Growing up, one of my favorite things to do with my mother was to drive up to Portland to see the touring companies of the big musicals.  My first musical was The King and I (starring Yul Brynner, on his farewell tour!) and I can’t even keep track of everything we saw.

While I’ve taken my kids to many Oregon Children’s Theater productions, we hadn’t made the leap to the “big” theater (which would be the Keller Auditorium).  This summer, though, my daughter’s turn had finally arrived.

She’s been begging to see Wicked since the last time the show was in town, when I still felt she wasn’t old enough to appreciate it.  This time, though, I made sure we had great seats for a matinee.  I had seen the show before and, frankly, didn’t really like it.  However, I blame that on the fact that I didn’t know going in that the musical was basically the Disney version of the book that I had loved.  I found this time to be much more enjoyable, not only because I already knew what to expect but also because I could see my daughter’s joy in it.

And my daughter has fallen down the musical theater rabbit hole.  She has already told me which shows she wants to see next and which ones she doesn’t (the latter includes Frozen…THANK YOU, LORD!)