The Great White Way is most fortunate for losing a potential thespian, when I was in college, one of the plays that I performed in was Zorba, and they were wise to cast me as the villain and I only sang and danced with the chorus. My Bride to maintain her sanity abandons me at time to spend time with her lady friends. On one of her adventures they were going to see a production of Menopause the Musical at the Historic Gem Theatre. I had read about the play when it first came out in Detroit and one of the leads in the play was an actress that I had appeared with in Zorba and she played the Leader and  even then she had considerable talents and abilities. Unbeknownst to me, at the end of the play, they invite the women in the audience to join the leads up on the stage, and my Bride who is no wall flower, immediately made a bee-line to the actress that I spoke of. The actress acknowledged that she had been in the play and asked my Bride to come back with me for another show. I went, and I was one of the few males in the intimate theater and of course my Bride after the show went up on stage again and told the actress that I was in the audience. After the show was over, we sat and finished our drinks and the actress came back on the stage and sang the theme song from Zorba and then we spent a few minutes chatting, and it was fun.

The Historic Gem Theatre has that name as it has had a storied past from the beginning. It was a venue for productions of all types, at one time it became a cinema and during the dark days of Downtown Detroit, ended up, a very classy place to watch pornography as it had fallen on hard times. Then the stadiums came to the downtown and a new owner bought the building and another building and the Gem Theatre is now in the Guinness Book for being the largest and heaviest building ever moved to another location five blocks away. Not only is it a venue for small intimate theatrical productions, but it is also a grand setting for weddings and other private festivities. When there is a theatrical production, the on-site restaurant is also open for dining and it is called the Century Club.

Of course we had dinner at the Century Club prior to seeing Menopause the Musical. We started off our meal sharing an order of Crab Cakes with Chipotle spice.  My Bride had the Grilled Colorado Lamb Chops done in a Greek style with Dauphonois potatoes, while I had the Beef Wellington with a Mushroom Pate and mashed potatoes.  We finished off the meal with some coffee and Chocolate Mousse.  Of course we had wine and we were allowed to finish the wine in the theatre and that is so civilized. The wine carte was simple and complimented the choices, and I am sure also worked well for the private events as well. We had a bottle of McWilliam’s Hanwood Estate Shiraz 2002 from South Eastern Australia. This is a good work horse Shiraz and it became popular around town as the Shiraz grape took off and of course every restaurant had to have a Shiraz from Australia; and there is nothing wrong with it. I enjoy watching wines as they become popular, because it means that people are paying attention and they can actually try something new and expand their wine knowledge. The great thing is that now Shiraz in some form is usually found on most wine lists even today. So as I leave today I will mention a most fitting line from Zorba for this article: “I sniff at a woman, you can’t imagine how often, I sniff at a woman, but each time is the first time.”