Theatre in the park

Austin has a great theatre scene and Doug and I just love attending the shows. In fact, we volunteer at several theatres, selling concessions, ushering, etc., so that we can help out the theatres and stay to see the shows for free.

One of our favorite theatre traditions is getting a group of friends together to see the annual Zilker Hillside Theatre summer musical. Our friend Tom started us on this. Everyone meets at the theatre in Zilker Park, brings blankets, food, beverages, and we picnic and have a good time until the show starts about 8'ish. This year they were doing Annie Get Your Gun and we went last night. This is the show that spawned the memorable tunes "There's No Business Like Show Business" and "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better."

Last night was our annual outing and the show was cute. Normally, given that the show runs outdoors in July and August in the heat of central Texas, it can be miserable, but last night it wasn't bad (although it got muggy when the sun set). Doug and I packed a huge ice chest full of goodies -- I made a chipotle chicken salad, a tortellini & pesto salad, had potato salad with stone ground mustard (left over from beer night), an asparagus/tomato salad (which I was supposed to take to a Friday night cookout that got rained out) and a chilled cherry soup. Doug packed two bottles of wine and an unknown quantity of beer. We wanted to make sure everyone had a variety and no one wanted for anything. Fortunately our ice chest had wheels.

Unfortunately most of the friends of ours who were going to go canceled at the last minute -- calling us after we arrived at the park. Only our friend Tammy came, bringing her daughter. Our friend Krag, who manages the concessions for the Zilker Theatre, joined us for a bit, sampling the food and the beer, before getting back to work. All told, I think Doug & Krag split one beer (although it was his high-alcohol beer that is 3x as much alcohol as in a regular commercial beer), Doug had a half of another beer, and Doug and I split a glass of wine (I took four sips and Doug drank the rest so I wouldn't throw it out). Despite it being 10 degrees cooler than normal, it was still 92 degrees and at that temperature, all you want is water. Wheeling a full cooler down the hill isn't too bad, but poor Doug had to pull an almost full cooler back up the hill after the show.

Oh well. We had a good time, as did Tammy. There were some technical issues with the sound, but all told I think it was one of the better musicals they've done in a few years -- it just had a charm about it. And the lady playing Annie Oakley could sing -- during the "Anything You Can Do" number, I swear she held a single note for 3 minutes straight. It was impressive. As for the food and wine, once we got home Doug put the stuff back in the fridge -- this way the beer is already chilled for Thursday with no chance for freezer accidents and Doug has stuff to take to lunch this week.