Shrek comes to Sacramento

Last night I had two "firsts".  It was the first time I had been in the Sacramento Community Center Theater, which sounds like a cozy little facility but is, in fact, a 2,422 seat facility located between the Capitol and the Convention Center.  Also this is the first time I had seen a musical derived from a cartoon.  In this case it was Shrek.

Sad to say, overall I wasn't really impressed.  The theater is designed to be "portrait" rather than "landscape" which means that even seats on the edge get a fairly straight-on view of the stage but the seats are so far away from the stage that it really doesn't matter.  Bathroom, food concessions, and souvenir shops all appear to be undersized. And getting around with a power wheelchair wasn't easy.

I have a mixed review of the play.  The actors, dancers, puppeteers all make a tremendous effort and the play sparkled with energy.  But we were so far away from the stage that I felt like I was watching the show on my iPod instead of on stage.    We weren't familiar with the songs or most of the dialogue.  So we ended  up many times wondering what the people around us were laughing about.

Prior to the show we ate dinner at Spataro, just a block away from the theater.  The service and food were excellent.  The only item less than great was the warm chocolate hazlenut cake which was small, dry, and disappointing.  at least the presentation was beautiful.  And we so seldom order dessert that it can hardly be a significant factor in this review.