OKC 1 of 5: Arrival & Legally Blonde Jr. May 8-10

Frank and I visited Oklahoma City and Robin's family May 8th-14th. A driving factor for our particular timing was our 13 year old granddaughter's Autumn's appearance in the musical Legally Blonde, Jr., but we had other plans, also. Our two flights out were uneventful, but kept us on our toes learning Southwest Airline's new seating protocols. We actually had assigned seats. We paid a bit extra for each of them, but we wanted peace of mind that we could deplane soon enough to make our connection... which we did.

Friday, May 8th

The flight was fairly smooth with just the usual amount of turbulence in the Denver vicinity. The landing at OKC Will Rogers airport was routine and it was not raining. However, when we reached the luggage carousel, we were notified that there was a lightning alert and that airport personnel were not allowed to be out on the field to unload our luggage. We had to cool our heels an hour and a half waiting for the alert to finish and for our bags to come. Apparently this situation in becoming more normal for Oklahoma.

We had amusement while waiting. A roaming vacuuming robot seemed to home in on Frank and press forward for the attack. R2D2's "brother from another mother" did a last-minute turnaround and did not carry out on his threatened approach. Frank survived!

We took an UBER from the aitport to our hotel, the Hampton Inn & Suites Moore by Hilton, about 30 minutes southeast from the airport. Robin's home was about 12 minutes (less than 5 miles west) away from our hotel, but we would not see her and her family until the next morning. Friday was the opening night of Autumn's play and timing was such we could not go until the following day.

Our room on the fourth floor was pleasing and quite spacious. I was bemused that each room had a image as well as a number on the ID plate for the room. I guess this visual hint is to help the rooming clients find their room since all look alike from the outside. Our plaque showed license plates which was kind of neat because both Frank and Jeremy hang a collection of plates in their garage.

 

After checking in and dropping off our bags, we sought out a place for dinner. A Braum's store was within walking distance and we went there to grab a bite. I had a Strawberry Poppyseed Chicken Salad and it was one of the best salads I have had in a while. It had strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple chunks on a bed of spinach with moist chicken. Braums' is known for its ice cream and dairy products and is local to Oklahoma. I found this Wikipedia article about Braum's interesting. I learned about A1 and A2 milk. After we walked back to our hotel we found a freezer section and snack area near the front desk. We each got a container of Dibb's ice cream nuggets for the room. We enjoyed these tasty tidy nibbles so much, we treated ourselves nightly before bed each of our six nights at the hotel.

Saturday & Sunday, May 9-10

Jeremy had to work Saturday because there was a concert at The University of Oklahoma's Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. The stadium currently has an official seating capacity of 80,126. Nicknamed the "Palace on the Prairie," it is one of the largest on-campus college football stadiums in the country. In his role as Assistant Fire Marshall of OU, Jeremy must be at all large events in the football stadium, such as sports events and concerts, for crowd control and safety. Saturday's concert featured featuring country music star Luke Combs. I am not familiar with this artist but his number one song is Beautiful Crazy. There were some tense moments that night because the concert was at risk of being cancelled due to lightning alerts. Fortunately the threat passed; Jeremy and crew did not need to deal with an angry crowd. Jeremy had to miss Autumn's Saturday performance but he was able to be at the opening and closing performances on Friday and Sunday.

Robin, Frank, Isaiah and I went to Autumn's matinee performance of Legally Blonde, Jr. She did great and it was so fun to see her so animated and happy. This was her first theatre performance; she'd tried out for ensemble, not wanting to be more ambitious initially. She wound up playing voice and dance contributions in the general ensemble as a Harvard fraternity guy and a DeltaNu sorority sister, in addition to an individual role as the bailiff in the court scene.

For this production Autumn took classes and studied with the Thelma Gaylord Academy in Oklahoma City. Per their website:

Lyric’s Thelma Gaylord Academy is the premiere musical theatre academy in the state of Oklahoma. Having served thousands of students since our founding in 2001, we have former students succeeding in all walks of life – from lawyers to doctors to educators, moms, dads, and yes – actors. Many of our alumni have gone on to careers in Hollywood, on television, and Broadway. However, our proudest accomplishment is knowing that each and every student who goes through our program exits with a strong sense of self, their place in the community, and their responsibility to make a world that is accepting of their differences.

Legally Blonde Jr. was performed at the Lyric's Plaza Theatre, a 281-seat venue, located in the Plaza District. It is about a 12.6 mile / 18 minute drive from Autumn's home. Rehearsals and classes put quite a few miles on the car during the preparation. I counted nine round trips from home to the theatre on the weekend we were there. Each performance — Friday evening, Saturday matinee and evening, and Sunday matinee — Autumn had to be there early so every performance entailed two round trips. On Sunday we had to take to cars, hence NINE round trips. I cannot even begin to count the trips for rehearsal and classes. I am sure that there had to have been some carpooling among fellow cast members, but still — this was true parental dedication at work. A small silver lining however, is that the gas prices in Oklahoma (~$3/gal) are about half of what they are currently in California ($6/gal). 

The theatre was intimate, well lit, and the sound was definitely good. We enjoyed the skill and talent, as well as the enthusiasm, of the young performers. We carefully watched for Autumn's appearance, first as a frat guy, then later several times in the ensemble as of one of the Delta Nu sorority sisters. Although not a speaking part, Autumn acted in an individual role as the bailiff in the court scene, holding the bible for oaths during the trial and escorting out a convicted prisoner. She had multiple costume changes and subsequently developed an aversion to buttons, silently cussing them. Her dad Jeremy quietly joked that he could tell she was in costume, because it was the only time he ever saw her in a skirt.

The singing during the show was awesome — bright, loud, enthusiastic, high tempo, and energetic besides also being marvelously on pitch! We delighted in it during the show but also around the house when at home and blaring from the speakers in the car to and from the theatre (and also during other trips about town). This is a sample of the song Omigod from Youtube. After the Saturday matinee that Robin, Isaiah, Frank and I attended, we had silk flowers for Autumn. Her mom and dad had presented her with real flowers the previous evening on opening night. Frank went again with Robin to the Saturday evening performance. At the Sunday matinee, Autumn had Robin, Jeremy, Isaiah, Frank and me in the audience cheering her on and clapping enthusiastically.  After the final performance, Autumn joined her newly made friends and the other cast members, across the street to celebrate with ice cream.

Autumn was given a pink T-shirt commemorating the show. The front has the show title and logo. The back has a list of all the performers and tech crew with their role(s). Autumn's name is sixth from the top with Bailiff, Ensemble listed after it.

After all was said and done sung, Legally Blonde Jr. was most definitely a worthwhile endeavor.  The parental input into the time driving to and from the classes, rehearsals, and performances was rewarded by the smiles, dancing, excitement, and joyful singing that abounded during and afterward. Frank and I were so glad we were able to be a small part of it.

  ♬ Omigod! ♬♬ Omigod you guys!