l'Chiam!

Tonight Mum and I went to see Fiddler on the Roof at the Hale Centre Theatre in West Valley. It was sssssssooooooooooo good. I mean, really, really, very good. I don't know if it's a professional acting company or what, but regardless, it was awesome!

Mum and I were in the third row, so we were really close. But no matter what, it would have been a great seat since it's a round (and revolving) stage! The set was great, the lighting was great, and the fiddler was incredible! The whole theatre was beautiful.

The acting was really good. This is Ariana Escalante, who played Hodel. I told her afterwards that she has an incredible voice. It's as clear and sweet as a chime. All the daughters did great with their emotional scenes, which I think is one of the hardest things to do, since so often an emotional scene can be way over acted. The girl who play Chava (Ali Bennet) did one of the most heartbreaking roles I've seen, and it just seemed so real.

Tevye was, surprisingly, not a disappointment. I was excited to see him, but at the same time skeptical that he would be disappointing after seeing Topol in the movie, since he's kind of created the Tevye we all know and love. But this guy was great! He did the shimmies, and had a great voice, and (my favorite part) a natural, easy laugh. Again, I think acting things that we do as reflexes (like laughing) is really difficult, but this man just had it down. It sounded so--Tevye-ish.

In short, it was all excellent. I'm so glad we got to go! My only regret is that we didn't know there was a Hale Centre Theatre this close to us earlier! Mike and I could have gone to see earlier!

On a side note, as we were walking out to the car, a young man in jeans ran over to us across the lawn and pantingly called, "HEY! Are you the Bensons?" I looked at him and immediately recognized him, but couldn't remember his name. "No, we're the Conners," I said. "Oh! The Conners! Wow!" "I know you, though..." "Yeah! I'm Elder Brown!"

WOAH! Flashback! Elder Brown went to Lisa's and my graduation in 2005! It's always hard to place old missionaries in their natural habitat and camouflage, but Elder Brown has also packed on a healthy winter insulation. (Don't worry, he's not obese or anything, but he's certainly not suffering from missionary starvation either.)