REVIEW: PIRATES OF PENZANCE.

As mentioned in my previous post, Uncle Fun was only the first part of our cultural doubleheader this past Sunday.  After that show, we hightailed it over to Evanston's Cahn Auditorium to see Music Theater Work's excellent show Pirates of Penzance, complete with giant cast and 26 piece orchestra. (That production plays on through June 17, and is a great production to make your child's first Gilbert and Sullivan- it's beautifully done, well-performed, and Pirates itself is a classic. And tickets for those 25 and under are half price! If you want to buy tickets, go here right now. Don't worry, I'll wait!)

GETTING THERE.

We had some setbacks getting there.  Uncle Fun started at 11:30 and was supposed to end at around  12:30.  That gave us an hour and a half to drive to Evanston, grab a quick bite, and get to the Cahn Auditorium (on the Northwestern Campus).  Plenty of time!  HOWEVER:

• Uncle Fun was nearly filled, so they delayed the showtime to make sure everybody was seated (they completely sold out the other two screenings!)
• There was an extra long Q & A, about 15 minutes long.
• We had to park about a 3 minute walk away from the theatre.
• We drove to Evanston, as we drove there, I estimated that our best bet was to get fast food (even though my son and I are not big fans)  I chose the Evanston Burger King on Orrington, since it's so close to the theatre.
  

  

  James Harms (Major-General Stanley) and ensemble.
  PHOTO CREDIT BY BRETT BEINER
• My son was cranky, and elected to stay in the car and rest his eyes while I grabbed the food.
• That Burger King is the slowest in the world.  They had one person doing everything, and even though there was one person ahead of me, it took me about 15 minutes to get our food.
• When I got out to the car, it turned out that for some reason, my son had a bloody nose in the car and was panicked!  (He sometimes gets them when the weather changes, as do I!)  He did the right thing though, and found tissues and napkins in the car.  (He should have come out and got me, but he was afraid that the alarm in the car would have gone off)  I calmed him down, washed the blood off his hands, shirt and face, and drove the five minutes or so to Cahn, while eating our terribly greasy food.
  
  

  

  Larry Adams (Pirate King, center) and ensemble.

  PHOTO CREDIT BY BRETT BEINER
• I went the wrong way and missed Cahn the first time (lots of one way streets in Evanston)  Managed to find street parking (also about 3 minutes away from the theatre) and we walked into the theatre's box office  at 2:01 pm. The show had not yet begun.
• There was a lady ahead of us at Will Call, who was stubbornly asking how to leave a ticket for her husband who was parking.  She didn't seem to understand what the box office attendant was saying, and he had to repeat everything three times.
• We made it into the theatre, sat down, and thought we made it.  That's when my son realized he had to use the bathroom.  
• We made it back into the theatre as the lights were going down and the music was swelling up  (We took seats in the back row that weren't occupied, as we didn't want to disturb our seatmates twice.)
  

  

  PJ Wilborn (Sergeant of Police, center) and ensemble.  PHOTO CREDIT BY BRETT BEINER

Whew!  That was a lot.  But we persevered, we showed adaptability, and more importantly, we got to enjoy a great production of Pirates.  And really, it's little adventures like this that make everything worthwhile, and will give us great memories of the time we went to see a show and everything conspired against us.

THE REVIEW OF PIRATES OF PENZANCE.  FINALLY

Everything we've seen at Music Theatre Works has been very well done, and this show was no exception.  Every actor had a great voice, they performed their characters clearly, the orchestra was all fantastic, the staging was well designed.  Professional is the word I'd use.

Ben Barker (Frederic) and Cecilia Iole (Mabel).
PHOTO CREDIT BY BEN BEINER

This was my son's first Gilbert and Sullivan, and he liked it a lot, although he had a hard time at first understanding everything that was being said.  But he got into the language and the inherent silliness, and there were 5 or 6 laugh out loud moments for him, including a particularly good joke which I will talk about below.

 I am sure I've seen it before (perhaps a university production) but what struck me is how damned clever Gilbert and Sullivan are.  I knew about their word play and the camp/silliness factor, but what I'd forgotten that at times they can be downright Oscar Wildean.

This was one exchange that both my son and I guffawed out loud when we heard the character say it.

It's said by the Modern Major General, who talks about disappointing his ancestors.  The young man Frederic points out he just bought his house a year ago, and they weren't his ancestors.  This is his reply:

Frederic, in this chapel are ancestors: you cannot deny that. 

With the estate, I bought the chapel and its contents. 

I don't know whose ancestors they were, but I know whose ancestors they are, and I shudder to think that their descendant by purchase (if I may so describe myself) should have brought disgrace upon what, I have no doubt, was an unstained escutcheon.

This is a fantastic quip!  Worthy of Oscar Wilde.

We also really laughed at the whole "But We're Orphans", and the farcical elements of following your duty even though it ends up ruining your life.

All in all, the show took our minds off our previous hour of madcap insanity, and we left the theatre in a great mood, and what more can you ask from a Gilbert and Sullivan show?

Tickets start at $34
Age 25 and younger 1/2 price (suitable for 8 and older)

REMAINING SHOWS
Friday, June 15 at 8 pm
Saturday, June 16 at 8 pm
Sunday, June 17 at 2 pm
visit https://www.musictheaterworks.com/pirates-of-penzance/Or call (847) 920-5360

I'm Having Domestic Problems

The offending "light" switch

I've been having domestic problems lately.

No, not the kind where somebody has to sleep on the couch.  That area is relatively quiet lately (knock wood)

And not the kind where you have to fire somebody for stealing.

The problems I've been having have to do with appliances.

DISHWASHER
Last week, I could not get the dishwasher to turn on.  I thought it was a fuse at first, but no circuits were blown.  I looked for a reset button, I set and reset the GCI buttons in the kitchen.  No love.  So, it's got to be something.

I call the dishwasher company.  It's probably $350 to replace the dishwasher.  Sounds to them like a blown motherboard.  Our dishwasher is from 2007, out of warranty, and a brand new one is $600.  We were like "Okay, let's get a new one!"

So we go to ABT  (the giant appliance store in Glen View that has EVERYTHING, including that $125,000 television for when you win the lottery.)  We spent about 40 minutes with an incredibly knowledgable salesman (and that's why you go to ABT-- these guys really know their stuff.  Unlike many of the employees at your local Giant Hardware store (if you can find a guy there)  Also, if you have good credit, they have 0% financing, which is preferable for us.

Anyway, he tells us all about our dishwasher, and how we've been washing dishes wrong for years. I'll have to write a separate post on this.

We settle on a dishwasher, and while we are there, take a look at refrigerators.

We'd had a fridge come with our place, but it was a side by side, which is not ideal.  My wife has been coveting a French door refrigerator with a bottom freezer (like we had in Yonkers)

Long story short, we got a great deal on the fridge, and 0% financing as well.

Domestic bliss right?  Think again!

They couldn't deliver for a few days, so we were washing dishes by hand.

The new dishwasher- ALMOST in place

Two days before they are set to arrive, the electrician comes over to pick up his check.  I mention that my dishwasher is being replaced.  He says, let me take a look.  Then he says, what does this switch do? I thought it turned on some under-cabinet lights that we never used.

 It turns out, it turns on the dishwasher!  Why there is a light switch that is not clearly marked that turns on the dishwasher-- well, let us say I was non-plussed.  With a LOT of swearing.

So now we've got a dishwasher coming the next day, and we don't really need it.  After a long discussion, I succumb to my wife's point of view that all of our appliances will be new-- let's just bite the bullet.

Finally the day comes for delivery.  They show up just as I'm about to take my son to gymnastics.  No problem, my wife is home, so she takes over the delivery.  When I get back, it turns out that our new dishwasher can't be connected.  The electrical connection is in the wrong place.  It needs to be moved and/or replaced with a flexible electrical connection.

So I call the electrician.  He can come on Wednesday (that's today) to fix the electric.

We had to clean out the hallways so that they could get the fridge in the door (and take the old fridge and put it downstairs.  So my office and our bedroom are full of all the things that used to be in the hallways (a bench for shoes, random umbrella stands, some shelves, the circus ring.  You know, the usual!)

Dirty dishes

In the meantime, my wife goes to NY on business, leaving me a full load of dirty dishes to clean (we hadn't done them, because we thought the dishwasher would be installed by then.)

 I fill up the sinks to clean the dishes.  But when I drain the sinks, there is a terrible rushing sound underneath-- the dishwasher out valve has not been connected to the garbage disposal! There is all sorts of water under the sink!  I clean that out.

So now we have our old fridge downstairs, and our old dishwasher (which works perfectly, and is on Craig's List.)  If you mention this blogpost when purchasing the dishwasher, you can get $25 off!

We've got our new fridge upstairs, which is pretty nice, and a non-working dishwasher waiting to be installed.  I'm pretty happy with the new fridge, and very happy that we have a fridge downstairs (in our previous home, we had an extra fridge AND a standup freezer)

We probably should have left well enough alone and not gotten a new dishwasher.  It would have been a LOT less expensive.