Big River

While attending BYU, I remember heading up to Sundance to catch a musical or concert at the outdoor amphitheater. Such an awesome setting. Mt Timp in the background. Cool, crisp mountain air to bring a little relief from the summer heat.  Miss Kappa Delta and I went up the mountain to see this summer's production of Big River.

Where's Bambi?

It's always fun to see a bunch of deer right when you get out of your car.

In years past, many years past, while I was in school, the musicals put on at Sundance were similar to those they do at Tuacahn in St George, or at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. Performers would come to town for a short few months to participate in the show.  They stopped doing shows for a number of years.  Friends said that they weren't bring in enough revenue, so had to stop.  I was excited to see them start up again.

But now, the shows are  "sponsored" by UVU (Utah Valley University for the out of staters.)  So most of the cast are students at UVU. However the star, Huck Finn - he just graduated from high school. And he was AMAZING!  The boy who played Tom Sawyer, for you Mormons who have seen the new-er Joseph Smith movie, he played 14 year old Joseph in the film.  He was great too. He was all over the stage, hopping and flipping and rolling to get around. The supporting cast was OK, but I wasn't too impressed.

But who I was least impressed with were those in attendance.  We got the the theater about 30 minutes prior to curtain.

You can see we were quite a way from the stage.  See those empty blankets below us? Yah, those people didn't show up until the show started. It was a big family - not as in a big love, polygamist family, as in siblings with their spouses and kids.  Did I mention they brought their kids? Their young kids?  And they brought bags and bags of food and candy (fyi: no outside food is permitted at Sundance.)  The kids didn't want to sit down, they didn't want to be quite. Why would they? They are kids, they are in the mountains. You can't blame them.  Thus, I would have thought there would be an age limit, rather minimum age for patrons.  You would have thought that parents wouldn't want to bring their kids up to the mountain to see a show that began at 8pm and ended at 10:30pm. You would have thought instead of spending money on tickets for the kids, they would have paid less money for a sitter.  Nope?  Now, I'm not against kids - if you know me, you definitely know I love kids.  But I am against young kids at the theater (unless it's The Nutcracker or Annie, etc).  

I'm also against theaters that don't pay attention to and control patron behavior.  Like flash photography during the show (thanks again to the family below us). Like the kids that were running all over the place. Like the group of teenagers behind us who were so loud.  And to word it politely, I am assuming one of the boys ate a lot of beans for dinner and he decided to relieve the built up pressure much to the disgust of the rest of us. Over and over and of course it was follow by laughter and laughter.

So there were lots of distractions. It made it a little difficult to enjoy the show. But I am glad I went.  If nothing else, I am looking for a car right now. Maybe I found the one for me? What do you think?

I mean, I have never actually owned a Barbie doll in my life.

But I believe my niece thinks Barbie's Jeep is pretty darn cool?

Good place to start?

Sorry for all the venting. I've just had a rough time lately - this actually fit right into how everything else has been going. Didn't mean to take it out on my blog readers...