Playing Dress Up

We got invited to the best birthday party last Saturday! It was a Black&White/Mobster theme so Ryan and I had lots of fun!

You can't tell from the picture, but my boa lights up! I love Halloween! The only downer was Ryan had to leave his fedora at the door, but I think we still look pretty good. As the birthday girl put it "you guys are SO hot!".

I have to point out that the dear husband married me in that tux 7 1/2 years ago and he is still looking good!

Don't you want to invite us to your next themed party???

Shrek - the Musical

August sure was a busy month! We wrapped it up by seeing Shrek the Musical. Seattle is the first city in the world to see the show, and our input will affect any changes before it opens on Broadway. It was a good show, but not totally there yet. The scenes that they dropped in from the movie were ok, but fell flat to us. Where the show really shined was with it's original material and cast.

My favorite song was when Princess Fiona was waiting in her castle and singing about how this will be the day that her handsome prince comes for her. There are three Fiona's that rotate through the number to show the passage of time and the frustration of waiting.

My second favorite is when Shrek and Fiona are bonding and trying to one up one another on how awful their childhoods are. Their unifing characteristic is that they both feel abandoned by their parents. 

Strong moments were anythign with Lord Farquad - the creativity of the costuming was fabulous. I felt bad for the actors knees, since he was running around on them all night! 

But they really need to figure out the dragon and how to work it (it was part giant puppet part lady and part back up singers in spiky dresses). The singer's voice was amazing, so I hope they figure it out soon. 

Donkey needs to just forget that Eddie Murphy ever existed and just create a new role for himself (and get a better costume). When he got away from the movie moments, he was wonderful but when he was trying to channel Eddie Murphy it just fell flat. 

All in all, we enjoyed it much more than we thought we would and will be picking up the cast soundtrack when it comes out in January. 

Aida

On August 23 we attended our first opera and we were suitably impressed. The costumes and sets were sumptuous and the cast was spectacular. The part that totally blew me away was the voices. There was a full orchestra and I was surprised to learn that opera singers do not use microphones. So even though we were WAY up in the nosebleed section we heard every word. It was just astonishing!

Glorious pageantry, rousing choruses, and a basketful of great tunes elevate the moving tale of forbidden love between general and slave girl in ancient Egypt. The grandest of all grand operas, Aida is also an intensely personal love story overflowing with passions as up to the minute as our own. Verdi’s power to translate human emotion into magnificent music was at its zenith when he created this highly original and enjoyable masterwork, arguably the best evening’s entertainment he ever devised. (Summary from the Seattle Opera)

The other interesting aspect of opera is how much longer it is than say a Broadway show. Aida was 3 hours and 22 minutes with two intermissions. 

Things I have learned - place your drink order before the first intermission and go ahead and get that snack you eyed at the first intermission at the second. We picked up a really neat poster that has the dates the show ran (something you can't get at a Broadway show) and a great book that had the sound recording, history and libretto of the production. 

We are really looking forward to our season at the Seattle Opera!

Dolly Parton - Yee Haw!

On August 8th we saw Dolly Parton. Now, even though I had a nasty case of bronchitis, the show was amazing! It's really difficult to not sing or cheer at a show!

Just like Eartha Kitt, Dolly knew how to connect with an audience. The show was at the WaMu Theater (where we last saw Daft Punk) so it was much smaller than say a show at Key Arena. She started right on time at 8pm and there was no opening band. She played for about an hour and then we had an intermission! Then Dolly changed outfits and came out again for another hour. I was so please because she sang one of my favorite songs - I Will Always Love You - which she does SO much better than Whitney Houston. 

During her vamping section she made some great jokes about her buxomness and how hard it is to look that good and how all her instruments where white with sparkles, even the piano! 

She played a new song Backwoods Barbie which is the title of her new album. The back story of how she always admired the town hooker and wanted to be pretty just like her was hilarious! 

All in all, a great show and we would definitely see her again!