Mamma Mia and Working Part I

I am not an avid arts person – just not something that usually gets on my schedule or in my budget with 4 children. Last night, however, my wife and I made the performance, Mamma Mia, playing at the Music Hall (and just a couple blocks from the debut performance at the new Sprint Center). Actually, we were attending because Allison Briner was one of the performers for the touring company—she is my wife’s cousin. It was a family gathering as her mother and some other family members also attended.

Well, the play exceeded my expectations—both Allison’s performance and overall entertainment value of the event. Mamma Mia reprises all the top songs from an old Swedish pop group name ABBA (evidently they have sold more music all time than everyone except Elvis and someone else). Thanks to Allison for getting us to something we ordinarily wouldn’t do.

Visiting with Allison and seeing the performance got me to thinking about why people do the things they do. Allison has been doing this show for 6 months, touring all over the nation. Her Kansas City week was a typical one – travel on Monday and perform from Tuesday through Sunday (including matinees on Saturday and Sunday). Next week, her Broadway Across America show travels to Norfolk, Virginia, followed the next week by Melbourne, Florida. In fact, the show doesn’t take a break until after the December 1st performance in Boston (not a long one as they start back up the day after Christmas in Ottawa, Canada). In addition to the schedule, these performers—especially this rollicking show—have an exhausting job of singing, dancing, and costume changing. This kind of schedule may sound like fun at 22, but for forty-somethings (which a number of the starring roles were) this simply sounds grueling. So it got me thinking about “working for a living” . . . which will be Part II of this thread.