The show must go on....

Last night I drove up to Tuahcan with friends to see "Aida" and it was a fun adventure, to say the least! As we drove into St. George, off in the distance towards our destination, we could see ominous clouds looming overhead. Our seats were up in the back, center, as we had a friend who needed a handicapped seat. And thank goodness we were up there, under only 1 of 3 covered rows of seats! Before the play even started, the wind kicked up something horrible! I had to hold my glasses onto my face it was that hard! Then the sprinkles began as the play started it's introduction. The rain continued to fall in steady sprinkles along with the hurricane-strong winds all the while people were trying to sing and dance on stage with their costumes blowing in the wind. Many times the wind was so strong that we couldn't even hear the actors talking. After about 20 minutes of this 'entertainment,' they called a 20 minute intermission to see if the weather would subside. People were running for cover, drenched. Everyone's hair was all caddywhompus and/or dripping wet. We were convinced they were going to cancel the show, but right as the 18th minute clicked by, it subsided some and the show continued. A while later, we got a huge, long clap of thunder, lightening brightened the sky every few minutes, and an electrical short shot across a wire across the stage like lightening - the microphones shorted for a second, but the show went on without even a blink of an eye. Two songs before the real intermission, they stopped the main character mid-song and said there would be another intermission because the rain had gotten stronger and the wind was awful. By now, the orchestra was packing up and moving everything out of the pit. The stage was being mopped up. The patrons were still hanging on, and we, in our covered spot, just enjoyed the dropping temperatures and wind-blown hairstyles we were now sporting. Again, 2 minutes until the 20 minute decision to cancel, the weather subsided and we actually got to watch the rest of the show with very little interruption of weather. They continued the show with pre-recorded music. I enjoyed it a lot - the story line was interesting and the music was good. We just had to laugh and chalk it up to a good story! I wouldn't have had such a good time, however, had we been sitting directly in the rain!!! I was impressed with the actors' mantra: The show must go on!