Starlight Theater

We had season tickets to Starlight Theater again this year. In fact, we bought four of them instead of the usual two. We were hoping that we'd be able to convince some friends of ours to go with us in exchange for babysitting. Somehow, though, everyone was too busy this summer. I don't know what it was, since some of those who were too busy to go see the shows with us have time to in see first run movies multiple times.

But anyway, that meant we took our children to see several more shows than we were originally anticipating.

The first show was Riverdance, which none of us had ever seen before. J and I really enjoyed watching the dancing, and C seemed quite enthralled by it, but N was determined to spend his time being miserable. He insisted on spending the whole time on my lap (fortunately, it wasn't too hot that evening).

The next show, a couple of weeks later, was Dr. Doolittle. This was the "kids" show for the season, so we had planned to bring the kids to it all along. We all enjoyed this musical about the best of any of them this year. Of course, they had to introduce a love interest into the story. We could tell she was a love interest since every time they met the music took a dramatic romantic turn, and of course, they hated each other on sight.

The weather was quite warm and humid at the start of the evening. But while Bob Rohlf was talking (he went on longer than usual since he was telling us about a couple who were giving a large sum of money to the theater because their son-in-law didn't die of cancer) a sudden breeze blew through, lowering the temperature about ten degrees. No one was paying any attention to Bob Rohlf, everyone was paying attention to the breeze, watching the cotton candy blow around, relaxing in the sudden cooling.

By the program, the show originally didn't have an intermission, then they put one in. We passed the point where the intermission should have been, and they kept on going. We figured that as soon as Bob Rohlf left the stage, he probably went back to his office, called the meteorologist, and decided they needed to hurry. We had a few sprinkles before the end of the show, but nothing to worry about, though a lot of folks left anyway (if only to stand beneath the awning). Then during the curtain call, the star, Tommy Tune, cut the applause short, said they'd been told to cut out the intermission, and they'd been racing the weather ever since, and sent us home. A couple of years ago, the star of Will Rogers Follies tried to do a similar thing, but then was so impressed with us sitting in the rain that he forgot himself and talked for another five minutes. But Tommy Tune kept his head and sent us right out.

It kept sprinkling all the way to the car, and out of the parking lot, but as soon as we hit the highway, the downpour started, thunder, lightening, the whole works. It was difficult to see. We could just imagine Bob Rohlf in his office, wiping the sweat from his brow in relief that they timed it so well.

More on the next two shows later.