The Most Disturbing Easter Treat Ever

I found these at my local Toys R Us Easter candy display. The Peeps Rainbow Pop is four marshmallow Peeps skewered through their soft, little chests with a stake, er... really long sucker stick.

This is bizarre, right? What message would you be sending some impressionable kid by placing one of these in their Easter basket? "Future serial killer: take note. This is how you do it!" Egad.

Now, I loves me some Peeps. But these give me the Creeps.

Two Show Weekend

I got to see two shows this weekend. Friday night, my friend Duane gave me a spare ticket to see Fiddler on the Roof at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall. I am very familiar with EJ, having ushered there for a couple of years.

The production was only in Akron for two performances, Thursday and Friday evenings; so I suspected it would be a relatively sparse staging and I was right. This is no way distracted from my enjoyment of the program, though. The cast was excellent, led by John Preece, My seat was literally in the front row, all the way to the aisle, stage right (seat A29) so I got to see a bit of the action in the wings. In my usual quest to recognize good performances from actors in smaller roles, I thought Joshua Phan-Gruber performed exceptionally as Perchik, the "radical" student/tutor.

The sounds and story of this show were very well known to me, so I admit I simply sat and drank in the singing and the dancing (always superb!) and let the music wash over me. I was not disappointed.

Saturday, Missie and I had tickets to see Memphis at Playhouse Square. This was an entirely new show for me and one that I honestly struggled to enjoy. This is through no fault of the fine cast. Rather I found the story somewhat predictable and the music, while engaging, not especially memorable. After a gem of a show, I can hardly wait to get home and purchase the cast album. Not so with Memphis. In a way, the show reminded me of Million Dollar Quartet. Perhaps Memphis would have benefited from some authentic song from its time period, the late 50's and early 60's, in addition to the original songs.

As usual, Missie and I had lunch and cocktails at Bricco before the show and more cocktails after to allow the parking deck to clear. Bartender Matt took good care of us pre-show, and Josh, our favorite bartender, kept us entertained after the show.

For me, no live theater experience is a waste of time. So even with my lukewarm reception to Memphis, I had a wonderful weekend. Which is a good thing, since I have a particularly stressful week upcoming at work.