Tale As Old As Time - A Great Night out with Friends!

On Saturday, Mark and I attended the Broadway Across Canada production of Beauty and the Beast at the Jube. We have season's tickets and we go with our good friends, Richie and Veronica, so we get to see some musical theatre and connect with our friends at least 3 times a year. I had seen 2 other productions of Beauty & the Beast previously and Mark had seen one other (not the same ones though) and we have probably seen the Disney cartoon over 25 times so we were travelling in familiar territory. I quite liked it. It was better than the 2 productions I have seen (one a community production and the other and hybrid semi-pro production) and finally I saw a production that did proper service to Be Our Guest. I felt the ending hit the right emotional notes and I even got a little teary-eyed. I did feel that there were a couple performers who would not have careers if it weren't for the technological support of the microphones just because their voices lacked real power, but they were miked so it was covered. Mark said he preferred the production he saw previously (The Citadel's from a few years ago) but that he enjoyed the night. The evening, however, was great fun. So nice to go for dinner with friends and see a fun show and then go for dessert after the show. We felt like grown-ups.

Oh, and this is the first of my intended 40 theatrical or arts events of the year!

Completely Enchanted...

Last night Mark and I took the girls from the store out for dinner as a thank you for the great work this past year. Afterwards we went to WEM and saw Enchanted. I was hopeful ever since I first saw the trailer almost a year ago and I was completely enchanted with it. For a Disneyphile like myself it was perfect! The production number in the park was a major highlight stealing ideas from Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. There were also nods to other Menken show (theme songs on the TV shows, etc...). I also loved that Idina Menzel was the actress who ended up with the Prince. I didn't clue in that it was her until I realized that it was her voice on the soundtrack. DUH! I knew she looked familiar. Great movie!