Sound of Music

Saturday afternoon, July 25th, Frank and I went to a 2:00 matinee performance of The Sound of Music at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. We left in plenty of time but some sort of incident or hazard on the freeway ahead of us really backed up the traffic. It was like a domino effect. Although we'd been to this theatre many, many times, I got off at the wrong exit and had to navigate a different route to our parking garage. Once there later than usual, we had to settle for a spot farther away. Huffing and puffing, we ran (as much as folks our age can run, especially with a rollater), and reached the exterior door of the building right at 2:00 on the nose. Fortunately other patrons must have been late, too because we plopped into our seats, sweaty and breathless, for a show that did not start until 2:10. Whew!

I had brought snacks and so, other than a moderately-paced dash to the bathroom at intermission, we were golden. The fact that this particular musical was The Sound of Music was fortuitous, since we were familiar with the storyline and the songs from the movie. There was no stress with straining to hear or understand... just pure tuneful bliss helping us to relax. There were only two songs that were new to me: How Can Love Survive and No Way To Stop It. We enjoyed the staging and the music.

The casting was extremely well done. The children were talented and excruciatingly adorable. Mother Abbess's voice and her singing truly did justice to the classic Climb Every Mountain. A rough start certainly turned out to be a fantastic outing.