, but the wrong section). Then a man came out to introduce the show.

A bit of background. Paula wanted to buy tickets to 2 upcoming comedy/satire shows later this year. In order to do so, she needed to buy a package of 3 shows. She saw Singing in the Rain on the list and thought, hey, that's a good show. And it sounded like it was a company starting their run here, then traveling on.

Wrong. "Broadway Bound" didn't mean the show was headed to Broadway (which actually isn't unsual for Seattle, we've had a few shows do that). It is apparently the name of a local theater company for kids, who aspire to be actors. We were unknowingly at a children's production of Singing in the Rain. They did a good job, but it was not quite the calibur of production quality we had anticipated. It turns out that many other people there also didn't realize what they were in for, as quite a few people left at intermission. But there were tons of families there too (who clearly knew what they were there to see). And one of Katie's 4th graders was in the show, which was neat. So all in all it was fun, but not quite what we'd expected.

We finished off our night by learning to play Settlers of Cattan, the game Katie got for Christmas. It's a fun strategy game (which I won), and thankfully doesn't require 4 players to play (like so many games do these days). The only downfall is that you do have to have 3 players (so unless the cat learns to play, we'll have to find others who want to join us).

Neil and Banjo should soon be landing safely in Anchorage. I bet Em's excited!