As I mentioned before, this season the musicals I go to were split between the Pantages theater (where they typically have been held) and the Dolby theater. The Dolby is where the Oscars are held each year and I’ve been to another event there years ago. But I definitely wasn’t as familiar with that theater as I am with the Pantages. And this week, we had our first show at the Dolby and we tried to start a new pre-show routine.
The Dolby is inside the Hollywood and Highland center, which has a few different restaurants to choose from. Dani and I decided that we would go there early to have some dinner and then get to our show. I’ve been to Hollywood and Highland a bunch in the past, so I was familiar with the area. And since we were going to the show on a weekday, we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time for traffic. We were shocked when the traffic wasn’t bad at all and we got there much earlier than we expected.
We weren’t sure where we wanted to eat and we had so much extra time, so we did a little walking around the area before getting food. It’s so interesting how that part of Hollywood feels so different from the part of Hollywood by the Pantages. And the two spots aren’t that far apart. But I guess a few blocks can make a big difference.
We got some dinner and realized we still had almost an hour and a half before the show started. So we decided to do one of our normal pre-show activities and head over to Wood & Vine for some dessert! We took the subway one stop to get there (there is a stop at Hollywood and Highland and the next stop is next to the restaurant) and got a seat at the bar to see what we wanted to eat. We decided to go with our favorite dessert which is the butterscotch one. And it was just as good as it always is!
Even though we didn’t have a full meal there, getting dessert somehow made things feel more normal and more like we were used to before a show. It’s funny how the smallest routine thing can make everything feel right again. We didn’t have a lot of time to hang out at Wood & Vine because we had to get back on the subway to get to the theater. We made it back 10 minutes before the show started which was the perfect amount of time to find our seats and get settled.
I had been worried about how shows would look in the Dolby because in my memory it’s a much larger theater. And it might be a lot larger, but I don’t know if the top two balcony sections were used. So nobody was seated that high above the stage.
Our seats weren’t the seats we will have for other shows because we had to change the date of our tickets. But these were close to what we would have. We were in the balcony, but we were in the second row which was not too far from the stage.
And because we were in the second row of the balcony, we weren’t that high above the stage so it didn’t feel like we were looking down at the show instead of out at the show. It did feel bigger because the ceiling was so high up, but it didn’t feel like we were seeing a show in an arena instead of a theater. That was a nice surprise since I had been pretty worried about that. I’m glad my fears were wrong and that it seems like the shows we see at the Dolby are going to feel just as close as our shows at the Pantages.
The show we saw this time was “Escape To Margaritaville”, which is another jukebox musical.
We’ve had a lot of jukebox musicals in the past. Sometimes I am familiar with the singer or band and knew that I would know a lot of the songs. Sometimes I go into a show thinking I won’t know any of the songs and it turns out that I know most if not all of them. This time, I went in thinking I wouldn’t know any of the songs and that turned out to be true. There were 2 songs that I knew, but the rest of them were completely unfamiliar to me. I thought maybe I would think that I would recognize a little bit, but there wasn’t. It was interesting being in a theater where so many people were singing along and got really excited when a song started because they knew what was coming up. I just wasn’t a part of that crowd and it did make me feel like a bit of an outsider.
But no matter how I feel about a show, it’s always such a fun night out. I will always enjoy going to a show, especially when it’s a new show. I love seeing what musicals are out there and it’s such fun when I discover a new favorite too. We got several more shows at the Dolby coming up this season and I can’t wait to see what shows will connect with me!
You Might Also Like
Taking Time For A Show (or Seeing Summer)
Funko and Frozen (or The Last Pantages Show For A While)
Another Round Of A Repeat Musical (or Seeing A Show A Different Way)
More Musicals! (or Another Season At Pantages)
The Last Show Of The Season (or Ending On A High Note)
And Another Season Of Musicals (or The Next Season Will Be A Bit Different)
