Last night we caught the final performance of Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo in Denver. I had never seen a Cirque du Soleil performance before, so I had no idea what to expect, but Kim was really excited for it since she had already seen a show before. I have to admit that the acrobatic elements of the show were pretty amazing. I think my favorite of acts were the Teeterboard and the Ladder (video of both posted below). I could have done without some of the more theatrical acts, but I guess those are necessary as the crew sets up for the next acrobatic act. The two hour show flew by, so that must be a good sign, and I would gladly go see another Cirque du Soleil in the future.

We attempted to go to our last play of the Starlight season last night, Hairspray. The weather had different plans for us though. The start of the play was delayed for a bit so that a “small storm” could pass by. Well once they finally started the small storm quickly grew in strength and after ten minutes or so they delayed the play once more. We stuck around for awhile but sensed that the weather was not going to get any better, so we left. I’m still not sure if they officially cancelled the show or not, which would entitle us to tickets for another date. Oh well.

The best part of the night was having dinner in the Applause Club before the start of the show. The buffet style dinner is served by Fiorella’s Jack Stack Catering. Thanks to Phil and Doni we had a free meal there with our friends The Martins! The food was pretty good, although I’m not sure that it would be worth the $16.95 door price. It would depend on the menu for the night.

Of the five plays in the Starlight season we saw about two and a half. I guess you get what you pay for and we had discount on the tickets. My definite favorite of the season was Riverdance, the first one we saw. If we are around KC next year I will consider buying the tickets again but likely only for a discounted price.

We made our return to Starlight Threatre last night to see Rent. Unlike plays in the past, I actually did a little reading about Rent before attending. I think it helped in the end, otherwise I think I could have been really lost at times. At times during the show the music would drown out the performers’ vocals and other times the singers were just hard to understand. Thought you could still get a sense of what was happening based on actions and props.

Overall my review of Rent can be summed up in one word: interesting. If you aren’t familiar with Rent, “the musical centers on a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York’s Alphabet City in the early 1990s, under the shadow of AIDS.” Wikipedia continues, “Rent was one of the first Broadway musicals to clearly feature gay, bisexual, lesbian, and transgender characters.” Although the characters may be hard for everyone to relate to, the plot contains themes that touch everyone’s lives.

On a more positive note, I thought the music and singing was spectacular. Rent is referred to as a “rock opera” and the band that was playing last night certainly did rock. Most all of the performers had great to amazing voices and the collaborations were excellent. I’d recommend seeing Rent, just once in your life, for the music alone.

We were supposed to watch our second play of the season last night, Dr. Doolittle featuring Tommy Tune. The weather had other plans for us though. Supposedly the entire play was performed, but we stuck around through about half of the first act only. Shortly after we got home it was raining buckets though, just as I had predicted. I couldn’t image being outside in that type of weather, so I’m glad we left when we did. Besides, the play wasn’t that good. They advertised it as the one to bring your kids to and there were many of them, even some on stage. I decided that if there were kids dressed up as animals I was leaving, and that’s just what we did. Next up, in a couple of weeks, is Grease!

I saw Riverdance last night at the Starlight Theatre and actually enjoyed it. I was slightly worried that it wouldn’t be what I expected from hearing about the show years ago, but it was all that and more. The singers, musicians, and of course the dancers are all world class. I would definitely recommend seeing this show if you get the chance.

My favorite act of the night was called Trading Taps and featured “a trio of Irish dancers facing off against two urban American tappers.” The contrasting styles were interesting to watch and the duel was very entertaining. In the end they join together to close out the act to the loud cheers of the crowd.

How did I end up there for the show? Well Phil and Doni have had season tickets to Starlight for years, and even Phil seems to enjoy some of the shows. Kim convinced me that we should also get season tickets this year, so we did. This was our first show of the season and if the rest are of this quality I will deem the purchase a huge success. Next up is Dr. Doolittle.

The Christmas party was excellent! I got home from work and immediately Kim showed me the kitchen and said get to work. :) Most everyone showed up right at 6, and we had lots of food ready and plenty of drinks to go around. Kim and I took a few pictures of the night with the new camera, hopefully I’ll get those up soon. Doni forwarded some pictures that she took and I’ll see if I can get them online now. After an hour and a half we all headed to the play. Our seats were great, right up front and all together. The play was good as well. We saw it last year, so I remembered a bunch of the parts but I also forgot a few things as well. Good times! Thanks to Steve and everyone else at Kim’s work for coming over and having this party.

We have a few plans for the weekend, but nothing too big. We may go to the brooksider tonight for their Christmas party. At some point tonight Kim and I are going to have our Christmas, I’m really excited for that! Then tomorrow we are going with Doni & Phil up to the Martin’s for their Christmas party. We also have 3 DVD’s to watch sometime this weekend. These are all from a free trial of blockbuster online. I convinced Kim to sign up for the free ipods, so in a week or so I should have all of my referrals needed to get this thing. I’ll keep my fingers crossed…

So tonight is Kim’s work Christmas party. Not sure if I mentioned it before or not, but it is partially happening at our apartment. That means we have been cleaning the apartment all week, and it actually looks really good. If only we could keep it looking like this. We are going to have drinks and appetizers at the apartment and then go watch “A Christmas Carol” at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Perhaps I’ll have some pictures to post before too long!

The New Theatre was awesome! We got there at 6:15 and immediately went to our table. We had a two person table so that we wouldn’t have to sit with a 3rd wheel or anything like that. :) We were served salads along with bread and a few drinks. They have a buffet style dinner which didn’t thrill me too much until we actually went down and got the food. It was really really good. There was pretty much something for everyone down there and it was all very tasty! Then the play we were seeing (Barefoot In The Park) started. Neither of us knew much about it going into the play, but we were both pleasantly surprised. It was very good and very easy to follow along. There were a total of 6 or 7 characters in the entire play and it all took place in the newlyweds apartment. This was a great date and we may have to think about going back sometime…

Saturday was the Woodside pool party. We headed up that way with Todd around noon. We reserved some chairs for the crew that would be coming later and ordered some drinks. Our membership card functions as a credit card, in that we can charge food and drinks to our account. This could get ugly, but I guess we will really only use it on the weekends. I got sunburn from my lazily applied sunscreen. I thought that I covered everything that was exposed, but apparently I missed a spot on one of my shoulders following along my collar bone to the middle of my chest. It really hurts today, but I guess I can be thankful that it isn’t my whole body. I’m not sure that I can go back in the sun until this fades though, it looks pretty ridiculous…

Sunday was a typical day of errands. We did some shopping for the weddings that we have coming up, went to the driving range, etc. I did get a chance to stop over at the Chapman Recording Studios to see Tanner and company record for about an hour or two. Very nice facilities with flat screen TV’s, leather couches, all the goods. Most of the time while I was there we watched Mike lay down rhythm guitar for just a couple of tracks. I must have heard “Madeline” about 10893 times. It used to be one of my favorites, but now I hope to never hear it again. :) After all of this was done we had a party over at Susan’s place. Usually we watch the Sopranos, and we did again, but this time it was the first episode ever. Kind of interesting to see how the show all started since I never watched it before this season. I think we are going to try to watch all of the seasons in the downtime before season six starts. The show that runs at the same time that Sopranos did is Six Feet Under. Everyone who has seen this show before hyped it up, but I’m not sure I can get into this show. It has much more drama involved that the Sopranos does. I needed to see a couple of good wackings…

My hockey league starts back up tonight!!! I’ve been waiting for something other than this running crap. :)

Let’s see…
I’ve been busy with work of course, and we had a brief workout last night.
I met up with Todd and Phil at the Brooksider last night for a few drinks and also so that I could borrow Todd’s car. Kim needed her ride to go out to take a test today, so I got stuck with a Lexus. Damn. :)

Tonight Kim and I are heading to the New Theatre to see Barefoot In The Park. This is a dinner theatre that I bought tickets for back at Christmas time. I’ve heard that the play is good, so hopefully we have a good date…

On Saturday we have a pool party during the day at Woodside. That should be a good time, discount drinks and such. Hopefully I’ll get some tan going on, I haven’t been out in the sun since Vegas…

It looks like we are going to join that gym, but we have to wait until we get paid to have the money required to join…

Nothing too exciting has been going on lately, just a bunch of work, even when I’m at home…

The Heart Of America Shakespeare Festival is coming up soon. Kim went once last year and said it was a good time. The park where this is held is right down the street from our place, so I bet we go a few times. Looks like the play is Julius Caesar, so I’ll have to research it a little bit, so I’m not clueless when we see it. The map on the site show where we live in relation to all these places I constantly talk about. I’ve copied it below so that you can see it without going to the site. The festival goes on in Southmoreland Park as you can see on the map. 46th street is just to the left (east) of the park and we live half way down the street where another road interests from the north. You can see Mill Creek Park on the map, which is where we do all of our running. Also just past that is the Country Club Plaza where all the restaurants and shopping is. We have also visited the KC Art Institute (Kemper Museum) and the Nelson-Atkins Museum…