Trip Report - Broadway in the Desert?!

“We went down to the Phoenix area over the weekend to celebrate the opening of my cousin's dinner theater, the Arizona Broadway Theatre (http://www.azbroadwaytheatre.com). They have been working on this thing for almost 5 years, and it finally opened, so they had a black tie gala reception. The format is that they will serve dinner about an hour before the show, then present a full length Broadway musical. The performers are professionals, not merely good community theater actors - they got a few locally, but many from NY and LA.

BowlderGal flew down on Thursday for work, then picked up me, BowlderSon, and BowlderFatherInLaw (hmmm, how 'bout we call him BFIL) at the airport late Friday morning. After a visit to BowlderGal's company's Phoenix office, it was off to Tempe with our friend (who also accompanied us to the Grand Canyon in Spring of '04) for lunch and margaritas. Weather was fantastic, about 80, and it was great to sit outdoors and eat good southwestern food.

We went back to our friend's place after a while and relaxed until it was time to put on our tuxes and dresses, then drive up to the other end of the valley (Peoria) for the big event. It was fun dressing up and hanging out with the other folks at the opening, including my aunt and uncle and cousin and her husband.

The show, Anything Goes, was excellent! It's kind of a dorky plot, but lots of funny jokes and good music. BowlderSon had snagged the front & center table, so we were up close and personal with the show!

Afterward, we got to meet some of the cast and hang out with the relatives, celebrating the success!

Saturday, they gave us a tour of the almost finished theater building (the construction wasn't quite complete, due to a number of weird delays) - it is going to be fantastic!!

After leaving the new theater, we went back to our friend's place, then went up to the town of Carefree, where there was an art fair. We didn't stick around there too long, and went on to the neighboring town of Cave Rock to the Satisfied Frog (down the street from the Horny Toad) for dinner.

The next morning (not too early) we flew back home. At least BowlderGal and 'Son did - I went up to Seattle to search for Pixie to collect on a beer after Stanford beat the spread vs. USC. Hah! Not really, it was for a memorial service for my aunt (which turned into a nice gathering of family after many of them suffered with my aunt through her battle with Alzheimers).

Photos here: http://community.webshots.com/album/500132562eTqPqy”

“After leaving the new theater, we went back to our friend's place, then went up to the town of Carefree, where there was an art fair. We didn't stick around there too long, and went on to the neighboring town of Cave Rock to the Satisfied Frog (down the street from the Horny Toad) for dinner.


awesome names for places!”

“Those Arizonians are so darn clever!”

“sounds like a very fun weekend!! you probably think you're all cool now that you got to hang out with the cast...
;-)”

“Wait a minute - I thought I already was all cool!”