Murder, murder in the night air!

So, I got to go see a play tonight.  I like plays.  I used to dabble in theatre, enough that I spell it theatre and not theater.  Theaters are places you go see movies.  Anyways... I went to a local community production of Jekyll and Hyde.  Which was good.  Or at least, it was better than expected. 

Jekyll and Hyde was something I first heard when I was about 15.  It's beautiful.  It has remained one of my favorite pieces and I still know most of the lyrics.  It also introduced me to Linda Eder, and if you haven't heard her then you just haven't lived.  Seriously.  She's that good.  In fact, the role of Lucy in Jekyll and Hyde was written for Eder.

The production tonight didn't have Linda Eder in it.  Actually, the girl that played Lucy couldn't sing her way out of a wet paper bag.  I thought about helping her out some, particularly on Someone Like You...

The rest of the cast was pretty decent.  The guy who played Jekyll/Hyde was quite good, and managed the duet between his two parts very well indeed.  However, the director should be found and slapped about some, because he very obviously directed his actors to showboat.  And that is never okay.  

Showboating is when an actor is onstage and they go to sing their song and they promptly stop acting, face away from whoever they should be singing too, face the audience, locate where the balcony should be and reach out their hand towards it as though they expect a stray bird to land on it or they are grasping an imaginary banana on an imaginary tree.  This is only acceptable if you are in an opera and have just been dealt a fatal blow and must sing about it for the next fifteen minutes. 

I took Cole to see the play tonight.  Yep, I took a 4 year old child to see a play and one that wasn't actually a kids production at that.  Why you might ask?  Why would I drag him to something that he would find boring and where he could possibly bother the other patrons?  Because if I don't then he won't learn how to act and how to appreciate such things.  So, yeah.  He actually seemed to enjoy most of it, particularly the part where Hyde lit the Bishop on fire...

I'm no Eder, cause only Eder is.  But I could still totally sing Lucy.  Just sayin'.