Dressing Down for the Theater

My last post addressed the issue of what is considered appropriate dress for a night out in Maine. I must say I totally missed the mark, grossly underestimating how low some people go and are still permitted inside the theater.

Last night we attended a staged performance of the Stephen Sondheim operetta, "A Little Night Music" at the Ogunquit Playhouse. I was excited to see the one and only Kathleen Turner of Hollywood fame, in a lead role. But even her gravitas did not inspire the audience. People were shameless in their indifference!

One man was convincing as a homeless person in a torn paisley shirt, worn plaid Bermuda shorts, a baseball cap and flip flops. Another man wore cam0 pants and vest, perhaps on leave from some foreign skirmish. Several young women in their 20s wore spaghetti strap tank tops with cut-off jean shorts up to their pupiks*, the better to see their midriff and thigh tattoos. Another woman wore an actual two-piece bathing suit, the bottom half adorned with fringe hanging down to cover her girl parts, although she might have been a male, it's so hard to tell these days. One of my favorites was a 60-ish woman wearing a dressy pleated skirt and chiffon blouse, paired with -- surprise! -- thick woolen knee socks and hi-top sneakers.

I was happy to be seated next to a woman fully clothed in normal gardening attire, with all important body parts covered. She was older, a grandmother as she mentioned several times, thus raised in the decent past. She was also from Canada.

*Yiddish for navel or bellybutton.