Do You Love Me?
I Suppose I Do.
Posted April 26, 2007 by James E. Nelson
I’d like to think that I’m all for religious freedom and the like, but I know that’s not completely true. Certain religions and cults are destructive to our corporate and public lives. That’s not the topic of this blog, but I was reminded of my little bit of closed-mindedness when we went to the matinee dinner theater today. “Oh, didn’t they tell you it was Red Hat Society day here at the Fireside Theater?” said the woman in the ticket booth.
I had camera firmly in hand, but the memory stick was back in the motel room still attached to my computer, so I have no pictures of the purple outfits, red hats, and boas that so tastefully adorned the majority of theater patrons today. Fortunately, before the production began, the owner announced that everyone had to remove their hats.
Some of the women even complied.
This is our second pilgrimage to the Fireside Theater. Although I thought I remembered what to expect, I was still a bit overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of the operation. One can’t buy tickets to just the show; the meal is part of the deal. They list capacity as 1750. The logistics of serving that many gourmet meals all at once is mind-boggling. And make no mistake about it, the food was good. Just a few nights prior we decided to cash in Chris’s college education fund for a meal at one of Louisville’s finest dining establishments (the Blu at the Marriot) run by one of Louisville’s most celebrated chef’s. I had quail, lamb, and beef in a Madeira wine sauce. The meal was passable, but the quail was on the dry side and the wine sauce . . . Well, it might have been brown gravy from Larry the Cable Guy’s Buffet for all the flavor it had. At the Fireside we had chicken in a Madeira wine sauce. The chicken was tender and juicy and the wine sauce was very good: piquant and rich, but not so flavorful as to overwhelm the bird.
And the meal was no fluke. The Klopcic family (who own and operate the Fireside) won the “America’s Best Restaurant Family Award in 2006. In other words, it was the best of all the restaurants featured on the Food Networks “The Best Of” series in 2006.
The theater ain’t too shabby either. It’s a professional theater and only three or four of the cast were from the area. Nearly all of them were either New York or Las Vegas residents who were doing a stint at the Fireside. We like the Fireside Theater because the stage is small (60 feet square maybe) and completely surrounded by seating, the front row being only four or five feet from the stage. They also have balcony seating all the way around. So even though the theater seats well over 1500, it is a very intimate space with actors and audience practically rubbing shoulders.
And “Fiddler on the Roof” was an outstanding production. Brenda was most interested in how they were going to handle the dream scene. We were both impressed. It was all quite horrible and frightening. But I was most enamored with Tevye’s song to Golde, “Do You Love Me?” Even though our anniversary isn’t for six months, this is our 25th anniversary fling, and in the song, Golde sings,
“Do I love him? For twenty-five years I've lived with him, Fought him, starved with him. Twenty-five years my bed is his. If that's not love, what is?”
[Tevye] “Then you love me?”
[Golde] “I suppose I do.”
[Tevye] “And I suppose I love you too.”
[Both] “It doesn’t change a thing, but even so, After twenty-five years, It's nice to know.”
It seemed an appropriate musical to attend in the midst of this land cruise that we’ve embarked upon.
And today? . . .
We’re headed back south, hopefully to visit more relatives on our way to Louisiana.
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