A friend called the other day and asked Nancy if she and I would like to go see a new musical in New Orleans, Escape to Margaritaville.
We are all Jimmy Buffet fans so this was right up our alley. I bought season tickets to State games this year. Actually, I bought them twice but Anna Lauren enjoys them so what the heck.
I had to cover Friday night football here, so we did not leave until Saturday morning. We headed down to the Jordan River and met up with our buds.
The plans were to go and have lunch and then catch the 2 p.m. show at the Saenger in New Orleans, which is a nice venue. I really had no idea what the play was about, but knowing my Parrot Head friend it was sure to be fun.
The show was about an island resort called--you guessed it--Margaritaville. It was run by a Caribbean Chick Marley, played by Rema Webb. She had the Caribbean vernacular down and had a lot of classic one-liners.
The play’s dialogue was filled with lines from Jimmy Buffet songs that led from one song to another.
This was opening weekend and only the second performance before they go to Broadway and then on tour.
The musical’s theme was a bit like that of Dirty Dancing in that you had a full-time staff working the resort during the season and having their flings with the tourists. The big difference was that this was all set to Jimmy Buffet music.
The two female actresses came down to Margaritaville for a batchelorette party. The bride was not appreciated by her fiance, who was more about improving her than accepting who she was. Her sidekick was more about her career and not real interested in the bride’s problems. The trip to paradise came and went and the girls went back to the real world.
Then all of a sudden-The Volcano Blows--another Buffet song--and everyone is fleeing the island and Tully and Brick end up stateside just before the wedding. The wedding was called off for the right reasons.
Tully, the bartender, falls in love and gets married. Brick turns country music star and gets his girl but this is only after each gets their own turns at success. All along the way, the perfect Buffet songs are performed to just the right event.
So, needless to say, it was a great show and if you are a Buffet fan that made it all the better.
After the show we were able to do the Cats Meow for a while before going to have dinner.
I am glad I am growing up a bit because in the past this would have been just the start to a long and tiring weekend. Now it is a good way to spend a day and make your way back home, that is, if you have a Cheeseburger in Paradise--Heaven on Earth with an Onion Slice!
