Curtains!

Yesterday, the Lady & I stepped out for an evening to ourselves, planning a dinner & a show ... well, she planned, I ate.

We started the evening at Maze, a Gordon Ramsey restaurant. The reasons are obvious - we're big fans of his shows, like Kitchen Nightmares, and Hell's Kitchen. On the whole, I'd have to admit I wasn't particularly impressed with Maze - perhaps I built it up too much in my head. The food was certainly delicious, but the menu was rather odd - 50% seafood, and 50% all other meats ... and no chicken! But the unforgivable sin was the portion size - at that price point, they were tiny! Well, perhaps I'm too used to "American" portions of food. I was just about satisfied at the end of the meal (perhaps the dessert provided requisite stomach ballast?), but I was left craving more food - I mean, what's the point of offering 3 bite size portions of delicious food? It just leaves you unhappy, and wanting more!

Anyway, onto the show ...

The Lady had booked us front-row tickets to Curtains!, a murder mystery musical (ooh, nice bit of alliteration there!) starring David Hyde-Pierce (we're both huge fans of Frasier, and I personally think Niles was always the funnier brother). It ends today, and so we jumped on the chance to see it before it closed down for good. The show was a lot of fun ... lots of laughs, nice tunes, and dances ... although seeing our idol so close up was a bit of a shock. Well, yes, he's not a young man anymore, but I think seeing him in person, without the TV makeup and lighting, was a bit of a reality check.

 Anyway, at the end of the show, we waited for the cast to exit the stage entrance, and sign the playbill. DHP was the last to leave (intentionally?), and we got to take a photo with him, and have the following witty exchange:

Lady: We're huge fans! We watch Frasier every night!
DHP: Thank you.
Me: You were great in The Amazing Screw-On Head!
DHP: Aha! (relieved that someone remembers his non-Frasier work)