A Christmas Show

A friend asked me to go with her to this new-agey place these two guys have.  She told me about the well kept, sculptured gardens and the new age work shops and the poetry readings and it seemed like an interesting place to check out.  She said there was a show these guys put on and it's really amazing.  She refused to tell me any more.  Said it would spoil it for me and I have to see this to believe it.  A show... Hmmmm...   Maybe they would read some poetry or do a scene from A Christmas Carol.  I was wondering what kind of show they could possibly do that I'd have to see to believe.

As we got closer to the place she told me a little more about these guys.  She said they're very talented, real artists, have a vast library, they lived in this place for decades, and they're gay.  Ok, I kinda figured the gay part, but the show kept my mind busy.  Perhaps they'll do something from Madam Butterfly or play all the parts in a Nativity scene.

She then told me they were very short, not sausage
fingered dwarfs with big heads.  Not like Billy Barty.  Their heads were pretty much proportional to their bodies.  Midgets, I told her.  No, not midgets or dwarfs, she said.  There's another name for them...  Little people, I said.  That's what they like to call themselves.  Little people.  But I had more important things on my mind, other than what category of little people these guys were.  Little people was a broad enough term to include anyone four foot and under.  I now had visions of what kind of show a pair of gay dwarfs could possibly perform.  My head was reeling.

When we got there we checked out the frozen, snow covered gardens, and the sitting areas all over, and the out buildings where workshops were conducted.  You could see how beautiful this place must be in the warmer months.  But this was no time for sight seeing.  We had a show to go to and I could barely control my unbridled enthusiasm.

Just inside the big house was a sign that listed the dates and times of various events.  Wow!  This place shows movies, too!  Koyaanisqatsi played just last week.  I was intrigued.  They had crystals, gong wind chimes, antique furniture, hand carved wooden bowls, paintings, and tons of stuff made by the crafty, indigenous people of the surrounding area.  All high quality and extremely tasteful.  Damn, I can't wait to see this show I've been hearing so much about.  People began to trickle in and help themselves to the free coffee and chatted amongst the new age books, sculpture, burning candles, window vistas, vaulted ceilings, expensive bric-a-brac, and paintings that filled the entire house.

We were the last to be seated for the show and it looked like the overture had begun.  Everyone was sitting on comfy sofas accented with sheepskin with a rather large, extremely ornate Christmas tree as the centerpiece.  This sucker was tall... I estimate over twenty feet and it almost touched the vaulted ceiling above it.  There was so much glass and crystal on this tree you could hardly see a branch and there must have been 20,000 lights, not including the gels on the level above us.  As the Christmas music played and the lights flashed I looked at the floor in front of the tree and wondered if there will be enough room for the show.  I was looking around for the little people.  Maybe they'll dress up like elves with little swords and little shields and have a sword fight in front of the tree.  The overture music stopped and the tree lights died down... This is it, I thought to myself.  Where are those little guys?  A thought of them coming out dressed as wrestlers body slamming each other fleeted through my head.  I could only wish!

Then another Christmas song began to play and the tree lights went on and pulsated to the music and I realized that THIS was the show!  Ok, so this is only the beginning.  It can only get better, right?  I looked up and saw angels with trumpets hanging from strings and anticipated something mechanical will make them fly around the tree toward the end of the performance, or maybe they'll all lift their robes, like a miniature angelic chorus line doing a can-can as a grand finale.  The synchrony of the tree lights, gels, and music was getting better but I really wanted to see the gay midgets get it on under the Christmas tree but that scenario became less and less of a reality as the minutes dragged on.  I shifted my eyes to see the people who came to see the show and noticed Michelangelo's David and the eyes of 20 people fixated on this sound and light show, and the hope of seeing a pair of Billy Barty look-a-likes doing a scene from Oh! Calcutta! faded.  I know it was a Christmas show and expecting these two guys to come out with Snow White stretched the bounds of reality just a hair but the least they could do was something dramatic like a two man, shortened version of 12 Angry Men.

When it was over, she turned to me and said very quietly, "What do ya think?"  I said in the quietest voice I could muster, since everyone was still sitting down and the place was stone quiet, "Was that it?" and she burst out laughing.  I waited til we got out of the house before I described my expectations about the midgets with little swords dressed as elves and the angels flying around the tree lifting their skirts and I thought the two of us would have coronaries laughing about it.

It really wasn't a let down. It was an interesting evening and gave me some good ideas, but something else kept nagging my brain later that night...

Is it me or do I expect too much?