Road Trip to Orillia!

Well, we finally bit the bullet and drove up to Casino Rama, the big gambling resort in Orillia about 1 1/2 hours north of Toronto.

I'd been thinking of going for a while now, first to the Bernadette Peters concert and then to Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons concert, but I was out of town for both.

Having been a huge Manhattan Transfer fan back in the '70s and '80s (I still have all my albums!), I was intrigued to see they were booked in for Good Friday. Casino Rama appears to cater to a specific audience since the majority of acts they get up there are mainstream country acts, like Alan Jackson and Marina McBride. I don't gamble (due to a nasty incident at the CNE midway back in junior high where I lost all my precious life savings of $25 trying to throw a hoop around a bottle...) so I didn't know what to expect.

Well, just down Rama Road, past the decrepit Atherly Hotel (which looks like it was the place where pole dancing was invented...ick!) in the middle of nowhere is this large, Indian-themed brick teepee like structure -- Casino Rama.

It looked sort of like it was the original prototype for the Canada pavilion at EPCOT in DisneyWorld. Lots of free parking -- yeah!

The interesting thing about the whole complex is the juxtaposition of all the Indian-themed decorations, and spiritual philosophies, and this huge smoke-filled casino where people gamble and drink 24/7. Literally on the wall adjacent to the casino entrance (and right next to the credit office...) are printed the guiding philosophies of of the "Seven Grandfathers" .

We checked into the hotel, which although it's attached to the casino and entertainment complex, it's not part of it, so kids are welcome.

We had a nice "suite" room which had windows that really opened! I neglected to make dinner reservations only to find out all the a la carte restaurants were booked (there were plenty o' buffets available in the casino) so my husband and I settled for a pre-show beer and made reservations for a late post-show dinner.

The entertainment complex is a huge 5,200 seat venue which was partially closed off, revealing only 3,000 seats for the Manhattan Transfer concert. By the time the show started the place was full! I think Manhattan Transfer was more surprised than I was when they came out on stage! The audience was clearly made up of fans, as well as gamblers out to see a show, any show, and unaware of exactly who was up on stage. Apparently high rollers get free tickets all the time to shows.

Well, let me say that the show was TOTALLY AMAZING. Manhattan Transfer was in amazing form. They looked great, they sounded great, and they seemed genuinely happy to be there! They did all my favorite songs ("Trickle Trickle", "Operator", "Route 66", "Java Jive", etc.) as well as some solo numbers, and material from their latest CD VIBRATE. They even did an encore of "Birdland"! And the sound was unbelievably amazing. They had a HOT band of piano/keyboards, bass and drums and everything sounded clear, sharp and exciting. The best sound I have heard in a very, very long time.

Why can't Toronto have sound like that? I still remember bleeding from my ears when I went to the Juno Awards one year...

We had a very nice late dinner, in a surprisingly empty restaurant. I would have thought the joint would have been jumping, but we closed the place down.

All in all it was a very bizarre -- but very fun -- getaway!

Technorati tags: Broadway Music Movie Musicals Musicals Blog Blogs Theater Theatre Entertainment