South Pacific

On Friday, Dec 18th, we had a date to the newest venue in Dallas - The Winspear Opera House.

We first went to dinner at Texas de Brazil for some good Brazilian food.

Then we went to the Winspear. I was excited to see the venue, there's been lots of talks about the new arts district in downtown so I was happy to get to go.

We got a deal from travelzoo through the mail for tickets at $35 each on the upper levels.

Now those of you who don't know... the deal we have is that if we can't have good seats to a performance, I'd rather not go. I know some of you think I'm crazy, but after this experience Tyler has strongly joined my corner.

However, I told Tyler I would be fine doing this deal so that we could check out the new venue and although I wanted to see South Pacific I wouldn't have died if I didn't. So in all this he went for it and we got left dress circle seats, and this is the view we wound up with:

As you can tell... we couldn't even see half of the stage! We were on the 4th tier of the opera house that is a horse shoe shape. I spent both acts perched over the balcony so I could see the play. It was sad.

The seats were uncomfortable and there is a huge drop off from the front row of the upper levels. The ledge is low and dangerous because there is very little leg room, so you have a hard time walking down the isle.

The venue is beautiful. It smells like fresh paint still. The sound is great, and the stage is a great size for several different type of performances.

South Pacific was beautiful. The actors were so good. Our main character, Nellie Forbush (Kate Fahrner), played Glinda with the Chicago company. The singing was amazing, the dancing was well choreographed and appropriate, the lighting was so pretty and the scenery and transitions the same. The story was good, but with like other Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals I felt like it missed a big climax and more twists and turns to the story line. But then again... if we had better seats I might have been able to see facial expressions and feel more connected to it. :-)
It was a PG-13 show and some songs I wished weren't quite as crude, but I should have known since it's a story that has military in it and is during the war. The worst one was “There is Nothin’ Like A Dame" and the acting with the song was pretty insinuating.

All in all this was a good experience. We enjoyed a pretty good show. Accomplished our goal of getting to know the venue, and learned to never seat on the upper levels. I wish we could have seen it from the orchestra seats because I think I would have really liked it.