Cinderella @ Place des Arts (x2)

I let out a little squeal when I saw that Cinderella the Broadway show was coming to Montreal.

After I went through the process of not-so-politely suggesting (more like forcing, let’s be real here..) Riley to get us tickets, and going through the whole Wednesday / Friday date night debacle of 2016, we ended up with two pairs of tickets to see the show on two separate occasions.

Riley was supposed to bum the Wednesday tickets off to some other Broadway lover(s), but as the night approached in October, two pairs were still in our name. Each night brought very different experiences, so I thought it was necessary to write about them as individuals rather than make it about a collective experience.

Night 1:

Wednesday had arrived and we had a nice dinner at Mikes before the show. I was slightly unhappy to discover that they had once again changed the menus and somehow managed to remove my classic choice: Chicken Fingers. Really Mikes? Really?

We gave our tickets to the doorman and he ushered us off to this corner where our tickets were upgraded from up in the balcony to CENTRE STAGE 8 ROWS BACK ON THE FLOOR. I was in shock for about 10-15 minutes as we made our way to our amazing seats.

A guy was approaching us as we were seated (the only ones in our row at the time) and he came to sit down directly to my right. Before he even hit the chair, he started talking to us (us is a strong word in this instance since he only let Riley get about 2 words in..).

The largest Broadway connoisseur that I’ve ever met was sitting beside me and chatting away about his love for Cinderella, specifically. He had traveled all over to see the different renditions of the play and OF COURSE he had all the CDs to prove it.

I’m 99% sure he was recording the show since he was equipped with a pretty high-tech device he kept checking down at.

The people in front of us turned around and displayed more than one look of annoyance as he chatted at above-whisper decibels during the intermission. He began critiquing the performers and saying how it was “much better on Broadway since they were so limited in their space here”.

It kind of killed the mood a bit.

Riley was trying to keep his cool as this random Cinderella-lover was monopolizing our time.

As the show came to a close, the guy teared up so much I don’t think he noticed us casually slipping out of our seats and moving towards the exit. No goodbyes were exchanges although some would say it was definitely a good bye indeed.

I was still amazed at the scope of work and talent that was exposed to us that night on stage. Cinderella was amazing and the songs were catchy enough to stay with us even after only a couple hours. It was a really special night despite some unexpected company.

Night 2:

We went into night 2 as pros.

Our tickets were already purchased for the floor, but we could see that the same upgrading process was taking place for other balcony tickets this show.

Note to self: always purchase balcony tickets for these types of shows from now on.

We sat in our seats, again alone in the row, and waited to see who would be gracing us with their presence in the seats beside us.

Lucky for us, two couples bordered us, so we declared ourselves safe (and more importantly “alone”) for the night.

The show was so much better the second time!

For example, the musical is known for the “quick changes” where the wardrobes go from drab to fab in 2 seconds or less. We barely caught them the first time, and even knowing exactly when and where they took place, it was still flashing in a blink.

The songs were that much more catchy, the music was that much clearer, everything was at its best.

It was really nice to be able to talk to Riley throughout the intermission, see a smile on his face, and see his pupils at their normal location in his head…

We have a theory that the little girl sitting in front of us was actually one of the actors’ granddaughters. Meaning that we basically know someone famous now, just saying..

Riley sang the songs on the way home, which is probably my favourite part of the experience as a whole. It’s been over a month since we saw the show(s) and he’ll still break out into “THE PRINCE IS HAVING A BALLLL, THE PRINCE IS HAVING A BALLLL!”. It’s really cute.

There are so many other shows out there to explore so I don’t know if I would opt to see Cinderella again nor blast the soundtrack in our apartment. However, if you’re looking for a fun and new take (I wonder how many versions there actually are in the world today…) on the Cinderella story, it’s worth the investment.

Just remember to take your chances on the balcony seats.

#theatre