Kill da Wabbit, Kill da Wabbit

Bugs Bunny on Broadway

I had never been to the symphony. When my wife suggested that we go, at first I thought I wouldn’t like it. But it’s freaking Looney Tunes, and it was fantastic!

I thought it was cool to view the cartoons as they were meant to be seen. It was held at Jones Hall, a big theater with a sell out crowd, enjoying the clips on the big screen. Kind of like they did back in the 1940’s and 50’s, when they would show the shorts before feature presentations at movie theaters.

The big crowd was very robust. I had seen all these shorts before, but I still laughed out loud at times due to the infectious laughter around me. I always tell my wife that Looney Tunes cartoons are timeless and I was proven right by the amount of children laughing. That is one of the greatest sounds ever, as my wife pointed out during the show.

It was totally entertaining from the start. The conductor, George Daugherty, was amazing and had some great stage presence. Similar to Bugs in the short “Baton Bunny” minus the yellow tux……not really. George was great, he was good with the audience too. There was an 8 year old boy there that he gave a shirt to. As a conductor he kept everything flowing, even through the technical glitch during the last short, “What’s Opera Doc?” It seems for the first time in 16 years his headphones went out during a performance. He halted the orchestra, paused the film and went to get new phones. He then rewound it and started over after explaining the situation to the audience. In all, there was about a minute of down time.

The symphony was brilliant. I loved hearing these songs that I already know, with live instruments. The acoustics in the building were great too, of course. I liked watching the timpani players in the back and the violins sounded awesome. The horns were strong and the entire production, music wise, was really powerful.

We had a great time. Thanks to the wife for setting everything up. She rocks errrr in a classical, symphonic way this time.