Saturday in the Berkshires for a Play and BBQ in Springfield
We spent our Saturday doing a quick road trip around the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which entailed a five hour round trip journey in the car. While most of our day was spent sitting, both during the play and in the car, I was exhausted when we got home!
We started our day driving to Williamstown in the Berkshires (i.e. the mountains in Western Massachusetts to the non-locals) to watch The Closet, a comedic play starring Matthew Broderick (yes, we saw Ferris Bueller), Ben Ahlers, Brooks Ashmanskas, Raymond Bokhour, Will Cobbs, Ann Harada, and Jessica Hecht (Ross’ first wife on Friends).
Here is a summary of the play from the Williamstown Theatre Festival website:
Tony Award winner and Golden Globe and Emmy nominee Matthew Broderick stars in this world premiere comedy by Douglas Carter Beane, inspired by Le Placard, the French comedy by Academy Award nominee Francis Veber. Martin O’Reilly (Broderick) is stuck in Scranton in a dead-end job, his marriage is over, and his son won’t return his calls. His only friend is his eternally optimistic co-worker (Tony nominee Jessica Hecht), who can’t bake enough muffins to stave off her romantic longings. When a stranger (Tony nominee Brooks Ashmanskas) sashays into their world, he drags Martin — and everyone around him — out of their respective closets. Helmed by Mark Brokaw,this contemporary satire breaks the chains of political correctness and celebrates the possibility of finding authenticity and love (and show tunes) in unexpected places.
We had front row seats, which were equal parts amazing because you were so close to the action on the stage (who knew actors spit that much when doing plays), but also bad because you were so close to the stage, it was difficult happened in the back of the set. Lucky for us, most of the action took place near the front of the stage so our view ended up being okay. I thought Brooks Ashmanskas, who played a flamboyantly gay character, was hilarious, as was Ann Harada, who was so excited to have a gay friend at work that she would spontaneously break out in show tunes. We laughed through this entire play and liked the message that everyone is hiding something and how liberating it can be to reveal a secret.
On our way back to Boston, we decided to stop in Springfield to check out a restaurant called Theodores’ Blues Booze & BBQ, as part of our tour of all the BBQ joints in Massachusetts. We started our meal sharing some Deep Fried Pickles Spears, and I liked the chipotle dipping sauce. My only complaint with eating fried pickle spears is that the fried batter flakes off when you bite into them or cut them. I really prefer eating pickle chips that are fried, as you avoid that issue because you can eat them in one bite, but the fried spears were still good to eat.
For our entree, we shared a combo platter with St. Louis Ribs, Pulled Pork, and Smoked Chicken Wings, with sides of corn bread with honey butter, sweet potato fries, and potato salad. I was expecting there to be smaller portions of each of the meats, but they gave us full-size order portions which was too much for us to eat (we had lots of leftovers). I thought the BBQ was okay. I’m spoiled with having really good St. Louis BBQ when I go back to visit family (Pappy’s — I’ll see you during the holidays), which means I find the the BBQ in the Northeast can’t measure up. I get it — seafood is more prevalent around here (which I’ll take any day over BBQ) and better in New England vs. the Midwest and other parts of the country. Thus, every part of the country has the food they excel at. Even for New England BBQ, I thought all the meats were okay. The chicken wings were over-fried, which made them hard to eat and not very flavorful. The potato salad was good, though I’m partial to a mustard-based potato salad, which this wasn’t. Compared to other BBQ I’ve had in Massachusetts, this was probably my least favorite I’ve had.
Overall, we had a long Saturday tooling around the Commonwealth, but it was fun to see a comedic play in the Berkshires and try some BBQ at a restaurant I had yet to try.
(Saturday, July 14, 2018 / @julieschultz79 / #mycrazylifeblog)
