Guys & Dolls

It is a fundamental truth of the universe that for most men, putting the words "musical" and "theatre" together equals "Please don't make me go with you." No one embodies this truth more than Nadine's husband John. So when her sorority alumni group was planing their annual outing to the Hollywood Bowl, and the entertainment was "Guys & Dolls," she knew better than to even tell him about it. Lucky for me, because that meant her extra ticket was a gift to me for my birthday! And I, like most women, actually ENJOY musical theatre. Even if Jessica Biel is playing one of the leads.



Now, I was never in a sorority, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the band geek thing (practices every day for a couple of hours, football games every weekend) got in the way of Rush Week events, as well as all the ongoing parties and things you had to attend until you hopefully got accepted. Then there's that whole thing of having to work to impress people enough to want to be your friend. Now, I know it isn't like that everywhere, and I'm not judging, but at that stage of my life my attitude was pretty much "You either like me or you don't. And I don't care if you don't like me. Your loss." Now that I think of it, I'm STILL pretty much like that. But Nadine seemed to think I was likable enough to hang with the Zetas, so I wasn't too worried. Although I did check dress code with her. Didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb and all.

Her sisters are a HOOT! What an amazing bunch of women. We had an awesome time, complete with a picnic before the actual show, then seats together with the whole crew and a ton of chuckles throughout the night. Someone was even thoughtful enough to bring a pair of binoculars and pass them around so we could scope out the hot dude playing Sky Masterson in the show.



The entire ensemble cast was really good, including Scott Bakula and Beau Bridges. And I have to admit, Jessica Biel surprised me. Granted, I wasn't expecting much, but she did a good job. The higher end of her soprano range is a little thready, but she held her own. Plus she got to make out with the cute Sky Masterson guy. Justin Timberlake should be just a little jealous!

It was really great night, so big thanks to Nadine and her Zetas for making the continuation of my birthday week a blast! And being the excellent friend she is, Nadine also got me these really cute earrings!



The only less-than-perfect part of the day was the drive home. Only in LA can there be a traffic jam at 11 PM...took me almost 45 minutes to get home (the drive should only take about 20 minutes tops).



And of course, who called me on my way home looking for his wife? That would be John. He's probably sorry he missed the fun...at least he should be.