I'm a believer

One of my favorite animated movies of all time is Shrek. It takes a fresh and twisted approach to fairy tales that really tickles me. I was dubious about Shrek the Musical - in large part because I am not a musical fan.  But a guy I know wrote this review and it intrigued me. Then Mrs Notthat was able to score half-price tickets, and The Blog caved in.

So today I ditched work and, along with the grandkids (one of which was technically too young - there was a 5-year-old cutoff - but got special clearance when Mrs Notthat called and complained before buying the tickets), headed to The Big City and the Orpheum Theater.

We had to break Darci out of school a bit early for this. She was heartbroken. (HA!) We got on BART in Millbrae and rode it to the Civic Center stop. A perfect time to get your hair done. (Darci managed to cause trouble by trying to get through the BART gates before her ticket went though. It was pretty dead at the time though, so nobody was arrested. BTW, it cost $8.50 each for us to ride BART, although Riley was free. We probably could have driven and parked cheaper, but the kids loved riding the train.)

Riley followed along on the BART map. At the San Bruno stop he said "That's where my dad works!" He was so excited to be in the same town.

Fortunately we picked a dry day to do this, otherwise those fountains would not have gone over very well.

I think we were getting close by this point. (Actually, the BART station was only one bock away - less if we took the right way out.)

After picking up the tickets, we were still too early, so we headed back to the farmer's market by the fountains. Flavored honey sticks helped the time go by.

Riley explaining how big his honey stick was.

The play itself was great. LOTS of singing (sigh), but the songs were mostly fun with clever lyrics. Many bits are exactly as they are in the movie, but there was a lot of new stuff too. Like an explanation of why Lord Farquaad is so short. (The guy playing this role did it on his knees and was amazing - they pulled off a number of fun tricks with him this way. On the way home, Darci was surprised to learn that the guy had been on his knees the whole time - she thought he was really just short.)

My favorite was the amazing dragon (which is in the really bad picture above that I illegally took during the show).

The kids did pretty good. The theater provided cushions so they would sit a bit higher (there were a number of kids I saw that looked to be well under the 5-year-old cutoff), and Riley stayed in his seat the whole time while Darci spent most of the show on Mrs Notthat's lap. They both got a bit squirmy during the slower middle parts that get a bit mushy, but the belch/fart fest on stage shortly after the start of the second act perked things back up nicely.

The BART ride home was a lot more crowded since it was rush hour, but it still went well. Here, Darci is holding an orchid that Mrs bought at the farmer's market while Mrs tries to put the Fiona crown on Riley. (The woman sitting next to Darci was reading a book on her iPhone while texting on her Blackberry. I suspect she had a third phone for making actual phone calls.)

Riley with his Shrek whoopee cushion (two places to blow it up and twice the obnoxious noise output!) and Darci with her Fiona crown and ears.

It was a great afternoon, although Darci wondered where the baby Shreks were.

There's bound to be a sequel, right?

That's it - move along...