It’s taken years. Lots of interest on my part has gone unheeded. My mother has dismissed it because she would rather stay local, going anywhere too far from the home like that was too much for her. This from a woman who is already planning a trip to the Philippines to witness the birth of her first grandchild. My father was more indifferent, he really couldn’t care less about it unless it was directly related to one of his two favorite interests: The USMC and firefighting, two careers of which he is incredibly proud.
Well, folks, get out your snowsuits and wool caps because we be having a snow ball fight in the seventh depth tonight! Yes. My parents are going to see their very first Broadway show this fall, the acclaimed Lincoln Center Theatre revival of South Pacific. They’ve actually seen a couple of productions in NY, both off-off Broadway (which to your average John Smith would make them seem a bit theatre-savvy but they’re really not) but this will be the very first on the Main Stem.
For years, I asked to see shows for the usual birthday and Christmas presents. My mother would usually laugh it off, saying no way. And unlike the usual surprises you can get from a mother, mine was pretty much a woman of her word. She much preferred seeing community and high school productions saying she can have a good time anywhere, so long as it’s cheap. I think that was the moment I learned to arch my eyebrow.
Anyway, my overwhelming enthusiasm for this crystalline revival got my father interested. Now my father LOVES South Pacific, almost as much as he worships the grass Julie Andrews twirls on. He may not be a big musical theatre person, but those are two movie musicals he greatly appreciates (an extension goes out to all other Rodgers and Hammerstein shows in the process). Anyway, he was taken aback at the expense but for once the urge to see the show itself outweighed the expense (he was also encouraged yesterday by a golfing buddy who told him he got his tickets already for February). He asked me to look into it. And here we are.
Much to the excitement of the idle poor here, I am incredibly enthused to be going with them (don’t you love it when someone else offers to pay for your theatre?) It’s very exciting to be with a person seeing their first Broadway show. I have been a part of the privilege several times, most recently with my good friend Lauren when I got comps for The Lion King. I took her to see her second show Spring Awakening too. There is great joy in sharing the live theatre experience, an inexplicable intimacy of watching a person take in the grandeur and scope and aesthetic in a Broadway house. Here are my parents, my 67 year old mother and 68 year old father are going to venturing down to the Beaumont for an evening of joyous musical theatre. Who could ask for anything more? Wait, I can. I want them to start going more regularly.
Everyone always remembers their first 😉