(January 27 – January 30, 2012)
My very first trip of the year had me traveling to Dallas, Texas, and I couldn’t get the Frank Loesser song “Big D” from The Most Happy Fella out of my head the entire time I was there.
Surprisingly, this was my first trip to Dallas. Surprising because a number of Miriam’s family members live there, including her sister and her family, and Miriam has traveled there a number of times. I’ve just never had the availability to join her.
I mean, come on! There is a nephew down there who had already celebrated his first birthday, and I had never met him! But the real reason for the trip was Miriam: she was performing with the Lyric Stage in a concert version of Kismet, and there was no way I was going to miss it!
Now, before any of my Dallas-based friends freak out because I didn’t bother mentioning I was in town, it was a whirlwind of a trip. Three and a half days of family reunions, babies, a performance, and an “X” in the middle of the road. We’ll get to that in a moment…For now, let’s back up a bit.
Right after the New Year celebrations, Miriam flew down to Dallas to start her rehearsals, and I locked myself in my office/rehearsal space, madly trying to learn the score to Damn Yankees! (so many musical references and we’re only a few paragraphs in…hmm…). I took a job as a musical director with the community theater company I’ve performed with for a number of years and was trying to get my piano skills back up to snuff, so Miriam wasn’t too sad to leave me behind—she knew I’d be married to my piano for a few months.
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| I finally got to meet Teddy! |
So, at the end of January, I boarded a plane and made my way to Big D. The first stop was Miriam’s sister’s house in Plano to see the kids, Edie and Teddy, and drop off the bags. I was running on very little sleep since we were casting Damn Yankees! until late Thursday night and I was on a 6am flight Friday morning. But I rallied and had fun squeezing the kids and catching up with the family members who were already there.
My first impression of Dallas was this: flat deserts, freeways, lots of construction and strip malls. Sorry, Dallas. At one point, both Miriam’s mom and I started singing, “Little boxes on a hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky, little boxes on a hillside and they all look just the same.” Granted, I was staying in the suburban area of Plano, so I tried to cut it a little slack.
Throughout my first day, the rest of Miriam’s family arrived and there were many happy reunions. Miriam had fun driving me around and pointing out the places where she hung out during her stay, and, come early evening, we got back in the car with her dad, drove to Irving, and dropped her off at the theater for her show (we were seeing the Saturday performances). The rest of us went back to her sister’s house and relaxed for the night.
Saturday was all a-buzz with intrigue. Miriam had planted a secret seed amongst her family that we were throwing her sister a surprise birthday party that afternoon, since her birthday was the following week. There’s nothing more fun than celebrating your birthday with almost all of your family-- it’s a rare treat these days with all of us spread out across the country.
We had our morning booked with various secret shopping excursions, and her sister was getting so frustrated with us because none of us wanted to go with her and her kids to a toddler’s birthday party that morning. She couldn’t understand why we would all travel to see them and not want to hang out. We had a good chuckle over that one.
As soon as she and her husband left the house, we were off! The first stop was to Costco to pick up the magnificent, multi-layered chocolate cake we had decorated the day before, as well as some fun munchies, then we went to a party supply store and stocked up on all our partying needs. Our last stop was Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, my first experience with the famous Dallas barbecue. I was excited. Unfortunately, we were taking it to go so I couldn't get the full experience, but it was still fun to be in there, and you got free ice cream with your purchase. This girl does not turn down free ice cream!
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| Fried okra, mac n cheese, and baked beans. Yummy! |
We then hightailed it home to set up everything before Beth arrived. They got done a little early, so her husband, Daniel, feigned sickness and stopped off at a gas station and lounged around in the bathroom for a while, spritzing his face with water for effect. It totally freaked Beth out-- she called, asking if she should take Daniel to the hospital. Again, we had a good chuckle. Soon, all the family had arrived and we were in position for Beth’s grand entrance. Needless to say, she was very surprised, and we had a fabulous time.
After the party, we cleaned up and got ourselves ready for Miriam’s show that evening. The performance took place at the Lyric Stage in Irving, TX, a grand theater that puts on fully-staged and concert versions of classic musicals with a much-coveted full orchestra. Broadway producers these days seem to skimp on the size of the orchestra in order to save money, so to hear a full-sized orchestra is quite magical. Broadway producers: pay attention! We love our orchestras!
I had never seen Kismet other than the retched MGM movie musical from 1955, and I was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the show is! It was a concert version, which means there were no sets, limited costumes, and very limited staging, but the music completely made up for that. Lyric Stage is part community theater and part professional theater. A lot of the ensemble is comprised of Dallas residents who love performing, while the lead characters are paid professionals. Miriam and the rest of the ensemble spent most of the time seated on risers, standing to sing, unless they had smaller ensemble pieces that allowed them to interact on the stage with the other characters. The music was glorious, and, again, the orchestra was fabulous! The leads had beautiful voices, and I was very impressed with all the ensemble singing. To be honest, the dancing was abhorrent-- that was the community theater aspect of it, I guess-- but on the whole it was a great production.
Once the show was finished, Miriam and I waved good-bye to her family and friends and headed over to the producer’s home for a cast party. She introduced me to a number of her cast mates and I got in a long conversation with the music director; I told him about my new venture as a music director, and we chatted for a while on the beauty of community theater. People who do community theater do it for the fun of it, so their hearts are always in it. Professional actors do it for their jobs, so sometimes they forget the real reason they started doing theater in the first place. It’s so true. Community theater can be a really beautiful thing-- lots of heart!
Sunday morning turned out to be the only really free time Miriam and I would have to go see Dallas, so we woke up early and headed out to find the most famous spot in all of Dallas: where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. It was a bit of a challenge to find, since we were lacking a GPS and the freeway exits we were told to use were all shut down for construction purposes (there was construction everywhere on the highways and freeways!), but eventually we made our way to downtown Dallas.
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| A map of historical downtown Dallas |
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| Dealey Plaza and the library |
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| Dealey Plaza |
Next to this plaza is the Kennedy Memorial Plaza, which features an “open tomb” memorial, a large, open, rectangular, concrete fixture with no roof and only a slab of granite with John F. Kennedy’s name carved into it. It is said to represent the openness of JFK’s spirit.
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| The Old Red Museum |
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| The grassy knoll |
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| The "X" and the library |
Then we took a short walk to Dealey Plaza, visited the various monuments, grabbed a cup of coffee at the memorial museum gift shop and cafe and then found the grassy knoll, made the obligatory grassy knoll jokes, and stood by the “X” in the middle of the road that marks the approximate location of where JFK was shot. There isn’t much there, but it’s still pretty powerful. Whilst standing by the “X” (when the traffic wasn’t coming by, of course) we glanced up to the Texas School Book Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired the weapon. I couldn’t help but replay the news footage in my head of the shooting. Pretty intense.
Once finished, it was time to try to find our way back to Plano, since we realized the return driving instructions had not been printed out for us. Thinking we would just go back the way we came, we headed out and started driving and driving...and driving. Finally, we conceded that we must be lost, since all civilization was slowly disappearing. We called Howard, one of Miriam’s relatives who has lived in Dallas for decades, and he was able to set us straight. Whew!
We made it home to have some quality time with the family before it was time to drop a number of them off at the airports. Miriam’s cousin was first, since she was leaving out of DFW airport, and then we had some time before we had to drop off her mother and brother, so we went in search of an easy place to eat dinner with our large clan. We finally settled on a Mexican place called Fuzzy's Taco Shop since it was the only eatery by the Love Field airport. None of us could get past the idea of an actual fuzzy taco and we totally expected it to be a gross place to eat, but it ended up being excellent and quite affordable!
The few of us remaining then headed back to Beth and Daniel’s house for one more relaxing night with them. The next day we packed up our things, grabbed coffee at the local Barnes & Noble where I was able to stalk a music manager I’ve spoken with a number of times on the phone, and then Miriam and her dad drove me to the airport.
Back to reality for me, and time to practice that piano before rehearsals start!
