December 22, 2022
Since we aren’t around family for the holidays we decided to do a couple of things for just the two of us. About three weeks ago we started to search for things to do. We found one item, Yuletide at Old Tucson. It looked really neat so we purchased tickets. This is how we will spend our Christmas Eve. We had gotten recommendations from several people about going to the Gaslight Theatre. So I looked it up and got excited when I saw they were doing a production of Christmas Vacation. The excitement was short lived when I saw they were SOLD OUT. So I decided to sign up for emails for future reference.
Lo and behold I got an email from them and they had a few shows where people had canceled their reservations. I immediately called. Tonight is the night. Gaslight Theatre is a small venue attached to Gaslight Costumes, Little Anthony’s Diner, and Grandma Tony’s Pizza. I believe the same family owns all 4 businesses. Not only do you get a show but you have the opportunity to order dinner and/or drinks, wines and beers, and desserts. So it is a dinner theatre.
Once we were seated a waitress came around and took our order. She even got me a taste of one of the local tap beers before ordering a larger glass. I had pizza and a Barrio Blonde Ale from Barrio Brewing in Tucson. Very good. Nancy had a Caesar salad with chicken and a soda. She did not care for her salad. We also had dessert. I had a banana split and she had a caramel sundae. The waitresses were all dressed in very short Mrs. Claus skirts. The male staff were in the Christmas Gaslight tee shirts. The staff was very friendly.
The menu and the playbill were contained in the newspaper on the table. After looking at that I realized that this musical was not the same as the movie. It did parallel several basics of the movie. The cast are local actors. You could tell when the actors would ad-lib or go off script and their cast mates would crack up. We thoroughly enjoyed the production. The music was provided by a three piece band. A piano, bass guitar, and drum. The cast would interact with the audience And for me, I enjoyed all of the corn Dad Jokes they told as well.
When we first met our waitress, she asked if we were celebrating anything. I thought that was odd but found out later why. After the play was done, one of the performers came out and they recognized everyone who was celebrating a birthday or anniversary. The birthday folks got a scoop of ice cream on a cone and the anniversary people got a small sundae with 2 spoons. They then had all audience members stand if they were military or first responders.
Once that portion was over, they moved into a small segment of musical numbers of Christmas songs and multiple costume changes. Very well done. And then Santa came out and made his rounds through the crowd and everyone was singing. Overall a very enjoyable night. For me it made Christmas a little bit better.
