Well Hockadoo!

If memory serves I don't think I have posted about my confirmation class trip last year. I have a few stories that fit this blog, we did a LOT of museum hopping, but one of the highlights of the trip was seeing a Broadway show.

Let me back track. As most of you have probably figured out by now, I am Jewish. Most reform Jews have something called Confirmation in the 10th grade. Its separate from having a Bar/Bat/B'nai Mitzvah, and is basically a year that you spend learning about Judaism before making your decision about staying with the faith. Like I said this is normally done in 10th grade, but my class was so small (three people on a good day) that we were put with the grade above up. I have many interesting stories resulting from that, but those are for another day.

The first weekend in February our class got on a plane and flew to New York for a wild wild weekend. We all got lost in Times Square, missed the boat at Ellis Island, a few of us walked home at midnight, and I even did the Torah Blessings in front of hundreds of people. It was snowy and cold and exhausting but a  trip I will remember for the rest of my life.

A few months before the trip we had to decide what Broadway show we wanted to go see. No one really knew about the shows that were being put on, and so our Rabbi ended up choosing that we would see Memphis. None of us had ever heard of it, and after one of the guys inquired with one of his family members, we were told we probably wouldn't like it. But by then it was to late to change the tickets and so off we went.

Our seats were surprisingly good although at first it didn't seem that way. But as the show went on we all figured that it was a great show, and it totally drew me in. Not that anyone was quite surprised by that, I have loved musicals since the age of two when my Grandma insisted on taking me to see Beauty and the Beast. My mother and father told her that I would not like it, but she persisted and so we all went. And I sat, spell bound throughout the entire musical. In fact I still have the program from it.

Memphis was also spell binding. The man we saw portray Huey was the understudy, and he gave the role his all. It was phenomenal to see his energy light the stage as he sung and danced. My father remarked later on that he must be very tired of being the understudy and put his heart and soul into it. Because of this I became so entangled in the story, it was a remarkable experience that I will remember for ages to come.