Theater Time: Friend Like Me

Because my life isn't busy enough, I picked up a couple new side-gigs.  Neither of which pays in the traditional sense, but both offer some great perks.

The first of these is volunteering for Broadway San Diego.  It's volunteer work, but it means I get to help out at amazingly cool events.  Like the announcement of next year's season, where Alyssa Fox wowed our luncheon by singing Let It Go.  In a private room of a restaurant.  Like less than 10 feet away from us!

I got a chance to chat with the volunteer coordinator, and when I told him how I was raising two little theater nerds, he insisted we had to see Aladdin.  Which was opening the following week.

Normally, this is the kind of thing to which I bring Thatkid.  Thatbaby hasn't actually ever sat through a full length production in a theater, as opposed to an outdoor ampitheater where I can scuttle him to the grass if he got rambunctious.  But, he has been phenomenal in those settings, and never actually needed to be removed from the production.  So it was time.  And Aladdin is the perfect show for little guys.

He was a little nervous at first that the bad guy was going to be scary, but before the show we purchased a special magic carpet blanket (which he now brings with him everywhere) that he could hide under if he got scared.  The musical is a little different from the movie though, which really toned down the "bad guy" aspect.  

Thatbaby loved the magic of it all, especially the Genie.  The Genie was his hands down favorite part of the show.  And really, I can't blame him.  Major Attaway, who played the Genie, was mesmerizing.  It's such an incredibly physical part, requiring some remarkably high energy, and from his first entrance, he had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand.  He was so much fun to watch.

So much fun, in fact, that I have created a drink in his honor.  Not just Major Attaway, but all the remarkable actors who have taken on the role, all the way back to the creator: James M. Iglehart.

Of course the drink is blue - to match the Genie's iconic robes, which take the place of the "blue ghost" (as Thatbaby refers to him) from the movie.  But more than that, as the Genie promises in the first song, it will "take you away to a faraway place." 

Friend Like Me

1 1/2 oz of light rum (any rum will do, but the light keeps the blue color)

1 1/2 oz of blue curacao 

3/4 oz elderflower syrup

3/4 oz creme de cassis

club soda

1. In a shaker filled with ice, combine rum, curacao, elderflower syrup and creme de cassis.
2. Shake and strain into a martini glass.
3. Top with club soda to taste.