Dinner and Grease
What I expected: good show, bad food. What I got: decent show, amazing food.
Six of us got all dressed up last night and went to the Riverside Dinner Theater in Fredericksburg Virginia. It was my first dinner theater and I was excited to go. We learned that we could have shown up an hour later than we did. They said to show up at 6 for dinner and the show will start at 8. Both were true, but the food arrived pretty quickly and we had an hour between dinner and the show. We had a pretty good time in that hour, we can get pretty stupid. I love that about us. One of our party is going to a drama college in North Carolina. He’s a good friend of my oldest daughter and they drove down together. She said that they listened to the Grease soundtrack on the way. She let it slip that they even sang Summer Nights. I asked if they sang the male and female parts, she smiled and said yes, we laughed. I can just picture it.
It was very nice to watch these acting hopefuls (kids) sing their hearts out. Some were good, some weren’t so good. It was cute to watch ‘Sandy’ try to stay in her spot-light during Hopelessly Devoted to You. You could almost see them counting as they moved around the stage. They have a long way to go, but I salute their ambition.
These kids earned their pay last night. Not only did they work the show-acting, singing, technical; they were also our servers. And they do this five days a week. Our waiter Monty is the Senior Lighting Technician. So during intermission, we have Danny Zuko and the rest of the Rydell High seniors running around trying to finish up the meal.
Again, this is a first for me, so I expect the show to be exactly like the movie; the talent’s voices to hit all the right notes; the dialog to match what’s in my head (my all-time favorite show). And of course it’s live theater, so it took a little used to. It was similar to going to rock concerts in my teens (and a little older) and expecting a live show to sound exactly like the *record.* I always hated when the lead singer would change the lyrics during the show. I know it one way and that’s the only way I want to hear it [stomping my foot like a baby].
I’ve attended many a conference dinner and it’s always the same thing…cold bad food. This is exactly what I expected. I was shocked that they even offer New York Steak Strip. Half of our table ordered the steak, the other half ordered the salmon. What a shock it was to received one of the best meals I’d been served in a long time. The steak eaters said it was really good, and my family does a mean NY Strip on our grill. It’s the only time I’ll eat a steak. The salmon fillet was half the size of the plate and delicious. The beans were fresh and the potatoes were to die for. Then there was desert. Between the six of us we had a sampling of all four that they offered. Two people ordered the Chocolate “Nemesis” Cake and both couldn’t finish it because it was too chocolaty. The two most delicious were the Strawberry Amaretto Almond Torte and the Pumpkin Cranberry Cheesecake. Everyone got a taste of them all, there were forks flying.
Good time.
