A near perfect day

Yesterday morning , Carol, Ben and I got up at 7:15AM (the earliness of which is why it was a near perfect day rather than a perfect day) and at 8AM piled into the van to drive to Harrisonburg, Virginia. I had set the coffee maker to brew at 7:30 so we had coffee as we traveled.

Almost exactly halfway there we stopped at the Sonic Drive-in at Winchester for breakfast where I had an ultimate meat and cheese breakfast burrito. (Last night I was appalled to learn it was nearly 900 calories!) Another 75 minutes later we were at James Madison University with Rachel who was performing in "They're Playing Our Song," at the black box theatre in the Forbes Center.

We helped Rachel out with some business and then dropped her off at the stage. We hung out for an hour or so and then watched the afternoon matinee. Our theory was that if there was any performance where Rachel might be substituting for one of the chorus it would be that one. Unfortunately, everyone in the chorus remained healthy and uninjured.

TPOS is a 1978 musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch and book by Neil Simon, an awesome pairing that suggests a fantastic show. Unfortunately, the show never really comes together, without any big hit songs, a limited plot and a contrived conflict. It's also oddly imbalanced; the first act is funny, reasonably clever and has seven songs, while the second act is much more serious, much less funny, and has only three songs.

However, that's a problem with the show itself, not the performers. The performers were good and the choreography, tech and staging were really well done. To be true, some of the singing could have been better. But still, we enjoyed the show. Rachel was on stage a few times and had more visibility than her designation as "swing" would attest, and we were thrilled to see her on the college stage for the first time.

Afterwards, Rachel had about ninety minutes before the evening (final) show so we went for dinner at a local burger bar, Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint. Holy crap was that good. Carol had a "Jalapeno Popper" burger with cream cheese and jalapenos, the kids had "the Chiflet" a bacon, egg and cheese burger, and I had a regular hamburger. We all agreed they were some of the best burgers we had ever had. We will be going back regularly on future trips.

After dinner, we dropped Rachel off for her final show and headed home, arriving just before 9PM. What a fun day.

I am looking forward to visiting again for Rachel's next show.