The Full Monty
Next on our Candlelight Pavillion series was The Full Monty! I'd seen the movie years ago and enjoyed it. Our normal table is front and center. This is usually great for most shows. I like being able to see clearly. But, for the Full Monty, front and center may have been a little TOO close... those were really small G-strings they were wearing ;-)

Having said that, the food was great! the show was very funny! and an evening with my mom is always enjoyed.

Beauty and the Beast
I think it might be my favorite play... well, at least in the top few :-) BATB has always been my favorite Disney movie and the musical is even better. I saw it a year or two ago with my mom and we had AWESOME seats, much better than our regular ones. I had to do an exchange and we ended up being seated in the Golden Circle which are the seats that people leave to their children in wills and cost a FORTUNE! I'm not sure how we got so lucky that time but it was great.

It was was excited to see BATB pop up on our Calif Theater series. The same production was also going to be at the Pantages a few weeks later but hey! I already had seats. Uh yeah, not sure why, but the series performance was cancelled about 6 weeks before it was scheduled to run. How annoying. If I wouldn't have thought we were going to see it at the other location I could have purchased seats about 8 mos earlier during presale. But, I really, really wanted G and Bobby to see the show so I ended up getting the "best available" seats for what turned out to be the last day of the run. The seats weren't great, several rows up in the balcony, which is always a problem for me because of my crappy vision. Fortunately, Bobby and G had no issues and I enjoyed the music and the big picture :-0

Good news? It was just as wonderful as I remembered. The sets, the costumes, the music... fantastic! G loved it too.

G decided not to wear her Belle dress choosing comfort over aesthetics... smart! But, just because you're not wearing a princess dress doesn't mean you can't let your inner princess show through with a bun and tiara.

Shrek!

Last year Bobby and I took G to see Shrek at the Pantages. It was a great show! It popped up again on the California Theater subscription I do with my mom. The bad news... Easter evening!!! Seriously??? I love the California Theater. Its really nice and always surprises me that such a place exists in San Bernardino which is, otherwise, such a pit. But this year is going to be our last. They dropped the Sunday evening performances and they are SO, SO, SO disorganized and unprofessional. I'm just done. Its such a bummer but, sadly, a necessary choice. Anyway, enough of my vent and on to the show...

So, after spending a lovely day in Palos Verdes with Bobby and G, I came home, grabbed a quick nap and headed back out to spend a lovely evening with my mom :-) We had a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant near the theater. The show was great! So funny and very well done. Its one of those shows that seems to appeal equally to both kids and adults which is fantastic. My mom liked it too!

Nice evening with mom!

Jekyll & Hyde
Our Pantages series continues! Wow, what can I say? It was an incredibly dark story... murder, intrigue. It was a far cry from the typical musical that's for sure. Constantine Maroulis was pretty good. He's gotten really bad reviews but I think they were undeserved. He doesn't have a typical stage voice. The actress who played his love interest was amazing! What a beautiful voice. Overall I really enjoyed the show and appreciated that it was something very different than usual.

Huntington Library
with Grandma :-)  My mom hadn't been in many years so we made a day of it. Just the girls! I built up some anticipation in Georgie by showing her pictures of Pinkie and Blue Boy... who doesn't love them, right? Georgie was fascinated by the sad story of Pinkie who died at the age of 12, probably from the flu. It brought up a good discussion about how lucky we are to live during a time where there are good medicines and doctors. Art history is full of death and sadness some of which is pretty heavy for a five year old.

Anyway, we'd booked the tea for lunch but we got there a little early so we checked out some of the galleries. Its funny because we've many times in the last year or so since we've had our membership and we've spent a surprisingly small amount of time in the galleries. The gardens are so beautiful you can spend all your time there. We got G an audio headset and explained how it worked and how to locate the "kids" audios. G was really into it and would search around to find the two digit codes, punch the numbers in and listen intently. I'm not sure how much of it she was really picking up but she was having a good time doing it :-)

Finally, it was time for tea! Georgie loves tea and the Rose Garden Tea Room is pretty great. After a lovely lunch we moved on to the gardens. It was a bit early in the year so not everything was in bloom but they are beautiful no matter the season. We managed to cover most of the property--there are still a few gardens I've never seen--before we were all exhausted and it was getting close to closing time.

Wonderful day!

After looking at Pinkie and Blue Boy, Georgie was wandering the European gallery looking for more kids audios when all of a sudden she gave out a quiet shriek! She'd found a painting of Georgiana Cavendish... she was so tickled that they shared a name! She immediately asked me to take her picture in front of her namesake.

The gardens are filled with endless photo opportunities... next time I might have to bring my big camera so I can get some really great photos.

 The camelias were one of the few flowers in bloom in mid February.

 Breathtaking...

 G loves her Grandma!

We always spend a lot of time in the Chinese garden. Its so beautiful... the kind of place that makes you want to sit for awhile.

 Georgie's ferocious face :-)

The cherry blossoms are in bloom by now... time to go back!

Donny and Marie???
Hmmm... was my first thought when I saw it as one of the performances in our series. I really couldn't muster up any enthusiasm at all. They're just so. darn. cheesy. But, what the heck! We'll give it a try!

Guess what? The show was really good. I know, it shocked me too! It was Donny and Marie so there was a bit of cheese :-) but not so much that it was bothersome. In fact, it was kind of endearing. And overall the production value of the show was really high. I learned a couple of things that night too.

First, Marie Osmond can SING! Truthfully, she has an incredible voice. This was primarily a Christmas show but also included songs that each of them had done over the years. For Marie, this meant several songs from her many Broadway shows. I was surprised and impressed.

Second, Donny Osmond has some really intense fans. Really. They're mostly about my age or maybe a bit older. Some of them brought their adult children along. A few of them were practically panting from the excitement of the situation. A shocking number of them lunged past their seatmates for the opportunity to touch Donny's hand as he made his way up the aisles. It was hysterical!

In retrospect, I'm so happy that we do the musical subscription because we end up seeing shows we normally never would. This one goes right to the top of my list of surprises!

Happy Birthday Mom!
Only 77 years young :-)  We had a nice brunch at Sierra Lakes Golf Club to celebrate. We were lucky that Casey and Maria were able to join us. Brunch is desperately loved by Georgie for exactly two reasons: shrimp and dessert. Both were in abundance. This, along with being with her grandma, made her very happy.

Happy Glad-You-Were-Born Day MOM! Wishing you many more healthy and happy years!


Bobby was there too but he didn't make it into any of the pictures. Ah well, next time :-)

Theater night: The Woman in Black
I had no idea what this one was about going in. Sometimes I read up, usually I don't. Odd show really. Only two actors-- both older men speaking in English accents-- and a very sparse stage. I must admit that the first 10 mins of the show I honestly thought that it might be the first one we'd walk out of at intermission. But then it went on and I started getting hooked. As it turned out, I really enjoyed it! It was entertaining and a bit scary. Really fun night with Mom!

The Book of Mormon
I saw it a week or so ago with my mom. It seems the whole country--well the part that's interested in theater anyway -- is talking about this show so we were really looking forward to it. It was very funny. The first scene particularly had me laughing hysterically but overall I think I'd have to give it a B. I'm really not a fan of crass humor and the show contains a lot of it. Not too surprising considering it was created by the South Park guys but still not my thing. It was a fun night and always great spending time with my mom!