The tickets finally came and Ethan called in to swap The Million Dollar Quartet tickets for Wicked. The phone representative said that was NOT a possibility and all of their representatives knew that and basically accused us of lying. We were very disappointed, but since we had a good experience previously when we took the kids to see Mary Poppins we thought that it would all be worth it.
First came Bubba’s turn for our date to the Blue Man Group. They spent more time with computer effects than music, and a good five minutes of one song went through all the different name variations for someone’s bottom. Good thing that Bubba still finds potty humor hilarious, because it got old really quick for me! Overall it was an entertaining evening.
On Tuesday it was JellyBean’s turn to go with us to see South Pacific. I had her dress up (including wearing high heels) and told her that this is what you did when going to see the fine arts. On arrival we noticed signs warning about cigarette smoking and the use of fog machines. Okay, no big deal, we were up pretty high anyway. Our expectations were high until the show began. I was ready to leave within the first five minutes after listening to Bloody Mary’s continuous yelling of “Cheap Bas….d.” Unfortunately we were in the middle of the row and surrounded by older people. People on the aisle in front of us left after about 15 minutes of listening to the constant profanity that began with the curtain rising and never ended by the time we left. The sexual innuendo was out of control (especially during the song “Nothing Like a Dame”) and I could only hope and pray that my 12 year old didn’t get most of it. I was really looking forward to the “Wash That Man Right out of My Hair” song as I have been singing that song to my kids ever since they were babies when I would wash their hair. I couldn’t even enjoy it because right as the scene started, two different men ran out of the showers in the nude showing their bare back sides! I was shocked and disgusted that I had spent the money to bring my child to a PG-13 play! The final straw was the sex scene before the intermission. I looked at Ethan and we turned to Ellie and said we had to leave. She said “umm, yeah, this isn’t very good.” I hadn’t seen the movie since I was a young teenager, but I really wondered if I remembered the movie incorrectly. I thought it was clean considering the timeframe the original story was written. I went and got a copy from the library. Nope, other than the occasional “Darn” during a song, there was no swearing, no innuendos, nothing…only really cheesy fuzzy lighting during the songs!
Feeling guilty, we took JellyBean for a piece of pie afterwards. My wonderfully insightful husband said, “I want you to take this ticket stub and put it somewhere where you will see it and let it be a reminder that if Mom and Dad are willing to walk out after spending $120 on a play because it’s inappropriate, then it is okay for you to walk out of a $12, $7, or even a $1 movie if it’s inappropriate.”
I’m now a little nervous that the Beauty and the Beast show will have been changed to some transvestite striptease show and I’ll have LouLou with us! Hollywood has a rating for movies, so we can make a consciencious decision if we are going to see a movie or a TV show, why does the “Fine Arts” not need to as well? They are concerned enough with physical health that they have warning signs about fog machines, why are they not concerned about our moral health as well? We will NOT be renewing our season tickets, and for those of you that are concerned for your own high values, I would recommend that you not attend these anymore either.