The St. Louis Municipal Opera, a.k.a. Muny, is in its 99th season and is the oldest, largest outdoor musical theater in the country. It seats 11,000 people and has 1,500 free seats (the last nine rows) available on a first come-first served basis for every performance.
An overview of the amphitheater. There is more seating to the right of the frame. The back rows under the structural framework are the free seats–filled well ahead of the performance starting time. The fans keep the hot summer air circulating and are quiet enough to run during the performances.
Ted and I have seen many memorable shows at the Muny. Some that come to mind are:
- Mikhail Baryshnikov’s performance in Swan Lake in 1983.
- Porgy and Bess in 1984. Ted was a good sport and went with me, even though he was working midnight shifts that week and slept through most of the show.
- My Fair Lady, a girls’ night out with Kathy and Kari in 1985. Kathy was 12 and Kari was 7 at the time. In retrospect, Kari was too young. After sitting through the two-hour performance, her summary of the show was “So she learned to say her a‘s. Big deal!” (cf “The rain in Spain . . . “)
- Ted fulfilling the role of “official forecaster” for one performance of Cats in 1987. There is an official forecaster at every performance to make the official call for a rain-out requiring ticket refunds. Luckily for us, it was another beautiful summer evening, so Ted didn’t have to work very hard. The perks of being the official forecaster included free tickets for VIP seats and VIP parking. The seats were in the center front, close enough to see the players’ make-up, and the parking was right outside the theater entrance. We were among the first to hit the road and left the park ahead of the traffic that night. Yes!
During our past two weeks of R&R activities, Ted and I attended two shows at the Muny. First, we saw A Chorus Line. The plot line was thin (it was a musical, after all), but the music was good, and being entertained outside under the stars on a beautiful summer evening was a romantic date.
Several of the mature, aging trees that framed the stage have, unfortunately, needed to be cut down in recent years.
The second show we saw was Newsies, an outstanding Disney production. It’s based on the true story of the New York City newsboys’ strike in 1899. Over the years, we’ve learned not to sit in the center sections. When it’s hot, it’s sweltering to be surrounded by so many people. Sitting on the sides where there are some empty seats allows the breeze to keep us cool. We should have used that experience-based knowledge when we bought our Newsies tickets.
This was my view of the stage for Act One. Ted’s view from the seat on my right was equally bad. There are a few square feet of stage floor showing between the heads, below the screen, left center of the picture. We moved to some empty seats (on the side) during intermission and had a great view of the entire stage for Act Two.