Lee and I went to go see Spring Awakening for the second time in under a year just today, in Tampa.  This time, we took my parents--it was a delayed 60th birthday gift for my mother.  Before going to the matinee, we met in Ybor City and went to this restaurant, which I would now highly recommend for anyone who likes Greek food (it also made up for the fact that we couldn't stop in Tarpon Springs for dinner).  After that, we drove over to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.  It was at this point something that could have caused a real problem became an incredible gain for me and Lee. 

It transpired that I unexpectedly had two more tickets than I needed.  One of them I knew was available a few days before, because my brother-in-law, Toby, could not get off of work--I did try to see if someone would take that one, to no avail.  We still thought that my sister, Jana, would come.  However, she came down with a horrible bug and had to pull out at the last minute.  I of course was bummed because I'd paid for the tickets, and without going into details, it's not cheap to partake in the theater.  Jana and Toby were going to pay me back for what I was out, but we had hoped to be able to sell the tickets to someone there, because who wants to pay a bunch of money for something they couldn't even enjoy?  Our problems were compounded by the fact that the show was not sold out, so selling the tickets wasn't going to happen--people would rather go to the box office and use their plastic than shell out a bunch of cash to some stranger. 

After awhile, my father ended up going to the ticket booth and telling the woman there the truth--that we were taking them out for a special day, and that his daughter and son-and-law couldn't make it, and could they do anything to help?  The upshot was a massive win--they gave me a gift certificate for the face value of the two tickets.  So, now Lee and I can go to the theater again sometime, there's no expiration date, so we can go whenever they have a show that strikes our fancy.  As Lee's never been to see one of the great mega-musicals of the 80s, such as Phantom, Les Miz, or Miss Saigon, I'd like to hold out until one of them tours again, since it's been many many years since I've seen them staged.

I was also well pleased that my folks enjoyed the show.  I have a habit of overhyping things I love to the point where someone else would not be able to enjoy them nearly as much as they might have otherwise.  Either I didn't do that in this case, or the show really is just that good.  For Lee and I, the visceral experience of seeing it last March couldn't be dupicated, but it was still a joy to see again.

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Speaking of shows--Morrissey is touring again, and as usual, playing a ton of dates in Florida, which is awesome.  He's playing March 1 in Orlando, March 3 in St. Pete, and March 4 in Jax.  I'm thinking the St. Pete show will be the best, but I haven't bought any tickets.  If anyone who reads this is interested in going with and prefers one date over the others, let me know.  If you even have a passing interest in Moz and have never seen him live, I strongly suggest doing it at least once.

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Capsule movie review of Benjamin Button:  It seems, in talking with people who have seen it and reading reviews of this, there are two camps.  One camp feels it is a profound meditation on life and death, and it moved them deeply.  The other camp considers it to be a technical achievement, beautifully made and acted, but a film easier to admire than truly love.  I fall into the second camp.  I enjoyed watching it, it was never boring, I loved every performance in it, but except for the last 20 minutes or so, I wasn't deeply moved by the movie.  And do not bother seeing it if you can't stand Brad Pitt.  He's in almost every frame of the film.  Perhaps I would be best off leaving it with a sentiment from Roger Ebert's review that I wholeheartedly agree with: "There was another film this year that isn't in the 'top five [probable Oscar contenders for this year],' or listed among the front-runners at all, and it's a profound consideration of the process of living and aging. That's Charlie Kaufman's  'Synecdoche, New York.' It will be viewed and valued decades from now. You mark my words."

You know, I feel that I'm a lot more cranky about this year's Oscar bait than last year's.  I guess I'm really hoping that The Dark Knight can make that late rally and get a best movie nomination.  It's not too late, Academy!