Friday, February 28, 2003
There was a brief scare in the afternoon with regards the babysitter, as the one we had originally arranged for came down with Chicken Pox. Erika managed to get the mother of one of our semi-regular baby-sitters to come over instead, solving the potential problem.
I met Erika close to the theatre at Fune, which apparently bills itself as Canada's largest floating sushi bar. Appetizers: deep sea scallops and sushi beef, both excellent. For our meal we ordered their sushi/sashimi assortment for two people. Melt in your mouth sushi – yum! At the sushi bar we could see the fellow who must have been the master chef come in do the cutting – scraping off a piece of fat here, stripping off and throwing away a slice that seemed okay, and particular cuts for specific kinds of fish: sometimes a curving cut, sometimes straight, sometimes slanted. It was easy to see why a master sushi chef is years in the training. And it certainly came through in the quality of the sushi – will have to head back there sometime. Feeling stuffed and weighty, we headed over to the Royal Alex about 20 minutes before showtime.
Got into our seats and sat back to enjoy the show. Unfortunately the amplified music was too loud for us to properly hear the vocals. The show itself is cute and fluffy – it's not the sort of play that stays with you. Boy, is this a "Me Generation" show – ostensibly about the wedding of a young "Generation Y" to her boyfriend, the heart of the show is with the mother who had one too many flings in the late 70s and doesn't exactly know who the father of her daughter is. What begins as a simple love story becomes an overview of contemporary mores. It's all handled very well and it's clever, but I couldn't help thinking it a bit unsettling that ultimately the Mother usurps her daughter's wedding. I also can't help thinking that this will all look very dated in another 20 years or so. The story also manages to throw away a lot of interesting characters – many pop up only to disappear after a scene. A slightly longer show, more talk, less trying to squeeze in an Abba song to fit would have made this a more memorable play. Still, it was fun and enjoyable, just not the sort of theatre that comes back and haunts your thoughts. Most memorable comic piece is a dance number where all of the guys are wearing flippers and masks, as well as a finale number where the main characters all dress up in over-the-top disco garb. One of the most clever aspects of the show was the finale and encore, where, once people have stood up to clap, there begins a trio of the more danceable Abba songs intended to get the audience dancing in the aisles. This being a stolid Toronto audience, no such luck on that score. ;-)
Afterwards we headed to The Kit Kat to have a drink, and listen to a set of really good jazz before heading home exhausted but happy.
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