My birthday was on the 24th, but we normally put off any celebrations until the following weekend. Mer was in charge, naturally, since we like to surprise each other on our individual birthdays. Mer added to the fun by having plans for both Friday and Saturday.
On Friday, we headed off through a moderately snowy night to Twinsburg High School, where the Twinsburg Community Theater was putting on a production of the musical The Music Man. The Music Man is a play about how a huckster named Harold Hill dupes an entire town into buying band instruments, and how Harold falls for the town librarian along the way. It is a fun musical that I am quite fond of, and, increasing our interest, there were two CVCA students in the production; one was in the chorus of townspeople and the other was playing the daughter of the mayor. Additionally, the play was directed by a former CVCA mom.
The play turned out to be enormous. When they advertise as a community theater, they were not kidding. They had a cast of over 120 people. Most of those actors played townspeople and sang chorus parts, and many of them were children from about five to about twelve, but it was very impressive to see that many people on stage.
On the whole, the play was solid. Marian, the town librarian, had a beautiful voice and a radiant smile. This was opening night, and it showed in some nerves on the parts of some of the actors – there were some dropped or flubbed lines, and some of the actors had “nervous feet” when they were standing. The backing music for the production was simply played from a computer, which was a little disappointing, but understandable given the size of the on-stage cast. The CVCA girl who played the mayor’s daughter did a fun job with it (the character is pretty ditzy), and Mer and I both had an enjoyable evening.
On Saturday, Mer took me up to the Cleveland area, to a middle school. It turned out that the middle school had a professional-looking auditorium, and we were there to see another musical, by Heights Youth Theater, called A Little Princess. Needless to say, there were a ton of little princesses in the audience. The lead character in the production was being played by a senior at CVCA, and she did a fantastic job. I knew she could act, but I did not know she could sing.
Speaking of singing, the cast was stacked with talent. Most of the actors were in 7th-12th grade, and the vocal and dancing and acting talent were all top-notch. Mer and I both kept looking at our programs to see the ages of the individual actors, and we were almost always imagining them to be several years older than they were. The director also called in a friend of his to play the father of the lead girl, and I about fell out of my chair the first time he sang – he filled the place with his voice. According to his bio in the program, he has acted at Playhouse Square in Cleveland and sung in the Cleveland Opera. What a voice.
So, while I found the plot a bit saccharine, the spectacle on stage was engaging. I was delighted at the songs and the dancing, and that made up for any shortcomings in the story.
After the show, Mer took me to a burger joint called B Spot. I had wanted to try the place for some time, based on some pictures I saw of their shakes, which looked pretty amazing. They were, and the burgers and fries were pretty tasty too. After supper, we wandered over to Barnes and Noble. Mer had a gift card for the store, and we happily found out that you could use the gift card in the cafe. So, we loaded up on several pastries, and headed home with our baked goods.
Lest you think that my birthday was simply about seeing CVCA students perform in musicals, Mer also gave me tickets for us to go see Guys and Dolls at Playhouse Square in the spring. I love that musical, but have only seen it once at a community theater; I am looking forward to seeing what the Playhouse can do with it.