On the way to work one day, my husband heard the end of a commercial on the radio for Phantom of the Opera. A quick websearch and a few clicks later and we found out that the Andrew LLoyd Webber show was making a tour stop in Denver. We've always wanted to see this, but thought we'd have to catch the compressed version the next time we were in Las Vegas. But this was great news!!!
To give some additional perspective, our kids absolutely love musicals. Started innocently enough with Grease, then Joseph (with Donnie Osmond of COURSE!), then grew to include CATS, Phantom of the Opera, Hairspray and now Mamma Mia! Oddly enough, they don't seem to really be into the High School Musical movies, but then there's probably a HUGE talent gap between the story and songs of ALW than HSM.
So, we started looking and the best first option for us was going to be a Wednesday night show. Weekends were almost completely sold out, plus the tickets were more expensive. So we bought some seats in the balcony after calling the theater to see which were the best available seats.
Got the kids dressed up, and headed up early to grab some dinner before the show, sort of make a whole 'event' out of the show. The Buell Theater is located just 2 blocks from the 16th St Mall in Denver. And as a bonus treat we walked past the Federal Mint, which impressed the kids! Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then a quick dash back to the theater.
Inside, the kids were just wide-eyed and amazed. All the people, all the fancy dresses, and the theater itself decked out in opulent red. As we walked through the crowd, we got the impression that ours were likely the youngest ones there, especially as our daughter is just nearly 7. We found our seats in the balcony and waited the 10 minutes for the lights to dim and the actors to take the stage.
In a word, the show was brilliant! The Phantom, Christine, Raoul and Carolotta were well cast and very good! In comparison to the DVD with Gerald Bulter, the bar was set pretty high, but the cast rose to the challenge nicely! To our pleasure, the kids stayed awake through the whole show, inspite of a 2 1/2 hour run time with a 15 minute intermission.
Our 1st family outing to the theater was a success!
We will definately be back! As we're closer to Colorado Springs, we do get the occaisional pass through of a big show like this, but usually we start seeing commercials for it on Wednesday night for a show that is on Friday/Saturday only and the tickets sell out fast.
If you're in the area, I would completely recommend catching this show! Its only on for 1 more week so you'll have to be quick!
Cheers!
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