Violet

Tuesday night Kari and went to see a production of the musical Violet.  The reason we chose a Tuesday night and something I hadn't realized before we bought the tickets is that at every Roundabout Theatre production (of which Violet is one), they have a talk before the show on Tuesday nights.  One of the producers from Roundabout talked for about 20 minutes about the history of the show and basically how it came to be playing on Broadway.  I think it actually really helped my enjoyment of the show.

The musical is based on a short story called "The Ugliest Pilgrim" by Doris Betts.  The writers of the show had seen a short film version of the story and thought it would make an interesting musical so wanted to do an adaptation.  What I hadn't realized is that one of the writers also worked on both Thoroughly Modern Millie and Shrek the Musical.  That was how she already knew Sutton Foster, who plays the lead role.  This also brings me to my next point.  I really wanted to see this show because Sutton Foster was in it.  I've seen her perform live before and she's always amazing in what she does.  She is definitely one of those classic Broadway triple threats. (Though she didn't do a lot of dancing in this show).

They explain the show a little bit in the Tony clip, but basically it's about a woman with a facial disfiguration who travels from North Carolina to Memphis because she believes an evangelical faith healer will be able to heal her.  On the greyhound bus she meets two soldiers who she becomes friends with.

Overall, I enjoyed the show but I do think there were parts where I just didn't quite understand what was happening.  The musical stylings made it difficult to understand the words all of the time and the plot is a little weird, but it was enjoyable to watch.