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Jest Vist'in Dogpatch USA
Jun. 16th, 2006 10:19 amOr actually East Haddam Connecticut. The Goodspeed Operahouse currently is presenting Lil' Abner which is a fine musical. Peter is a big fan of both the original comic and the musical. He wrote about his adventures as Marry'in Sam in his BID column a number of years ago. I can't even remember how we found out about it, I think it was a review in Variety, but once we knew it existed we also knew that we had to find a way to see it since Goodspeed is well known for its fine shows.
Father's Day is coming up and a number of years ago, we estimate about 5, we had gone up there to see "Man of La Mancha" for the same holiday. We called up out favorite Bed and Breakfast up in the area. A wonderful place we can highly recommend called Bishopsgate Inn. They had rooms available during the week but not Father's Day weekend because of a music festival that happens about the same time every year. So we checked Ariel's exam schedule and found that she didn't have any Regents exams either Wednesday or Thursday. They have a Wednesday matinee at Goodspeed so it seems a good time to go since we won't be taking Caroline to the show. Peter would see it with Ariel in the afternoon and then we would see it in the evening.
The drive up was not too bad. We used US 1 to get around some horrible traffic (we think an accident) on 95 and made it up to East Haddam in good time. We had lunch at one of the local restaurants situated right across from the theater. I then took Caroline to this great Ice Cream and Candy shop up the hill from the theater. She munched down on a cup of chocolate while the owner and I ended up discussing the last two seasons of Battlestar Galatica since he had the DVD on for background. One of the reason I do love small towns is that you can strike up conversations just about anywhere with people you have never met and might never meet again. Caroline and I went back to the B&B and she played in the yard until the show was over.
Peter and Ariel took our Broadway Bear which is dressed up as Daisy Mae from the original production of Lil' Abner and signed by Edie Adams. Peter got this Daisy Mae's attention when she was waiting in the wings to go on for curtain call. She saw the bear and gave out a gasp. After the show Peter and Ariel met with most of the cast who all wanted to see the bear. They got the key members to sign it and Peter promised that he would bring the bear back for the evening performance. They had a lot of fun and walked back to the B&B.
We went to dinner at a pizza place that we had eaten at all those years ago and remembered it as very good. Our memory was good and we had really great pizza again. Caroline fell asleep on the bench next to Peter so we took her pizza home. Ariel had a big plate of calamari and pasta with extra tentacles (well not really it just seems that way). We made it back in fine time for the evening performance since it was at 7:30 not 7:00 as we believed. This gave Peter and I time to go look at the local bookstore that is run by a very delightful couple. They are both very passionate about books and have a good selection of both local works and many difference subjects that are of interest in the community. There was a signing going on that evening so we had to cut our visit short there but I think when we go back, we are going to there again.
The show was lots of fun. The set and costume designers used a really great idea for the show that worked so well. I could tell that this idea did put a lot more on both the set and costume builders having done the same sort of concept for a Moliere play oh so many years ago. The casting of the show was very well done. The actor they had playing Abner could have been a model for Frazette's run on the strip. So a good evening was had by all. I carried the bear because Daisy Mae wanted to get a picture of her and the bear and along the way got to tell a lot of people about Broadway Cares and Broadway Bears. I know a couple of people are going to check it out on the web and I might have some new blood for the auction as well. I know I did make more people aware of the organization.
Peter and I stayed in the Jenny Lind room again. Caroline and Ariel were going to share a room but because of a number of factors, we put Caroline in a cot in our room which turned out to be a good thing in the long run. She was having a hard time getting to sleep and needed Mommy and Daddy to get her to nod off. She also got up at her usual cheerful 7:00 AM. We had a wonderful breakfast the next morning and then worked our way home so we could take care of some stuff we needed to do and we arrived home in fine time.
I am grateful that we went to see Lil' Abner.
Father's Day is coming up and a number of years ago, we estimate about 5, we had gone up there to see "Man of La Mancha" for the same holiday. We called up out favorite Bed and Breakfast up in the area. A wonderful place we can highly recommend called Bishopsgate Inn. They had rooms available during the week but not Father's Day weekend because of a music festival that happens about the same time every year. So we checked Ariel's exam schedule and found that she didn't have any Regents exams either Wednesday or Thursday. They have a Wednesday matinee at Goodspeed so it seems a good time to go since we won't be taking Caroline to the show. Peter would see it with Ariel in the afternoon and then we would see it in the evening.
The drive up was not too bad. We used US 1 to get around some horrible traffic (we think an accident) on 95 and made it up to East Haddam in good time. We had lunch at one of the local restaurants situated right across from the theater. I then took Caroline to this great Ice Cream and Candy shop up the hill from the theater. She munched down on a cup of chocolate while the owner and I ended up discussing the last two seasons of Battlestar Galatica since he had the DVD on for background. One of the reason I do love small towns is that you can strike up conversations just about anywhere with people you have never met and might never meet again. Caroline and I went back to the B&B and she played in the yard until the show was over.
Peter and Ariel took our Broadway Bear which is dressed up as Daisy Mae from the original production of Lil' Abner and signed by Edie Adams. Peter got this Daisy Mae's attention when she was waiting in the wings to go on for curtain call. She saw the bear and gave out a gasp. After the show Peter and Ariel met with most of the cast who all wanted to see the bear. They got the key members to sign it and Peter promised that he would bring the bear back for the evening performance. They had a lot of fun and walked back to the B&B.
We went to dinner at a pizza place that we had eaten at all those years ago and remembered it as very good. Our memory was good and we had really great pizza again. Caroline fell asleep on the bench next to Peter so we took her pizza home. Ariel had a big plate of calamari and pasta with extra tentacles (well not really it just seems that way). We made it back in fine time for the evening performance since it was at 7:30 not 7:00 as we believed. This gave Peter and I time to go look at the local bookstore that is run by a very delightful couple. They are both very passionate about books and have a good selection of both local works and many difference subjects that are of interest in the community. There was a signing going on that evening so we had to cut our visit short there but I think when we go back, we are going to there again.
The show was lots of fun. The set and costume designers used a really great idea for the show that worked so well. I could tell that this idea did put a lot more on both the set and costume builders having done the same sort of concept for a Moliere play oh so many years ago. The casting of the show was very well done. The actor they had playing Abner could have been a model for Frazette's run on the strip. So a good evening was had by all. I carried the bear because Daisy Mae wanted to get a picture of her and the bear and along the way got to tell a lot of people about Broadway Cares and Broadway Bears. I know a couple of people are going to check it out on the web and I might have some new blood for the auction as well. I know I did make more people aware of the organization.
Peter and I stayed in the Jenny Lind room again. Caroline and Ariel were going to share a room but because of a number of factors, we put Caroline in a cot in our room which turned out to be a good thing in the long run. She was having a hard time getting to sleep and needed Mommy and Daddy to get her to nod off. She also got up at her usual cheerful 7:00 AM. We had a wonderful breakfast the next morning and then worked our way home so we could take care of some stuff we needed to do and we arrived home in fine time.
I am grateful that we went to see Lil' Abner.
