What In Tarnation?!?!? In the Classroom

As is the tradition, I went to see my one show at St. Louis’s Muny, the nation’s largest outdoor theater. This time I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which I have seen at the Muny once before back in 2002 I believe. I had the added pleasure of taking some of the youth from my church as well. For most of the youth it was their first time to visit the Muny which is always and experience.

This trip certainly not as bad as a few past experiences but it had the potential to get that way. First we left church about thirty minutes later than what I would have liked to have left, but thankfully we got there in plenty of time. The whole group found our seats.

These seats were quite entertaining because we were located directly below one of the four large fans that they use to cool down guest before the show and during intermission. I was thankful because Friday night was quite a warm and steamy St. Louis summer night. I didn’t realize how lucky I was until the first unsuspecting victim tried walking down our aisle with a large bucket of yummy popcorn from the somewhat overpriced concession stand. A down draft would hit the popcorn and send kernels of popped popcorn flying in all directions while the person who had spent their hard earned money frantically trying to contain what few kernels remained in their tub. This happened several times over the course of the evening. My favorite was the young boy, about second grade, and his rather daffy mother. The boy was holding the popcorn and when their popcorn went a flyin’ the mother started yelling at the poor boy. “Stop that right now!” “Why are you doing that?!” The boy was actually doing a better job than most of the adults who were in that situation and it wasn’t his fault at all. The fans where also a hinderance to older more frail people who literally had to hang onto something to get out of the aisle. Then along came four teenage girls wearing these little dresses that hardly covered everything that a dress should cover. They received the surprise of their life with the first big gust of wind came down and caused them to show off even more than what they wanted to show off.  And all that was just the pre-show.

The show started. It was very well executed. Joseph was amazing. The whole show was very similar to the one I saw in 2002. The issue was the weather again. For most of the show there was lightening and thunder off in the distance. I prayed that the rain would stay away, I have had too many experiences with rain at the Muny and I didn’t want to add another one to my list. The storm came closer and closer until it was directly over use. Thunder and lightening were sounding and flashing at the same time. Yet no rain but for the occasional sprinkle. The little lights illuminating the stage were no match for the light show that God was putting on in the sky. The thunder and lightening even coordinated with the lyrics that I used for the title of this post. I could tell that the conductor was even speeding up the music to try and get the whole show in before there was more rain. A standing ovation was given in the middle of the bows as people started hurrying out of the theater to get to their cars.  We got back to the vans without any rain and hit the road home. We got a little turned around while navigating out of Forest Park, which isn’t difficult. But soon we were heading in the correct direction.

The one difference in the show that I noticed from the 2002 show was the 2007 show seemed to make Joseph complicit in his temptation by Potiphar’s wife. In the 2002 show she just chased Joseph around the stage until Potiphar bursts in. In the 2007 version. Joseph seems to give up and and give in to temptation.  Interesting…

It was a good time, a good show, and the changing weather didn’t get me very wet, in fact it had the positive impact of cooling down the temperature.

Later taters!