I hate theater.

Always have.

Operas, plays, ballet. If I was magically given the choice to never again have to watch a theatrical production, or never again be bitten by a mosquito, West Nile virus and all, I would keep the mosquitoes and let theater fade from my life.

But the wife is a former thespian (with the Captain of the Enterprise), so theater continues to inject itself into my lifestream.

As do the mosquitoes.

And they are about equally annoying. Except mosquitoes only bite six months a year.

To top it off, the wife's godson has been bit by the Drama Bug, and bitten bad. So last week found us spending Friday evening in the high school's production of Les Miserables.

This wasn't for simple pleasure. We were also there to tape the performance for wife's godson's mother, who lives out of state. Wife's godson had already borrowed my digital camera for some photos of the dress rehearsal to send to his Mom, but not knowing how to use the flash, most were blurry. So I also packed that along, to get a few more snaps.

Wife wanted to be there early, to get a good, close aisle seat for the video camera, but we failed. And took solace in the front rows of the back section of the auditorium, which actually gives you better angles. Just no close-ups.

The wife had neglected to inform me this was a musical. Gawd, I hate musicals. Almost as much as I hate the overused, abused plot of Les Miserables.

But I have to admit I was impressed. A near-flawless production (okay, one main character flubbed a line midway, but that was it, no other mistakes that I could see). It was a three-hour play, with only one intermission, so you could hear a few voices falter in the second act. Especially in the higher ranges, but no one cheated by dropping down an octave or two. Other than that, a fully professional production.

I especially liked their "ghost effect" screen as Marius laments the sacrifice of his brethren at the barricades.

One of the school administrators came up afterwards, as we packed our camera gear (We weren't alone... I counted five little LED screens glowing in front of us at one point. A friend came out packing an orange heavy-duty extension cord over his shoulder, since his videocam batteries don't last as well as ours). She mentioned she had seen this same play at several colleges, and they had not been nearly as well done.

And yes, I have to admit I enjoyed it.

But not enough to go back for Saturday night's performance, like the wife did.