Now give three cheers, I'll lead the way!

So last night I went to see Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore at Wolf Trap. YAY!! It was such a fun show! I mean, it IS a fun show, and it was so fun to see it in that setting! I've been wanting to go to Wolf Trap for a while, and when I heard about the show on Thursday I was thrilled at the chance to see that show there!

This may be news to some of you, but I love ridiculous songs (I know - shocker!), and the songs in this show fit in that category. In fact, it is perhaps because of Gilbert and Sullivan that I do love silly songs. I grew up listening to, and memorizing, The Pirates of Penzance, Pinafore, and The Mikado. Once on a road trip I sang all of Act I of Pirates with my friend Lisa's brother. We were alone in the cab of his truck, so we didn't inflict our singing on the whole group. :) And my dad sings "I am the Captain of the Pinafore" and "When I was a Lad," with my sisters and me as his back-up, er, I mean, his crew. So you might say that these songs are deeply important to me, as much as anything can be deeply important that is "full of sound and fury and signif[ies] nothing." You might say, if you were being sentimental, which I frequently am, that they are part of the soundtrack of my childhood.

I was on the lawn for the show last night, too far back to see things like, oh, facial expressions, but I could hear well, so I sat under the stars and chortled over love-sick sailors, pompous nobles, and ridiculous songs and situations. I did manage to refrain from singing along to any of the songs, but it was difficult. :)

(Image from Wikipedia)