The Kids Are In Love, with The Sound of Music
I know you are supposed to try to expose your children to the arts. If I were a better parent I would take them to museums (and not just the kind where you play with all the stuff). I’d track down a performance of Peter and the Wolf or the concert of some children’s musician. I’d read them classic fairy tales and poetry. But sometimes all that stuff seems like a lot of work and a lot of stress for very little payoff. If you arrive at a concert hall only to discover that your kiddie cannot stand the noise of an orchestra, then you have not only thrown away your ticket money, but also annoyed countless people all in a misguided attempt to introduce him to culture that he probably couldn’t care less about yet. Is it like vegetables, where if you keep pushing it on them they will eventually start to like it? Or is it like touching the stove, where the burn keeps them from ever going near it again?
Now that our three are a bit older and wiser, I decided that maybe we would venture out into the art world and see what happened. Today the kiddies and I attended an on post performance of The Sound of Music. The “on post” part was attractive to me because it meant the tickets would not be too expensive. The proximity of the theater to our house was also important because none of the kids could fall asleep in the 3 minutes it took to drive there.
I had been debating about whether or not to take them from the time I saw the announcement in the local paper. I knew that the girls would love the show, that they would be well-behaved, and that it would likely hold their attention because there were actual children playing the children. What I was not so sure of was how Marty would take the whole experience, and more importantly, what caliber of performer lurks in the on post play house. I also didn’t know how the kiddies would react to the whole fleeing Austria part of the play since as far as they know, the movie ends with Maria and the Captain getting married. I have kept them in the dark partly because I shelter them and partly because the movie is so stinking long just to get to the wedding, I feel it is a good breaking point.
However, since we didn’t have anyone lined up to visit this weekend and since yesterday I exhausted the time consuming running errands and gardening portions of the weekend, I figured I’d better line something up for this afternoon or the kids and I would likely find ourselves at odds. Learning from my past mistakes, I did some extremely careful planning. First, I didn’t tell the kids where we were going until 30 minutes before we were leaving. Second, I didn’t put Marty down for a nap, because I figured if he was tired enough, he could sleep through the first act of the play. After all, he slept through a good deal of the circus a few months ago. Third, I remembered to have the girls go to the bathroom seconds before we left so that they would not have to leave our seats during the show.
Everything on our end went rather smoothly, and we ended up with seats on the aisle, so I knew we could make a hasty exit if we needed to. Unfortunately, the man who took my ticket reservation gave me bad advice and said the theater was going to be so packed I should get there 45 minutes before showtime. Clearly that was not going to happen, but we did get there 25 minutes early, and then the show started at least 15 minutes late. Every time I thought things were about to get underway, another little old lady would shuffle off to the bathroom, and the curtain would be held for another few minutes. The girls were treated to 40 minutes of all the kids around them eating popcorn. I promised them we could get some at halftime (they have seen a lot of sporting events and not so many plays – they weren’t familiar with the word intermission) in another bid to secure their good behavior. Since the room was dim and noisy, Marty immediately went into a defensive slouch and fell asleep on my lap (and turned into a human fireball) 20 minutes before the show started.
But once the show started, everything was great. The performers were shockingly good, professional quality singers (I later had a chance to look at the program and a bunch of the performers were from the nearby Governor’s School for the Arts). Although the play is really long and the theater was sweltering, the girls soldiered through the first act without any complaining or major fidgeting. Marty woke up with about 15 minutes to go in the first act, but he didn’t cry or get noisy. (For a report on intermission, click here). They were much less enthused at the start of the second act, since most of their favorite songs had been sung in the first act, but they eventually got caught up in the action again, probably because most of what goes on in the second act is the stuff from the movie that they’ve never seen.
I have seen many musicals in my life, but most of them were in the theater of my brothers’ high school. When I was in grade school, my aunt took us to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Ford’s Theater in Washington (which was a bonus because we got to go across the street into the house where they took Lincoln after he was shot). I’m pretty sure the next professional production I saw was Phantom of the Opera in Philadelphia after I was married. While we were in Kentucky, the HP and I saw a few shows in Louisville, one of which was a retrospective of Frank Sinatra songs. I think all the rest were straight plays.
As I look back on that short list of musicals, I feel a little sad, because I love musicals. I love show tunes. Why don’t I go out and see musicals more often? Oh yeah, I have kids now. The HP and I choose our entertainment based on the calendar, not based on what we would really like to see or do. If a babysitter is available, we see what’s playing and pick from those options rather than buying tickets for something we’d love to see and then trying in vain to pin down a babysitter. This sad situation is the reason we saw Road to Perdition in a movie theater even though it violated ever criteria I have for paying to see a movie (including it has to have at least a few lighthearted moments and it has to have a happy ending).
But we should make more of an effort to get to the theater and see plays with the kids and without them. I know lots of people that go to New York to see a show every year, but that never really appealed to me (I love New York as much as the next girl, but I don’t want to go there on a bus). But now that I’ve seen that even a small theater in Virginia can put on a musical with talented singers and musicians (who are working for free) maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the thought of attending a musical in other local venues. Maybe I should check the schedule of that Governor’s High School - I bet they put on musicals too. Even with the human radiator on my lap this afternoon and two other kiddies to keep an eye on, I was still at times transported out of the everyday and into somebody else’s world. I could do with a little transporting now and then, especially after spending so much time worrying about the current events in my world.
The Sound of Music did some time as the girls’ favorite movie, and in fact in inspired Lauren to carry around and talk to an imaginary set of seven children for almost a year. She was always giving us updates on Gretl’s bad behavior, and how the Captain was 100 years old, and how Liesl always eats brownies for breakfast because that’s what Maria told her to do. She hardly ever mentions the seven children anymore, which makes me a little sad to think she is growing up so quickly. However, at one point during the show, Lauren put her hand on my arm and whispered, “Mommy, I was so busy watching the show, I forgot that Aislinn was with us.” I’m sure for a moment she had forgotten that anyone was with her, because she was transported to Austria, and she was marching and singing with the Von Trapp family.
Now that our three are a bit older and wiser, I decided that maybe we would venture out into the art world and see what happened. Today the kiddies and I attended an on post performance of The Sound of Music. The “on post” part was attractive to me because it meant the tickets would not be too expensive. The proximity of the theater to our house was also important because none of the kids could fall asleep in the 3 minutes it took to drive there.
I had been debating about whether or not to take them from the time I saw the announcement in the local paper. I knew that the girls would love the show, that they would be well-behaved, and that it would likely hold their attention because there were actual children playing the children. What I was not so sure of was how Marty would take the whole experience, and more importantly, what caliber of performer lurks in the on post play house. I also didn’t know how the kiddies would react to the whole fleeing Austria part of the play since as far as they know, the movie ends with Maria and the Captain getting married. I have kept them in the dark partly because I shelter them and partly because the movie is so stinking long just to get to the wedding, I feel it is a good breaking point.
However, since we didn’t have anyone lined up to visit this weekend and since yesterday I exhausted the time consuming running errands and gardening portions of the weekend, I figured I’d better line something up for this afternoon or the kids and I would likely find ourselves at odds. Learning from my past mistakes, I did some extremely careful planning. First, I didn’t tell the kids where we were going until 30 minutes before we were leaving. Second, I didn’t put Marty down for a nap, because I figured if he was tired enough, he could sleep through the first act of the play. After all, he slept through a good deal of the circus a few months ago. Third, I remembered to have the girls go to the bathroom seconds before we left so that they would not have to leave our seats during the show.
Everything on our end went rather smoothly, and we ended up with seats on the aisle, so I knew we could make a hasty exit if we needed to. Unfortunately, the man who took my ticket reservation gave me bad advice and said the theater was going to be so packed I should get there 45 minutes before showtime. Clearly that was not going to happen, but we did get there 25 minutes early, and then the show started at least 15 minutes late. Every time I thought things were about to get underway, another little old lady would shuffle off to the bathroom, and the curtain would be held for another few minutes. The girls were treated to 40 minutes of all the kids around them eating popcorn. I promised them we could get some at halftime (they have seen a lot of sporting events and not so many plays – they weren’t familiar with the word intermission) in another bid to secure their good behavior. Since the room was dim and noisy, Marty immediately went into a defensive slouch and fell asleep on my lap (and turned into a human fireball) 20 minutes before the show started.
But once the show started, everything was great. The performers were shockingly good, professional quality singers (I later had a chance to look at the program and a bunch of the performers were from the nearby Governor’s School for the Arts). Although the play is really long and the theater was sweltering, the girls soldiered through the first act without any complaining or major fidgeting. Marty woke up with about 15 minutes to go in the first act, but he didn’t cry or get noisy. (For a report on intermission, click here). They were much less enthused at the start of the second act, since most of their favorite songs had been sung in the first act, but they eventually got caught up in the action again, probably because most of what goes on in the second act is the stuff from the movie that they’ve never seen.
I have seen many musicals in my life, but most of them were in the theater of my brothers’ high school. When I was in grade school, my aunt took us to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Ford’s Theater in Washington (which was a bonus because we got to go across the street into the house where they took Lincoln after he was shot). I’m pretty sure the next professional production I saw was Phantom of the Opera in Philadelphia after I was married. While we were in Kentucky, the HP and I saw a few shows in Louisville, one of which was a retrospective of Frank Sinatra songs. I think all the rest were straight plays.
As I look back on that short list of musicals, I feel a little sad, because I love musicals. I love show tunes. Why don’t I go out and see musicals more often? Oh yeah, I have kids now. The HP and I choose our entertainment based on the calendar, not based on what we would really like to see or do. If a babysitter is available, we see what’s playing and pick from those options rather than buying tickets for something we’d love to see and then trying in vain to pin down a babysitter. This sad situation is the reason we saw Road to Perdition in a movie theater even though it violated ever criteria I have for paying to see a movie (including it has to have at least a few lighthearted moments and it has to have a happy ending).
But we should make more of an effort to get to the theater and see plays with the kids and without them. I know lots of people that go to New York to see a show every year, but that never really appealed to me (I love New York as much as the next girl, but I don’t want to go there on a bus). But now that I’ve seen that even a small theater in Virginia can put on a musical with talented singers and musicians (who are working for free) maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the thought of attending a musical in other local venues. Maybe I should check the schedule of that Governor’s High School - I bet they put on musicals too. Even with the human radiator on my lap this afternoon and two other kiddies to keep an eye on, I was still at times transported out of the everyday and into somebody else’s world. I could do with a little transporting now and then, especially after spending so much time worrying about the current events in my world.
The Sound of Music did some time as the girls’ favorite movie, and in fact in inspired Lauren to carry around and talk to an imaginary set of seven children for almost a year. She was always giving us updates on Gretl’s bad behavior, and how the Captain was 100 years old, and how Liesl always eats brownies for breakfast because that’s what Maria told her to do. She hardly ever mentions the seven children anymore, which makes me a little sad to think she is growing up so quickly. However, at one point during the show, Lauren put her hand on my arm and whispered, “Mommy, I was so busy watching the show, I forgot that Aislinn was with us.” I’m sure for a moment she had forgotten that anyone was with her, because she was transported to Austria, and she was marching and singing with the Von Trapp family.
posted by Shannon at 11:33 PM
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