Last Saturday was “Mer’s day”:  she was in charge, and she surprised me by heading up to Cleveland, to the campus of John Carroll, where we met up with one of our former students, Kim. Kim is a freshman at John Carroll, and we were both very fond of her when she was at CVCA. Kim was in my Irish dance club and my improv group, and she was in Mer’s English classes.

Kim took us around the campus, showing us various buildings, including her simple, but pleasant, dorm room. We got to meet Kim’s roommate, who comes from Michigan and was very affable to two people she had never met and were not of her generation. I enjoyed the campus very much – it is spread out and features harmonious buildings made of red brick.

We took Kim out to supper; we walked to the north end of campus to go to an Italian place that was quite good. We chatted and ate and had a good time, although Kim noticed I was a tad low-energy from not having eaten much that day. After supper, Kim had to go get ready for her job, which was being part of the crew for the university’s fall musical, Legally Blonde. I figured we were there to see the play as well as Kim, and I was correct. We walked Kim back to the main part of campus before Mer and I turned around and headed back to the north end. We had some time before the start of the show, and we had seen a Ben and Jerry’s scoop shop near the Italian restaurant. We grabbed dessert there and headed back for the show.

Let’s get one thing out of the way – Legally Blonde is based on the movie that came out about a decade ago, and both the movie and musical are total fluff. Having said that, fluff can still be quite entertaining, and this production was. The music was upbeat and fun, the lead actors were all good, and the set was pretty extensive. The lead actress, playing Elle, was very upbeat, smiling and energetic throughout the play. She made her scenes fun to watch. Mer and I already knew the plot, so the interest was in the music and in seeing how the adaptation would handle the transition to the stage. It worked, and while I was not moved to mull deep thoughts, and I did not rush out to buy the soundtrack, I did have a really fun evening at the theater, and we had the bonus of being able to see Kim again briefly after the show.