Theater and Dinner Date

Hubby and I went with my sister and her family and my father and his ladyfriend to see Hairspray today, followed by dinner at an Italian restaurant in celebration of my father's 80th birthday.

Shanon Durig was good as Tracy Turnblad but John Pinette got off to a slow start as Edna. Not until he was wearing the outrageous dresses did he seem to find the character. In the early scenes, wearing a housedress, he was bland. The part requires a lot of panache, a lot of personality and on Broadway, Harvey Fierstein set the gold standard for Edna that's hard to beat. And I still remember Divine in the movie version many years ago. But by the end of the show, Pinette had me won over, even if he will never be mistaken for either Divine or Fierstein. My main disappointment was that Darlene Love, who's playing Motormouth Maybelle, was out in favor of her understudy, Terita R. Redd. Redd was excellent, but I was hoping to see Darlene Love on stage. I adore Love's voice and admire her stage presence on TV appearances.

Dinner was yummy. Fettucine with meat sauce, followed by crepes with hot chocolate sauce for dessert. I couldn't get a decent photo of the crepes, but I can offer up a decent enough shot of the main dish.


Feeling:

~~~o0o~~~
personal
hairspray