One week later...

I was thrilled to test negative Tuesday of last week because Thursday was my second-chance night to see Hamilton! Grandpa and Darla picked Miriam and I up for dinner (at Waffle House) before heading downtown.

It was fun to get to know Darla a little bit better! We've been meaning to spend more time with her after meeting her (on January 22, right?), but she didn't end up coming to the zoo with us (and Amanda) because her granddaughter was sick, and then that ended up being a little fortuitous because we all came down with COVID (though miraculously, Amanda and her family did not!). Miriam got to spend quite a bit of time with Darla while she was staying at Grandpa's house, but...the rest of us did not. All that is to say that it was nice to get to chat with Darla a bit more. 

Miriam was able to tell us a lot about the history of Fox Theatre that she'd learned on her Mighty Mo tour. It was originally planned to be a shriners mosque and its design certainly "tries to embody the entire scope of Mohammedan Art," as you can see in the mihrab-esque design of the organ pipe screen (on the far right (and left) of this picture):

It's really quite a fancy place! So it was a little surprising to me that they were selling popcorn like it was a movie theatre or something. People were shaking their popcorn buckets to stir things around, munching loudly, and when we left we were wading through discarded containers and crunching popcorn under our feet. I was aghast! I don't remember food really being part of my previous theatre experiences (though some research reveals that food is actually sold at, for example, the Eccles Theater (where we saw Wicked several years ago), though they "'worked really hard to select food that isn't messy and has packaging that is sustainable and quiet.' That means no popcorn or traditional candy with noisy wrappers."

I don't mind popcorn—it's an easy whole grain to fit into your diet! I was just shocked that such a fancy theater had me wading through popcorn-covered floors to the exit. People are animals.

Anyway, there are so many restaurants and business that got their start in Georgia and Darla was a treasure trove of knowledge about them: Waffle House, The Varsity (we went there with Amanda, though not to the original location, which we passed on our way home from Fox Theatre), and Chick-fil-A. Not to mention Coca-Cola and Delta and all sorts of other businesses! 

The show itself was amazing! Our seats were down on the orchestra level, while Darla's ticket was up in one of the balconies (though she had some friends to sit with, so she wasn't alone). We had open seats beside us, however, so she joined us for the second act.

The music, of course, had a different feeling from the original cast, but it was as fun to hear—and at times be surprised by—an individual performer's spin on any given role as it was disappointing that it wasn't the same as the recording. That is, there were times I was ready for the music to happen in a way that didn't happen (which was sometimes a bit of a disappointment), but other fun things happened, which was good. 

Our cast was called the Phillip cast, and among our performers was Neil Haskell, who was in the original cast (as a swing member). He was our King George, however, and the audience just loved him. I thought Nikisha Williams did a phenomenal job as Eliza. And...I think I knew that some actors played more than one role (for example, I knew about the Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds crossover, and I think I knew about John Laurens/Phillip Hamilton, but somehow I didn't realize the Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson or Hercules Mulligan/James Madison roles were also shared by one person).

Realizing this now is a little funny to me because it's Jefferson who sings "Did you forget Lafayette?" in the Cabinet Battle #2. Anyway...

It was a wonderful evening shared with wonderful people (and Rachel survived all the little kids at home just fine)!