It seemed the Wombat & I haven’t been getting much alone time recently, so I set up a bit of a date for us.

First we ate at the Artisan Hotel, which I kept heard was one of the best-kept secrets, etc. etc. The reason it is a secret at all is it’s damned location – tucked right into the armpit of the I-15 Near Sahara and Highland/strip club avenue.

The food was alright. Admittedly, I’m not a discerning eater. And I don’t believe that I’ve ever tasted what 5 or even 4 stars tastes like. That said, if was pretty good, nothing to write home about, with the exception of the Bruchetta. It was fresh and tasty – and I don’t even like Bruchetta. I give this place kudos for the ambiance:

It’s definitely got charm (and some authentic old Vegas cigarette smell), and it wasn’t expensive – I would consider going again if it was the right choice.

The real point of the evening was to see a production of Beauty and the Beast:

As you can see from the poster, the music created by Alan Menken (Disney, IMDB, Wikipedia) for Disney’s animated film, which is great. I had never seen Disney’s staged version, so I was surprised by the addition of 7 songs which I had not before heard.

Maybe I’m just biased toward the songs originally composed for the movie (since I have heard them hundreds of times), but they felt awkward to me. They didn’t have the same “what the French call a certain… I don’t know what”.  C’est la vie,

Last Saturday I saw actor Joshua Kane perform a dramatic recital of Edgar Allan Poe material, including the Tell-Tale Heart, Hop-Frog, The Raven (of course), Cask of Amontillado. Sadly, he was forced to pass on the Masque of the Red Death (personal favorite) by a popular vote for Hop-Frog. To offset this injustice, please feel free to read it in it’s entirety at the Literature Network.

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