An Outing

This past Wednesday, my darling hubby took me on a special, all-day date. Dave's Christmas gift to me was a pair of tickets to the Tony-award winning musical The Light in the Piazza, currently playing at the Kennedy Center. I was so excited for January 3rd to arrive: imagine, a whole day out with my husband and a chance to see a show again! (The last time we went to the theater was two years ago, which seems like a long while to me.) And when the day finally came, all my hopes were met or exceeded!

After dropping Meg off at Mom's house in the morning, we headed for Georgetown and enjoyed a delicious brunch at La Madeleine. We arrived at the Kennedy Center nice and early so we could explore a bit. The day was sunny and beautiful, though decidedly unJanuary-like. We made our way up to the terrace and enjoyed amazing views, both of the D.C. area (Rosslyn, Georgetown, the mall) and of low-flying planes preparing to land at Reagan.

Back inside, we headed toward the Opera House, where the doors were about to open for the matinee. Of course, we stopped to snap a few pics along the way. I remember being awed by the Hall of Nations when I first saw it on my second-grade field trip. It is still an impressive place and hard to do justice by photograph. The flags are truly gigantic:

Here's a view of the main lobby from the second balcony, where our seats were.

The show was wonderful. A simple but intriguing story, beautiful score--subtle in many places, soaring in others--and outstanding performances. Although I must say, this one is probably not for those who like their musicals light and happy. The Light in the Piazza has some rather dark spots. But we enjoyed it nonetheless. I wish I could give you a taste of the show itself, but of course, photography and recording is prohibited, etc., etc. I have to settle, therefore, for sharing some shots of the Opera House interior, taken before the show and during intermission. Here is the stage, shown with the curtain down, as it was when we entered. That's intended to be the city of Florence, by the way, to set the... well, the setting.

The house itself, from our seats:

And the ceiling centerpiece, a series of chandeliers, gorgeous in effect though definitely late-60's in design:

After the show, we stopped off at Afterwords Cafe, a dinner-and-dessert spot that we always enjoy. I love their catfish. We spent the meal talking about the play--what we liked, what we did and didn't understand, what we might have changed if it was up to us, and of course, what we noticed about the lighting and other technical elements! (You don't ignore these things when you're married to a sound engineer turned audio/lighting/video guru!) At last we headed homeward to pick up our precious baby girl from her Nana's house, deposit her in her own beddie-bye, and hit the sack ourselves.

It was a lovely day, my Love, and one I will remember for a long time to come! Thank you so much for planning a day to bless me and visiting the world of theater with me. I love you more than you even know!