My wife had wanted to see ‘Hello Dolly‘ for quite some time, but for a variety of reasons (e.g. the tickets were expensive and/or extremely difficult to get and we didn’t really put as much effort into looking as we should have) we hadn’t gone.

Eventually my wife decided to ‘take the bull by the horns’ and invited some friends to join us. She had really wanted to see Bette Midler in it, but by the time we got tickets she had moved on.

Some shows I can’t wait to see. Others I have no strong opinion about. And still others (relatively few) I just don’t want to see at all. ‘Hello Dolly’ falls in to this last category. I don’t know why but I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t even know anything about the show. Possibly it’s because I associate the show with Carol Channing, whose voice and overall personality I can’t stand. Maybe it’s because I tend to prefer musicals like those by Stephen Sondheim to those by Jerry Herman. I’m not that fond of Bette Midler either so that might have been a contributing factor.

Anyway my wife wanted to go so off we went into New York City.

I have to say that I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would: great sets, spectacular costumes, ‘feel-good’ tone, and the wonderful Bernadette Peters of whom I’m a big fan having seen her in Annie Get Your Gun; Gypsy; Into the Woods; and Sunday in the Park with George (possibly my favorite musical). I didn’t regret missing Bette Midler at all. Now I feel like seeing the movie with Barbra Streisand (whose voice I love), parts of which were filmed near where we live (see: Garrison Landing).

After the show we went back to our friend’s house for Peruvian Food (and Peruvian beer!) – Scrumptious! A great day.