Meet Me At The Muny

We lived in St. Louis for 5 years and never actually went to The Muny, an amphitheater at Forest Park known for its stage productions during the summer.  Thus, for Father’s Day this year, “Meg” got us all tickets to go see “Aladdin,” a musical based on the 1992 Disney movie.

Let’s all allow “1992” to sink in for a moment…

Regardless, this was going to be the first time we’d ever tried keeping Meg up far past her bedtime.  We tested the waters a bit on the 4th of July, getting her to bed around 9:30, and that seemed to be pretty close to the limit.  Muny productions typically start at 8:15 pm (weather permitting), so we knew we wouldn’t be able to finish the whole thing, but we thought it’d be a nice family outing, and something else to test Meg’s reaction to large crowds and big events.  All told, she did a pretty great job.

We ate at a Mexican restaurant before going to Forest Park to walk around a bit.  The stroller ride helped keep Meg entertained (who opted to not take a nap that day, mind you…) while we waited to go into the amphitheater.  By the time 7:45 rolled around, we were heading in, found our seats, and Brooke opened up some snacks for Meg.  The weather started out pretty hot, right around 90 F, but a front moved in north of St. Louis that dropped the temp to 80 F in about 10 min.  By the time the show started, it was surprisingly comfortable!

The show itself was “alright.”  Perhaps it’s my affection for the 1992 movie, but the changes that had to be made to the story in order to make it work on a stage weren’t the ones I’d have gone with.  The primary offender was the replacement of Abu (the monkey) with three “friends” of Aladdin, who served as narrators, to some degree, and also comic relief.  They, and the Genie, had “updated” some jokes for the 21st century, making some of the dialog a bit more topical, but many of them were less amusing for me than they intended.  By the time we left, I felt like we’d hardly even seen the character of Aladdin, and seen far more of the “friends” and of Jasmine (who did a remarkable job, sounding very much like the character from the movie).  The Genie, also, was not Robin Williams, and to me, tried a bit too hard to not differentiate himself from the example set 20 years ago.  He did alright, but again, I’m just used to the Genie I grew up with.

This production also added songs to the show.  Some of these songs, supposedly, were originally intended for the movie, but were then dropped.  A few of them, though, seemed like they didn’t fit all that well (which is maybe why they weren’t in the movie in the first place).  The musical performances were good, overall, but again, there was probably a reason some of those were dropped 20 years ago.  I could have gone with less music, personally.

Meg was getting pretty tired (and louder…), so we left at Intermission.  Appropriately, Intermission was set at the point in the story when the Genie turns Aladdin into a prince, so we got through a good chunk of the story.  Daddy got to carry Meg out, sleeping, on his shoulder, and we had her home and in bed just before 10:00.  She did a good job!

All in all, I think we all had a good time.  It was a good family outing for us, despite the late-ish starting time!