Far Off Broadway

Every year, the Anchorage Concert Association manages to convince a Broadway show to do a run at the Alaska Performing Arts Center.  A couple years ago, it was The Lion King.  The tickets were pricy, so the shows didn’t sell out until after the run began.  The production was AMAZING, beginning to end.  And once people started hearing the reviews, all the remaining shows were sold out immediately!  I was lucky enough to see it twice…  The family went together initially.  Then, as my mom was going to visit us in the coming week, I bought a pair of tickets for one of the last showings before they were all snapped up.  It was just a great the second time around.

This past weekend, I took Alicia to see Beauty and the Beast.  The music, costuming, and sets were, once again, fantastic.  It had a considerably shorter run than The Lion King, only showing for about a week.  We’d bought our tickets months ago and went with our other little friends and their mom.

During the first couple days of the production, the star of the show had an unpleasant run-in with a local fella.  You can read more about that here:   http://www.adn.com/2012/01/14/2264215/with-a-little-help-beauty-apprehends.html .  Thankfully, that ended well and she was able to “go on with the show”!

It’s really wonderful to have the opportunity to experience this level of production being so far from NYC and the bright lights of Broadway.  It took several years for the PAC to finally be able to entice a major production to come to Alaska.  I imagine the logistics are rather daunting.  But, The Lion King was the ice breaker.  And, it was a great success.  So, hopefully, these wonderful shows will continue to grace our stage here in Anchorage.