What’s the Buzz? Why, It’s the Second Coming and the Fab Four

Talking about my “favorite musical” is not completely unlike talking about my “favorite terrorist” or my “favorite green pepper dish,” but albeit surprisingly, I do have a favorite musical and it came to the Liverpool area this past weekend. I have known Jesus Christ Superstar backwards and forwards since my mid-teens. (Feel free to challenge me anytime on my Judas vs. Mary vs. Jesus imitations in “Everything’s Alright,” or make a request for my King Herod, I’m told it is a treat.) The production just across the Mersey River from Liverpool was too tempting to miss, so we made arrangements for a return trip to the home of The Beatles. John Lennon and Jesus in one weekend, how can you pass that up?

We got up on Friday in time to check in and drop our bag at our hotel by the Albert Dock and ventured over to The Beatles Story museum, which we had not had time for when we took the Magical Mystery Tour our first weekend over here. As much as we learned on the Tour, I think the museum lets you get to know the boys even better. I take that back, neither one is better than the other, but they really support each other and I feel like all of us are ready to go on a Beatles trivia show by now.

Our family ticket at The Beatles Story was good for 48 hours, so we decided to continue the intensive with another session on Saturday morning, along with the gimmicky “4D” movie that they added on, before we grabbed the bus to take us to the Wirral. The Wirral is the peninsula that lies on the other side of the Mersey and juts out into the Irish Sea. We grabbed some fish and chips as we looked out over the sea at a huge collection of windmills that I can guarantee were put there for a good reason, but the wind was taking an appreciated break while we were there.

The play itself was excellent: An amateur production with a minimalist set, a passionate Jesus, solid Mary, and an overweight blonde Judas who was almost up to the challenge of the gut-wrenching solos. We brought the average age of the audience down considerably, there couldn’t have been one elderly person left at home on the Wirral on Saturday afternoon. Speaking of which, there was a sweet old lady in a wheelchair a couple of rows in front of us and I couldn’t help noticing the brand name on the side of the chair. It struck me as spectacularly odd, especially in light of my intense George Harrison over the previous 24 hours, it was a “Karma.” If you don’t know why that’s a completely inappropriate name for a wheelchair company, we can discuss it in my debriefing after the new year.

We’re doubling up on homeschool work this week, so that we can take our first major trip since the Wales fiasco. We load up for London Wednesday afternoon, Savannah and Lisa get to spend the evening with Selena Gomez, and we are going to hit some other highlights of the big city over the weekend. Hopefully, the Tube workers won’t go on strike again, because apparently you want a free-flowing, functioning Tube when you’re in London.

Y'all stay cool, remember "Everything's Alright, yeah, everything's fine, let the world turn without you tonight..."