A Night Out

So my husband and I had a night out last night. Our first dinner sans kids in about four years. We went to a nice restaurant and then to see Spamalot.

I know that a Sunday evening performance isn't exactly the prime "dress up" night like Friday or Saturday, but I was really shocked to see how casual some people were dressed at the show. Maybe I'm a little old fashioned, but even when my parents took me to shows as a teenager on Saturday or Sunday afternoons, I always wore a dress and my father always wore a suit. My mother either wore a dress or a nice pants suit.

But my how times have changed. I saw people last night wearing jeans or shorts and T-shirts. Its not like they were sitting in the 'cheap' seats either. These were people that had paid at least, if not more than the $85 a ticket my husband and I paid for seats in the third row of the first balcony. The only time I ever wore casual clothes to a show was the few times I sat outside a theatre in London while a lawstudent waiting for returns (I had to wait nearly 6 hours in line to see Phantom, but got the best seats ever, second row of the Dress Circle).

Just seems to me that theatres should impose a dress code, like some restaurants do. You won't see jeans and T-shirts at Le Bec Fin, you shouldn't see them at the Academy of Arts. Its a sign of respect to the performers to dress up and at least pretend that going out to the theatre is special.