“Would you like an adventure now, or would like to have your tea first?”

Darren and I saw Peter and the Starcatcher last night. It’s pretty rare for him to come to a show with me, but when I told him it was supposed to be super funny and wasn’t really a musical, he was on board. It is essentially a prequel to Peter Pan. The book that the play is based on was co-written by Dave Barry, so I was feeling optimistic.

The show moves quickly and can get a bit quiet, so you definitely have to pay attention. They do sing, but not all the time. The humor is pretty corny over all, but it’s a family show so it works. Also, there are many puns! Many, many puns. And the bit that happens when Black Stache (Captain Hook, pre-hook and super campy) gets his hand cut off is the kind of bit that’s sort of funny, then not funny, then suddenly hilarious. There’s a lot of physical humor, which I like.

There is one woman in the show. She plays a 13 year old girl (who is one of the Starcatchers and the main character) and sounds like a 35 year old woman in a way that was kind of annoying and a little distracting. She’s super talented though. Her voice can’t be helped so what can ya do. The one other prominent female character, the nanny, is played by a dude who also plays multiple other characters. Totally funny but kind of a bummer with the lack of women. Lady pirates can totally be a thing, y’all! Lady pirates are the best pirates.

We both enjoyed the play; so did all of my coworkers who saw it, and the couple Kate and I sort of know from all the after-parties we end up at together. Apparently a lot of people didn’t. About six people sitting in front of us left at intermission, and two of my coworkers said the same thing happened where they were sitting (I believe they were not sitting in the same location). I haven’t heard any complaints yet, so we’ll see.

We hit the after-party for about an hour. Had a beer, shared some chips with a pirate, ate some tiny burgers. Hooray me for finally getting out of the apartment! I’ll make up for it tonight by watching TV at home in the dark.

I don’t think that means what you think it means

One post a month is apparently the new normal here. Unfortunately this has been a sad but otherwise unremarkable November. Such is life.

A couple weeks ago, Darren expressed an interest in seeing We Will Rock You, which is playing here this week. So we went, and it was not great. It was also not the worst – that honor still goes to 101 Dalmatians the Musical – but it has a weak plot, hokey dialogue, and there are several instances where they’ve changed the lyrics to Queen’s music in order to make it more modern. Radio Ga Ga is suddenly a song about the internet and it pains me. Brian May and Roger Taylor collaborated with the show’s writer and that might make it worse somehow, like how could they let this happen? They way they try to work the songs into the plot is so, so awkward. It’s also weird to hear Queen sung by not-Freddie Mercury or that guy from YouTube who sounds just like him. Under Pressure sung by not-Mercury and not-Bowie is so much less impressive.

Also, the people sitting behind us were drunk, loud, and the one dude in the group legit passed out and was snoring. These were people twice my age, mind you. I was seated next to a coworker and once intermission rolled around she asked them to be more respectful. They were pretty rude about it, but there was a little improvement for the second act.

After curtain-call the entire cast sang Bohemian Rhapsody (like this, but minus Brian May of course), which I knew was happening at some point, so that was pretty rad. Over all, I’m glad I got to see it but I’m also glad I didn’t have to pay for it.

What else? One of my air plants did not survive long. I think it was still a little wet when it was shipped – actually, they came wrapped in plastic and there was some moisture in the bag when they arrived, so yeah. I didn’t think much of it at first, until I realized the one was showing some signs of some rot. I failed to save it, sadly, but the other two are thriving. They’ve grown, even.

Darren and I have been making an effort to mix up our dinner routine. Expect some future posts about whim-based cooking, including popovers, a tasty but slightly failed Yorkshire pudding, and lots of soups.

Hey, girl, sorry my shirt fell off.

This weekend was the best. Minus the pants shopping, but that wasn’t so terrible.

I had a Groupon for Stella’s Fish Cafe in Uptown, so Darren and I went for lunch on Saturday. Oh. My. Goodness.

Let’s start with the oyster appetizer. You may not know this about me, but I love oysters. Squeeze a little lemon juice on those suckers… yum.

One of our oysters was not like the others.

Please note the giant.

Darren make silly faces.

Darren had Norwegian Salmon with asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes, I had the lobster roll. Darren thought his salmon was good but under-cooked. I could have sat there eating lobster rolls all day. Well, my stomach couldn’t, but my mouth wanted to.

Later, I headed over to Kate’s to help with show stuff. If you weren’t aware, Prospero is staging a reading of 8 the play next month. If you’re in the Twin Cities area, please come! You can watch the entire thing on You Tube, also. Anyway, after we wrapped that up, we walked over to Gabe’s for tots and boneless chicken wings. Tots were good, wings will never be as good as Green Mill’s diablo wings.

Today was another Kate-and-Katrina day. We hit up River Falls to check out the antique and thrift stores on Main Street. There was some kind of classic car thing going on too, which was pretty cool to look at. We ate tasty bar food and fro-yo, and did plenty of wandering. I didn’t find anything super special, but Kate picked up an awesome yellow purse. I did spot this Ryan Gosling meme-inspired sign in an antique store:

I will never get sick of Pyrex.

After I got home I decided it was time for a jaunt to Goodwill to see if I could find some pants that fit. I’ve shrunk out of most of mine (bragplaint), and need something for work that looks a little better than the baggy pants I have now. It bums me out because I love my current pants and they’re totally still wearable, but they don’t look particularly polished now that they’re so loose.

I found noting. I did grab a pair of jeans and a cute cable-knit top that actually looks good, plus a shirt for Darren. That’s enough of a win for me.

Now I’m off to do some POP Pilates and cling to the last few hours of the weekend.

Rather gaudy, but also rather grand

Last night was opening night for La Cage Aux Folles in Minneapolis. Since my regular show date – Ms. Kate – is in Ireland right now,  I took Eric with me.

First, the show was delightful. George Hamilton is maybe getting a bit old (Eric pointed out that Jean-Michael was supposedly conceived during a “youthful indiscretion,” and said character is 24 years old. With Mr. Hamilton playing Georges, his 25-years-ago youthful indiscretion would have occurred when he was 47), but he was fun to see. Christopher Sieber as Albin, though. Dang. Dude OWNED that show. Fantastic. It was fun and funny and you should see it if you can.

So then there was the cast party. Eric and I hunkered down with some wine and I confess: waited for Mr. Sieber. We didn’t want to be creepers and interrupt his socializing and his eating, but eventually we managed a quick and hopefully not totally douchey hello, amazing job, quick photo op sort of thing.

After our fangirl moment, we slinked away and found ourselves mingling with a couple of La Cage’s drag queens. We ended up at the Brass Rail with them and Jeigh Madjus, who plays Jacob. He is tiny and wonderful. We socialized a little, but Eric and I mostly stuck to the bar until the hour became too ridiculous. We cabbed it back to St. Paul and I got to bed at about 3 am. Horrific.

My alarm went off at 7 and I wanted to punch myself in the face for staying out so late, but I did have a really good time. Fortunately I’m not dying today. Just quite sleepy.

So! To the cast and crew of La Cage Aux Folles: keep up the good work. Thank you for letting us tag along and I hope we weren’t total assholes.

I’ll post pictures once I get my paws on them.

*EDIT:

Here is ah picture, stolen from Eric’s Tumblr.

Me, Eric, Jeigh