Follies

Two of my friends from NJ drove down to visit for the weekend. They’ve got a brand-new Prius hybrid, and boy, what a cool car. And what great gas mileage!

I took them around Richmond today, but did not make them suffer through the Civil War Center’s film on how poor, sweet, innocent little Richmond was just minding her own business when suddenly, from the North, the whole army came down and burned Richmond to the ground! Oh, and the mud ran red with blood, or something like that. Tom Paine gives a much better rendition of it than I. He saw it three years ago and still laughs about it.

But I took them down Monument Avenue, where the most pertinent question was, “Why are we looking at that guy’s butt?” Stonewall Jackson is the only one facing north. You’d think they might have, I dunno, had Lee facing north, not the guy who was killed early in the war, but what do I know about the War of Northern Agression? (Tom, I did show them the Jeff Davis monument, and the words that had you livid.)

We did a grand tour of Richmond, starting with Carytown. “Any town you can think of that this reminds you of?” I asked. “Montclair,” they answered. I’m convinced that if you teleported someone from Montclair to Richmond, they’d say, “Ooh, look, a new store!” and keep on shopping. Then I took them downtown to Shockoe Bottom and the historic district. We went over three of the bridges over the James. I think there are seven. But they’re going home tomorrow, so we won’t be going on the other four anytime soon.

Dinner at Extra Billy’s, then off to Dogwood Dell for a free evening of musical theater. This week was Steven Sondheim’s “Follies,” and the production was simply excellent. It was the best production I’ve seen yet at the Dell, and I’ve been going there most years since 1991.

I’m so glad. Now I need to find a production of “Company” and I will have seen all of the plays to the Sondheim CDs that I own.

Off to bed. Getting up for breakfast with Kim and Bob before they go home. A nice visit, but too short!