the long and winding road...

They can't all be winners
I see a lot of live performance. A lot. I enjoy it. Most of what I see I really like. I generally find the performances are good with good sets, stories, acting, and costumes. But when you see a lot you're bound to come across a few that aren't really your thing. That's to be expected.

The last two have been in that category. Not horrible but just not great.

The first was last weekend when Bobby and I took G to see A Wrinkle in Time at the local theater. This was the last in this year's children's series and the only one so far that wasn't really, really good. It was the story written by Madeline L'Engle that most are familiar with. I read it years ago, I think when I was in high school, and I remember liking the book. But, the play, ehh. What can I say? The acting was ok but the sets and the script just weren't doing it for me. G seemed ok with it and said she liked it at the end but I don't think she did. Overall, I found it boring and was bummed that I made G leave a birthday party where she was having tons of fun early to get there.

The second was just this past weekend at the California Theater's showing of The Chronicles of Narnia. There were some good things: the set and costumes (except Aslan) were very good and the acting decent. This was especially true considering that the little girl who played Lucy was only 7. But, I think it was hard for them to tell the story, admittedly a quite complicated one, in only 90-100 mins of stage time. Again, I read the CS Lewis books years ago and enjoyed them very much. I've also seen the movies that have been done in the last 5 yrs or so and found them beautifully done. But, it just didn't translate well to the stage. While reading I was able to picture the beautiful Aslan. When creating the movie they were able to bring that imagery to life with a regal computer animated lion. But, on stage, it just wasn't working.

I wouldn't say the show was awful it just wasn't that good which is always a bit disapppointing. The evening wasn't a complete bust as it's always nice to do my mother/daughter theater nights with my mom. And we did enjoy a fantastic --and very economical thanks to Groupon --pre-show dinner at Le Rendez Vous. Yummy filet mignon with bernaise in what turned out to be a private dining room. Fun!

Hopefully our upcoming shows will be better.