A little night music

i havent written in nearly ten days, but due to the season, things have been hectic.
it all started with the suggestion by those who wish to remain nameless that we go to the theatre. we didnt have tickets and the play we wanted to see, Stephan Sondheim's A Little Night Music, on at the Menier Chocolate Factory, was totally sold out. So, we decided to go and beg for returned tickets. Thanks to some fools who didnt show up, and the kind Aussie at the box office, we actually managed to get tickets about 5 minutes before the play started. however, during the wait to see if we would be successful, one of my companions noticed that a woman standing nearby appeared to be none other than Leslie Caron, the film actress who was Gigi in Gigi, among other characters. He googled a current image on his iphone, just to be sure. We finally got our random returned tickets and i went off to find mine. i wandered to the bac row, looked around, apparently appearing puzzled, as Leslie Caron turned to me and asked what number i was looking for. it was the seat next to hers.
so i sat there watching the performance (which was excellent, in particular Maureen Lipman as the Grandmother!) and started to note how similar the ambiance actually is to Gigi. the general story line is totally different, but the characters are similar: the young girl with the absent actress mother, who has left the child to be raised by the Grandmother, a former high class courtesean. my mind drifted back to the time, when i was about age 10 or so, and i saw the video of Gigi in the library. My parents were very liberal, and i could read or watch anything i wanted, but it often had to be accompanied by educational explanations. So prior to being allowed to watch the film, i had to read the book (a novella, by Colette) and make an investigation into the world of the demi-monde, and its elaborate rules and etiquitte. having convinced my mother i was competant on those subjects, i was allowed my 2 hours of musical entertainment. I imagine i must have impressed my mother with my comprehension of the Demi-monde, as she even got me a Gigi doll for my next birthday! So i sat there in the theatre, listening to Leslie Caron as she giggled along with the play's racy jokes, and wondered if she could have any idea of the educational role she played at one moment in my childhood?