Does anyone have a memory of seeing a show a long way from home? For the next set of programmes, we’re actually heading to another continent across the Atlantic. In early 2011, when I was ten, nearly eleven, my Mum and Dad and I went to spend six months in Canada and the U.S.A (we spent around three months in each country), to do some travelling and see family, as we have more family abroad than nearby. This meant that we were very lucky to be able to stay with some very welcoming relatives in New Jersey, Michigan, Ontario in Eastern Canada and British Columbia in Western Canada. If you’re interested in the details of when we visited each place, my Mum has a blog that she wrote while we were away…
We didn’t go to the theatre a lot while we were away, but I did see a production of The Secret Garden musical at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto with relatives on my Dad’s side, Auntie Morag and Uncle Jim (yes, they started off in Scotland). We stayed with these particular relatives for a few weeks at the start of our trip in the spring and then again for a few more weeks when we got back to Ontario in July. They were very hospitable – lots of fun and games, bowling, Wheel of Fortune, zoo trips, cinema trips, boat trips. Jim has since passed away and is much missed by all the family. I had a lovely day out with them going into the centre of Toronto to see The Secret Garden, a show that premiered in Virginia in 1991, and was written by two American women, Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman. This production of The Secret Garden started out in Edinburgh (according to the internet) and I didn’t know this until the other day but there were some quite well-known names in the cast from British television and theatre, such as Siobhan Redmond and Norman Pace of Hale and Pace. There is actually even a connection between this musical and The Addams Family musical, which Mum, Dad and I saw in New York that April, as Andrew Lippa, who wrote the music and lyrics for The Addams Family, also worked on a musical adaptation of A Little Princess, and both A Little Princess and The Secret Garden were early 20th century novels by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
We left Canada in March, stayed with a cousin of Mum’s in Ann Arbor (hi Naomi and family!) and then made our way east and south to stay for a few weeks with more cousins of Dad’s in New Jersey (hi Anne-Marie, Mario, Isobel and Nicholas!). New Jersey was very different but every bit as much fun and our relatives couldn’t have been more welcoming. I even celebrated a birthday there and I’ve got fond memories of having a pamper day and going to the beach and the cinema. We also got the ferry to New York City for a few days (to take a proverbial bite of the big apple, as it were). The Addams Family musical was relatively new, then, and I didn’t know much about it at all but I’ll be honest, it was the one my parents were willing to see (I might have picked Mamma Mia or Billy Elliot or even Wicked again, see last post). Neither of my parents are ABBA fans and my Mum didn’t fancy going all the way to NYC (also the title of an Annie song), to see Billy Elliot, a musical set in County Durham, where she grew up. So, The Addams Family it was – at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on West 46th Street (and that definitely is Broadway!). My parents had dragged me to lots of museums, parks, shops and other sights so I was pretty tired most evenings but it was still lovely to be at a Broadway show (even if I was half asleep…).
At the time I didn’t appreciate that the wonderful woman playing Morticia on the stage in 2011 was the fantastic Bebe Neuwirth (as Cheers/Frasier fans my parents were thrilled to see her in the flesh – this was another factor in choosing the show). Since the trip, I too have come to know her as Lilith and I don’t think they could have found a more perfect Morticia. She was brilliant – the dance at the end, a tango, was perfection! Gomez was played by Roger Rees the night we were there (as a West Wing fan Dad was quite pleased with that too…). Dad might have chosen a night at the baseball or basketball if he’d really had his say (though he did manage to see the Bluejays play in Toronto on the very last night of our big trip). These are not baseball tickets however:
Interestingly, like Annie (sorry, I’m sure that not every post will mention Annie), The Addams Family also started out as a comic strip. In fact, the comic strip first came out in the 1930s and was created by a cartoonist called Charles.. Addams! In the musical, Wednesday Addams is a lot more grown up than she is in most other adaptations and a major plot point in the musical is about her romance and plans to marry. However, there’s still a lot of focus on Morticia and Gomez Addams and the strong, committed, passionate relationship that they’ve always had. In fact, in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, (I’m also a huge fan of the show and a total nine niner for those who don’t know), Jake plans to reference the Morticia and Gomez relationship in his wedding vows to Amy but changes it at the last minute (you don’t have to have watched much of the show to know that Amy and Jake are absolute couple goals and totally soulmates with so much chemistry – less gloomy than the Addams couple but just as made for each other). Like many a great show (Friends anyone?) Brooklyn Nine-Nine is, obviously, a very New York centric show, like Annie and The Addams Family, and there’s actually a few musical links in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, as one of the characters, Charles, is a big fan of musicals and mentions being in Annie more than once. I love Charles.
We’d visited Canada before the 2011 trip as we’ve got so many relatives there (I know I haven’t mentioned everyone here – love you all!), but it was the first and only time that Mum and I had visited U.S.A. In all honesty, I’m not sure how much I remember from the 2011 trip, as I was still very much a child at the time and a lot has happened since then (more information on that coming later..) The things that have stuck with me are probably from mementos, souvenirs, photos and talking about it. I know I’ve changed a lot in the last nine years and especially now, with all the limits on travel, the thought of six months away does sound very exciting! At ten, on the whole I lived day-to-day and took each day as it came (‘where are we today?' – Vegas? Cool. Does it have a zoo*?') so on the whole it was a great experience and I didn’t worry about what others thought of me (which is certainly not the case now). The 6 month trip was perhaps a bit overwhelming (and tiring!) here and there and I’d be the first one to say that I was perhaps a bit annoying at times during the trip and wasn’t the most mature, which I hope is not so much the case now… but I’m starting to realise that I was very fortunate to have this kind of experience of travelling, seeing sights and visiting family. At the time, however, I was not used to being so far from home for so long and missed our dog, Zoe, and friends from school (not that I ever had that many friends, but the ones I had were good ones). Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz I was quite glad to get home...
*Not a zoo, as such, but Dad and I did visit Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat – there are photos here
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