Tap Dancing, Kid's Movies and Tinsel Teeth... My Week at a Glance!

I've had a very busy first week of summer vacation.  I started it off on Sunday with a get together with friends to celebrate Bacon! That's right, a Bacon Day party.  It was good to see many of my Spelling Bee family but I had to take off earlier than I would've liked to go get the boys as Mark was out of town helping shovel and clean in High River. I don't have the boys in camp this week... I do next week and I am glad for that as it is hard to get them moving and doing things and with the heat there have been some tensions... Anyhow, I tried to alleviate that by taking them to a couple of movies. We saw Monsters University which was a very well done prequel to Monsters Inc.  I love that Gibson got the message of the movie (teamwork and playing fair and that cheating does not make you a winner). We also went to Despicable Me 2 - another great kid's movie. The boys declared it better than the first one and I kind of agree.  Gosh, I love those minions! We started the braces process for Oliver this morning so that was the last popcorn for him for about 18 months so we made it count!

Last night I went to Opening Night of Anything Goes at Walterdale.  I sat next to AM and Joan and had good visits with both of them before the show started and afterwards. I had been to the special invite Dress Rehearsal on the weekend so I was literally back for more! The show was tighter and the jokes landed more firmly so I think their two shows with preview audiences got them warmed up properly for Opening Night.  Anything Goes is a riotous little romp of a show.  It's a Cole Porter musical so the songs are familiar and toe-tapping and for one audience member sitting near me they were also sing-along songs. It's interesting for me to see a show from this era. I am so used to the modern musical which has a very different dramatic investment for it's songs.  It's a challenge because I always want to go back to the questions "Why this Show Now?" and after thinking about it, I guess the answer is "For Fun!".  It was certainly a crowd pleaser and even though there are some culturally suspect things that are remnants of the era is was written in, it was easy to be forgiving of the script and just sit back and enjoy. Highlights for me include the crazy chemistry between Kyle Thulien (Billy) and Morgan Smith (Moonface) as they assemble a myriad of disguises and accents.  Morgan Smith is generally a hoot and a half every time he is onstage. Christina O'Dell as showgirl Reno Sweeney belts it out of the park as she tackles the huge role.  Her Reno has swagger and spark and, boy, can she tap dance! The ongoing dynamic between Lauren Kneteman (Erma) and the sailors is a lot of fun to watch and Lauren certainly has the sex-appeal her character brags about! Finally the tap dancing.  I did prefer the section with the smaller group because I could see how clean the dancing was because of there being fewer bodies, but for making an impression there is something incredible about a stage full of tap dancers. Anyhow, it's a fun lighthearted show full of committed performers.  It runs until July 13th.  Opening Night was Sold Out and advance ticket sales are already high for this one, so I would advise getting your tickets in advance if you want to catch it.