Southern Utah Vacation Part 3: The Highlights

We went to clean up at Aunt Mary Lou and Uncle Tom's place, spent some wonderful time with them, ate dinner, and made a trip to the Tuacahn Theater for their performance of Beauty and the Beast.


Bum photo bomb. C'mon dad!

Not impressed by her brother photo bombing.

It was well done, but not their most impressive performance, largely due to the dearth of dance numbers (only two and a half??? though the cup-tavern dance was seriously impressive) and lack of the usual humor improvisation. The singing throughout the show was still spot on and beautiful, but the kids were losing interest, likely because it mirrored the movie so closely. Oh, and the orchestra did extremely well.

Had David take some selfies... any guesses about how he feels about being photographed, especially by himself?

As par Utah tradition, the audience was uneducated and dull as to etiquette, enthusiasm, and how to support a cast. No wonder there was no meet and greet. The audience did not deserve it! Oh, California, how we miss thee...

C'mon people!

?

So we took pictures with the pictures of the cast members. Amirrah was really sad she did not get to meet Belle, and you can see her fake smile in the last photo here.

We saw the kids' favorite actor (David LaMarr) in the cast in a supporting role, still giving it his all and rocking it. (How cool is it that their Dad takes them to enough shows and cultural opportunities for them to recognize favorites in regional performances!) That was really cool, so we social media messaged him our thanks for his continued professionalism and congratulations. He responded! (How cool and classy is that?)

The next morning, David and Maggie went to the St. George temple while I took the others to the children's museum.

When we got back together, Mr. LaMarr messaged and convinced and persuaded David that the other show, "When You Wish" was amazing and worth going, he helped us get sweet seats and so we went into VACATION BONUS ROUND (David says that should be read with a "Mortal Combat" voice, but I am sure neither he nor I know what that is... hehe).



Best. Decision. Of the entire vacation. The show entertained from start to finish. A girl gets a storybook, and goes to sleep and dreams her way through the best Disney music of 70 years, with great augmentations, adjustments, and harmonies coupled with solid dance numbers, paramount quality singing, and energy. We had to sit the kids down multiple times from jumping out of their seats and dancing (fortunately only one nearby patron was bumped in the enthusiam). They sang along, and clapped when the cast started us clapping even though there were only about 50 of us that recognized the hint and joined in...

Anyway, enough about lackluster audiences. We decided we would make up for it. We hooted, hollered, and two of us lost our voices. The kids did not even get sleepy and the show ended at 11:18! We left energized and optimistic. Holy cow, David is trying to convince himself not to force the family to eat rice for a couple weeks so we can go back. That's how much we loved it. And there was a meet and greet! Check out how happy Amirrah is! (The line was long and the wait was full of giddiness. When we were up next, the "mother" in the production (far right) complimented the children on how patient they were as the previous 2 families were slowly moving along and what a good attribute that is to have. The wait was worth it!)

Wait...Is Flounder hitting on my daughter?!

Maybe I should have taken photo in college...

Yea, this was a selfie... but when was the last time all of us were smiling in the same photo?

It was the best family entertainment we've seen in a decade and we've been to over 200 in that time period, with only a handful of shows even in the ballpark. (The Little Mermaid {Tuacahn}, Mulan {Tuacahn}, Video Games Live {Comic Con with Utah Symphony}, The Flying Dutchman {Utah Opera}, Mary Poppins {HTC}...).

If you are in Utah. Get yer butt down to St. George for this show with your children. Even if this is not your kind of entertainment, go. You won't be disappointed. It is worth far more than the ticket price. 

We visited with some of the cast, jumped in the car, and David drove through most of the night (I took an hour shift when he started seeing things...) to get us home. Totally worth it.