Those shows that we saw in Myrtle Beach, rumored to be as great, wonderful, entertaining as anything one would witness in the theaters of Branson: oh... yes, I think pretty good. This coming from someone who learned to drive on narrow, two lane dirt roads between fields of cotton, corn and tobacco. So: it don't take much...
We went to "Calvin Gilmore presents the Carolina Opry" on Monday night, which was mostly country music, as you would assume from a performance with 'opry' tacked on the end. (Never heard of Calvin Gilmore? Me neither - but he can obviously afford to build a big fancy theater with his name in lights...) The show was well done, a professional, thoroughly rehearsed, beautifully costumed show with singing and dancing and some very amusing comedy sketches thrown in. And a group of four guys with amazingly fast feet, dancing in sync., who according to the program provided, had been featured on any number of daytime, tabloid-type TV shows. They were something to behold. Similar to some of the footwork in the Riverdance shows - moving so fast, from the waist down, it's just a blur.
One of the little comedy bits was a conversation between the one jokester in the cast and and a straight man who played the part of thoroughly befuddled. Along the lines of the old 'who's on first?' routine, about a guy who was opening a motel where the first floor was the highest, and the fourth floor was the lowest (price-wise), but you can imagine how confusing it could get... And another bit where someone dressed up as a female, and took over the stage from the audience. Then later comes a guy with a routine, talking about going to work in a chicken processing plant that had been taken over by the corporation that makes the Schick razors, so the business was shaving instead plucking, and was called Chicken Schick....hmmm - maybe you had to be there to get that one...
On Tuesday night, we went to a show in the Alabama Theater. I don't think the famous, retired musical group from Muscle Shoals really has anything to do with the production, other than possibly receiving some financial benefits from their investment and putting the name (probably trademarked) of group on all the publicity. The show was very good. Well worth $45 a ticket for three hours of entertainment: more singing, great dancing, lots of costume changes and more highly amusing comedy - probably my choice for the best part of the show.
We went early to pick up tickets that had been ordered by phone, and took a coupon for a discount that came in the envelope to nearby restaurant before the show began. We had been told to arrive at least fifteen minutes early for the 'warm up show', so we got there and found our seats, waiting for something to happen. This very random guy comes on stage before the curtain goes up, dressed in faded jeans and a red T-shirt. That says 'I put ketchup on my ketchup'. Everything he said sounded so sincere, and he seemed so well-meaning, and was so amusing. Turns out he is originally from Decatur, went to UGA, worked in advertising, but quit his job to do stand-up comedy. He was hilarious. Came out once during a break, riding on a little kid's push scooter that had blinking lights, with a giant foam taco on his head, wearing work-type coveralls with CD covers velcro'ed all over the front. He started off by saying it was a 'commercial', and he was obviously there to promote the recordings done by members of the cast. There were several pieces of velcro without the little jewel cases stuck on them and the MC walked out (in about the 10th costume change) and asked why he did not have one for the recordings of Christian music of his, titled "All You Need Is Faith"? The guy in the coveralls, whose stage name is Ricky, said 'well, ... I guess Faith Is NOT All You Need, is it?', so deadpan, the audience roared. He was just so plain spoken, so open, seemingly so baffled by everything, you could not help but be convinced of his sincerity and believe that it was all spontaneous, just whatever came into his head would pop out of his mouth ... perhaps you had to be there for that as well...
And then there was the "Legends on Stage" show at the Palace Theater on Wed,night. Pretty good, as you would hope/expect people who get paid for getting up on stage and faking it should be. We saw the (not) Elvis, Celine Dion, Little Richard, Alan Jackson, Aretha and someone most won't know/remember because your brain is not old enough: Bobby Darin. Apparently you can call/check the website to find out which Legend is performing any particular night, which we did not know to do, so I was disappointed to not see the fake Michael Jackson - I was really wanting to study his feet and try to figure out the Moon Walk
Otherwise we entertained ourselves by walking (me), climbing six flights of stairs to get to our room (me- trying to burn off all those calories from accompanying the guy who likes to eat several times each day), riding up and down the street trying to figure the map out where the street names are duplicates numbers. That town, clearly designed for huge crowds of consumers has first, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. avenues, but some are N. and some are S. Making U-turns and trying to decide if the driving directions we had meant 'Old' highway 17 or 'new' Highway 17, or we should be searching for the north avenue or the south avenue. And now that I have pretty much figured all that out, and mostly know how to navigate my way around Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the map is in the recycling bin and I am back in Georgia.
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