The Show Must Go On!

On Thursday evening, I attended the Pacific Northwest Ballet “Director’s Choice” performance at McCaw Hall.  The dancing was superb as always.  It was fun to see two new productions that I had not ever seen which were Petite Mort with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and choregraphy by Jiri Kylian and The Seasons with music by Alexander Glazunov and choregraphy by Val Caniparoli.  Both new works were fascinating and Petite Mort had the added quirkiness of the dancing occurring with fencing foils and black ball gowns on wheels.  In addition, PNB danced another favorite, West Side Story Suite with music by Leonard Bernstein and choreography by Jerome Robbins and one that I have seen several times and still don’t care for which was Mopey with music by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach and The Cramps and choreography by Marco Goecke. 

From my abbreviated description above, everything sounds as if it was a normal night at McCaw Hall.  However, it was anything but normal that day.  I received a call in the afternoon from the PNB Executive Director, D. David Brown, letting me know that McCaw Hall and most of the Seattle Center had been without power almost all day and that there was a chance that the performance would not happen.  It was nip and tuck until the very end when the power finally came on only 17 minutes before the show was to begin.  Peter Boal, the Artistic Director of PNB, says it best to the attendees of Thursday night’s performance in his brief email note which is below.

Dear Friends –

Theatre artists always say “the show must go on,” and this last Thursday night, it did, thanks to the generous patience, good-will and understanding of so many people, not the least of which were our wonderful audience members who attended the show. 

As you can imagine, it was a trying day for the staffs of PNB and McCaw Hall (as well as the rest of Seattle Center), with City Light assuring us that the power was going to be restored at 6:00…then 6:30…then 7:00….  What a relief when the lights came on at 7:13! 

We are so grateful that you stuck with us, and hope you felt that the performance was worth the wait.  We look forward to seeing you again soon – We’ll try to keep the lights on for you.

Sincerely,

Peter Boal

Artistic Director

Pacific Northwest Ballet

My message to Peter and David and the entire artistic and administrative staff and dancers of PNB is:  The show was worth the wait!  Thank you for maintaining such high standards of excellence even under the most trying circumstances.  Pacific Northwest Ballet truly is a cultural jewel in the international dance world and especially in our community!