CATS

Friday night Madison and I went to see the show CATS. Madison has never seen a Broadway show and CATS was definitely a perfect choice for the first one.

We both got dressed up and of course, she looks way older than her tender 12 years (13 is gonna kill me). And NO she is not taller than me, she is standing on the porch and I am on the sidewalk.

We had to leave really early because there was a Red Hawks baseball game, a Thunder basketball game and the show all downtown. What a mess traffic was.
We arrived at the civic center and she picked out a classic CATS t-shirt (black tee with yellow eyes and "CATS" across the front." We also picked up a program. The performance started at 8pm, so at 7:30 we headed to the mezzanine level to find out seats. They were letting people into the theater yet, so we waited, waited and waited some more.
It was also very, very warm. The $15 program instantly became a fan for the both of us.

Madison took off her shoes and sat on the floor. It was now 7:55 and no sign of us getting in. A gentlemen standing near us asked the usher was the hold up was and then we finally know what is going on. NO POWER! The civic center was one of many buildings in the area with no power. They were running off a generator and that was it. The generator was enough for the lights and of course the credit card machine, but not enough for the air conditioning.

An announcement was finally made and that they were trying to fix the problem. At this point, they were not cancelling the show, that was a good thing. At 8:30 the entire lobby and multiple levels erupted in applause with the return of the air conditioning and normal power!!!
We had to wait another 20 minutes before they started letting people into the theater and wouldn't ya know it, the ticket scanner won't scan the tickets. So, thank goodness the usher was an older gentlemen with some wits and went back to the old fashion way of doing things: tearing off the ticket stubs.

The performance finally got started at 9pm and I explained to Madison that the people really sing (no recording) and the music was live from the orchestra. Within the first few moments (they hadn't even come on stage yet) she was hooked. After the first characters arrived on stage and blew everyone away the only words that she could utters was "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!"

We enjoyed every minute and she was in awe, act after act and then of course the reason everyone goes to CATS - Memories. I personally got goose bumps and I think the guy next to me was crying. I don't think Madison breathed or moved. She jumped to her feet and whooped and clapped loudly (just like everyone else around her). Fabulous show.

I waited to ask her what she thought until we were on the way home. Here was part of the conversation:
Me: "So, what did you think?"
Madi: "I don't know what to say, it changed me. It moved me. I only dance one dance for a few minutes and they danced and sang for over two hours. It was amazing."

My job as a parent to expose her to multiple facets of art, music and culture is a step in the right direction.