Alley Cats

Well, I clearly need to turn in my Man Card. I turned down a free ticket to go see the Milwaukee Bucks play the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight and instead ended up taking the girls to see a local high school production of Cats.

We met up with a friend of theirs and her dad, had a nice dinner (well, a serviceable dinner - buffet places are good for that and no more - but the conversation was lively) and made it to the show with minutes to spare. We even managed to get seats that were more or less together, way over on house left, which was quite a feat. The box office lady told us we should go buy lottery tickets tonight.

They sure are more ambitious in high school theater departments these days than they were when I was part of one. We would never have tried something like this - it was all we could do to manage Oklahoma! Although it did hit me about halfway through the show that Cats has about the same chronological relationship to these students that Oklahoma! did to us, debuting on Broadway about a decade before they were born. This made me feel older than I wished to feel. I'm getting used to that, though

The students did a creditable job, really. They were strong on the dancing aspects, particularly, and the set was clever. The singing was, well, earnest. There really wasn't anyone in the cast with a particularly strong voice, though the choral numbers were well done. The director was big on quarter notes where a little syncopation would have gone well, and I get the feeling he emphasized the idea of restraint a bit more than he should have - come on, people, this was from the 80s, the decade that defined "wretched excess;" live it up a little - but overall it wasn't bad.

After the show Tabitha, Lauren and their friend Isabelle took off into the lobby where the cast members were milling around, each armed with a program and a pen. Lauren was content to walk around and gaze at the fully-costumed actors, but the older girls ended up with a fair amount of autographs from the cast. They had a wonderful time.

Honestly, a musical about cats - how could they not have a good time?

As for me, I'm sure I enjoyed this more than I would have enjoyed a professional basketball game. Kim went to the game, though - she used to be the statistician for her high school and college basketball teams, so she understands the sport in a way that escapes me now - and since she didn't have to keep stats, she could just relax and enjoy it.

So it was a win all around.

I suppose I should do something manly now, just to even things out.  Perhaps I will find a power tool of some kind and build something.  Or perhaps I'll just let the emergency room doctors have the night off instead.