Sweeney Todd for Mary, Too!

Mary was hesitant to go with the rest of us to see "Sweeney Todd" at the high school on Thursday, but when she was provided another opportunity^[1] on Saturday, she quickly took advantage of it.

I was a bit jealous, given the number of technical issues which arose on Thursday. It's difficult to fully appreciate the production when there is an announcement just before it begins that the lighting cues have been lost, and they are going to be making them up as they go.

As it turned out, her experience was even more exciting than ours ...

Many of James's friends were planning on attending the Saturday evening show, since it was the last opportunity to see it. Since Mary is familiar with them as well, we decided that it would be OK for her to sit with them during the performance. And then the parents of one of those friends volunteered to drive them all home. Which was very nice.

I drove Mary and James and one of James's friends over to the school. And I went with Mary over to the box office to purchase her ticket (James having gone off to the Pit, and his friend having gone off to find seats). And it was very, very hard not to purchase a ticket for myself as well, although I already had plans to get some things done at home. I couldn't help it; I got more and more excited the closer we got to the auditorium. It's one of those things that happens to people who really enjoy being onstage, or involved in stage productions. Kind of like "the smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd".^[2]

I walked her over to the auditorium, still wishing there wasn't so much work to do at home, thinking to help her find the people with whom she was going to sit, and when we got to the door, who should be gathering tickets but the father of James's friend? Naturally, he let me go in and help Mary find her seat. And I was sorely tempted to stay...

But we must be honest about these things. And, honestly, I just couldn't afford (time-wise) to spend three hours watching something I'd already seen before. And it was probably better for Mary anyway, since she got to hang out with people (roughly) her own age, without the "benefit" of parental oversight.

She's almost all grown up, you know. (Sob!)

So it was back home for me, to slave away on all those home projects which had been ignored for so long; and drama and music and laughter and excitement for those lucky people who got to stay and watch the show.

Afterward, we heard that the musical went very well ... up until about five minutes before the end. When, mysteriously, the smoke alarm went off.

Some people evidently decided to leave the auditorium at that point; others didn't. Perhaps those who didn't leave thought it was part of the show. Oh, well, it was during the last song, there wasn't that much actually "happening", and everyone had already gotten the point of the show.^[3]

There was a rumor that the smoke was caused by a particularly "hot" bass player^[4] down in the Pit. Whose music-stand lamp got overheated for some reason. But no one has been able to substantiate those claims.

Others suspect that the fog machine (which is used during the performance) caused it.

Regardless, Mary thoroughly enjoyed the show, and it is not too far off the mark to say that certain parents still have hopes that they might see their progeny onstage in future high school musical productions.

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^[1]Since James was in the Pit Orchestra, we had to drive him there anyway, so it was very little trouble to add an extra passenger.
^[2]Not "The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd"; that's an Anthony Newley musical from 1962. You probably haven't seen it.
^[3]Which is, of course, don't eat meat pies unless you know what they're made out of.
^[4]By the name of James.