Tuesday, March 06, 2007

OKLAHOMA!

OKLAHOMA! continued.

Snowed through the night, Friday, and most of the day, Saturday, but the show went on. Actually, temperature near enough to freezing that the main roads were clear.

We got a backstage tour -- here's the theatre interior -- had dinner (Italian), then went to the show.





From the time Laurey (Kaci) walked out of Aunt Eller's cabin singing "Oh, what a beautiful morning," we were captivated. Here's Susie's review and impressions.


"When I was a little girl in the fifth grade, my dad (a high school music teacher in Raton, New Mexico) took my mom, my brother and me to Colorado Springs to see the traveling production of "Oklahoma." What a thrill---that was my first exposure to the musical theatre. A few years later I was cast as Ado Annie in my college production of "Oklahoma." I remember that my dad sat in the balcony, hung over the railing and cried like a baby--from pride, I hope. Little did I know that some fifty years later I would see my precious granddaughter in the leading role of Laurey and not to be outdone by my dad, I cried like a baby.


"Now, of course, we all can brag about our outstanding grandchildren, but I'm here to tell you that she was beyond outstanding! Her reviews have been wonderful and she has great times ahead of her at the music conservatory in her college of choice--Baldwin-Wallace. Interestingly enough, I was able to dig out some old reviews of my college performances and sent them to Kaci. I told her that I didn't want her to think that she got all of her talent from her mother!


"Luckily, we have been able to see a couple of her other performances but this production was staged by the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre and was quite a production. I feel so blessed to be able to travel to see as many of our grandchildren's activities as we have. We now have six grandchildren--Matt (Jeff's son) is all grown up, Tony is attending the College of Santa Fe (close to his Grami and Rob), Andrew in the 8th grade (a drummer and a good soccer player), Jason (a first grader and also a good soccer player) and our new little China doll, Malia. God is good!"

We went back for Sunday matinee and it seemed even better, or maybe it was because we had seats with better acoustics. Of course, the cast loosened up when Ice, the horse that is led on stage at the beginning of the play, loosened up in another way. His trainer soon appeared with a shovel and wet rag and that took care of that.

Monday it was back to Midway Airport, Chicago. We flew to Las Vegas with Heidi for a couple of days of basketball, maybe more -- Mountain West Conference tournaments, men's and women's. Won't report on that. It was in all the papers.

Cheers,

Rob and Susie

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When Kaci heads for New York City she'll have to look Jeff up so they can talk shop. :-)

Glad you were able to see her performance twice!

Karen

Jeff and Valerie said...

She looks just like her grami!