Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Give our Regards to Broadway

Thirty+ years ago my mother-in-law took her son to see a production of Annie. It in instilled in him a love of musical theatre matched only by my love of felines...

And if you have ever met either one of us you'll know that by "love" we mean an outright hatred of musical theatre (him) and cats (me).

Interestingly enough, Husband does love cats. How a man who loves cats could also dislike musical theatre is beyond me. It is just part of the daily conundrum associated with being married to a country-music-hating, belt-buckle-avoiding, cowboy-boot-not-owning professional pig farmer.

Husband's disastrous trip to see Annie is part of family legend, so when I saw that Annie was returning to Dayton, I knew that my mother-in-law would want another chance to bring appreciation of the arts to her grandchildren.

To ensure a more successful trip, I worked to prepare Morgan for the big day. We watched clips of the songs on YouTube, watched the movie when it fortuitously came on TV and prepared her own little red dress for the show.

Fortunately, through a great ticket deal I was also able to get a seat for Ryan at the Schuster Center. Justin stayed home to do very boyish things like decorate Christmas cards with glitter glue.

Ryan and Morgan both enjoyed all the sights of the Schuster Center Wintergarden. We saw the famous Rikes Christmas windows in the lobby and then went upstairs to make ornaments with beads all before catching the main attraction from our seats in the Loge.

Let me just say something about the plot of Annie. The 1982 movie doesn't capture the fact that Annie takes place right at Christmas. A newly elected Democratic President (FDR) is trying to figure out how to fix the economic messes he inherited from his predecessor (Hoover) while his aids are worried about mounting national debt and international issues (Hitler). Sound familiar?
Maybe all we need is a precocious redhead to stop by and sing "Tomorrow."

It took three decades but my mother-in-law finally got to see Annie with a new generation of appreciative children. Let's just hope they keep their appreciation to Cats and not cats.

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