Zilker Summer Musical – Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop of Horrors!

Seymour! Audrey! And that strange and interesting plant, the Audrey II!

What time is it, everyone? It’s time once again for the longest running free summer musical in the country, the Zilker Summer Musical! Personally, I’ve been to almost every performance since the 80s. I know that since 1990, the performances in 1996 and 2007 are the only ones our family has missed.

As sponsors, my wife and I attended the BBQ dinner and preview performance on 7/11. The performance was wonderful. (If you’ve only ever seen the movie version, there might be a surprise or two in store for you.) The dinner put a slight damper on things. I could have sworn I read something that indicated Green Mesquite would be catering it again like they did last year and I had researched the food and knew what I could eat. As it turns out, though, Pok-e-Jo’s catered it instead. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice until after I had eaten the food. And while I saw after I checked their site that I could have eaten safely, unfortunately two of the items I ate were not gluten free. 🙁 Sometimes it sucks to have to celiac disease. It just reinforces that I always have to check and double-check every time before I eat anything my wife or I didn’t prepare.

I apparently didn’t get a ton of gluten, so while I didn’t feel great later that evening and yesterday, it wasn’t as bad as it has been in the past. Of course, I don’t tend to have as strong a set of acute symptoms as some people who have celiac disease, which is why I had such extensive systemic damage by the time I was finally diagnosed. Still, it didn’t ruin my evening. My wife and I loved the performance and had a great time.

After the dinner and before the show, we headed down to Barton Springs pool and stuck our feet in the water for a while to cool down. It really helped a lot, especially since my wife is sensitive to too much sun and heat.

Tomorrow I’ll be headed back with my youngest daughter and one of her friends. We’ve been doing Shakespeare in the Park and the summer musical for some years now. When we go, we make it a full day. We spend it at the pool, which has lots of space to lounge and read and relax between dips in the pool. My daughter and her friend never stop talking until the show starts! Even as teenagers, sometimes they’ll head over to the nearby Zilker Playground. We pack plenty of drinks and food and make sure to get our blankets out right at 6:00 (the earliest you’re supposed to place unattended blankets).

If you live in the Austin area and you’ve never been, try to work it into your summer schedule this year. It’s a lot of fun and you won’t regret it!