Warner Brothers Presents: Bugs Bunny at the Symphony

I went to see the Delaware Symphony Orchestra last Friday night. What did you do? Well, I suppose I should clarify; I went to see the DSO perform "Bugs Bunny at the Symphony." Ah, that sounds more like me.

The performance was held at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware, a beautiful old theater. The bar and refreshments area is tempting, but beware the soft pretzels in disguise; we had some, and they were like crunchy, salted, baguettes. Plus our beers were $6 a piece. The upside to that, though, is that you can take your refreshments into the theater with you! Hellooo, M&M's.

The show essentially uses a live orchestra to showcase the scores of the cartoons being played on the big screen. What's not awesome about that?? While we were serenaded by the DSO, we got to laugh at Bugs, Daffy, Porky Pig, the roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, and more. This show is so popular that it has been put on all over the world (the conductor and producers tour, but not the musicians). Just a few weeks ago, the conductor informed us, they had been playing for "10,000 rabid Looney Tunes fans" at an outdoor pavilion in Taiwan, of all places. This idea was conceptualized two decades ago; as this is the show's 20th anniversary, there were some special surprises thrown in: an overture conducted by the always feuding Tom and Jerry, a Scooby Doo montage set to "In the Hall of the Mountain King," and the delightful "Flintstones Ballet," set to the noverture I can only identify as the "Can Can" from "Orpheus in the Underworld."

A classic still from "What's Opera, Doc?"

They saved the best for last: "What's Opera Doc?" rounded off the show, and I laughed shamelessly through the entire thing. I totally lost it, as usual, when the scene pictured at left arrived. That horse gets me every time. After that, as a special bonus, the finale was a montage of countless Warner Brothers cartoons, performed to the William Tell overture, showcased in four and a half minutes. In addition to the cartoons we'd seen, we were also treated to glimpses of Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Pepe le Peu, and more. Fabulous.

The performance also made me realize how much Looney Tunes was absorbed into the daily life of my family; we frequently say things like "You might, rabbit, you might," (classic line from the episode where Bugs hides the gangster Mugsy in an oven) and my dad used to chase my sister and I around the house making Pepe Le Peu kissy noises; we'd run shrieking in his wake. There are countless other references, but I don't want you thinking that we're too weird.

The performance is definitely friendly; aside from the cartoon violence, but that didn't do me any lasting damage. And there are Bugs and Tweety and Sylvester plushes for sale, as well as the very tempting viking helmet, as worn by Elmer in "What's Opera, Doc?"

In the words of Jen, my companion for the evening: "I can't decide if we're the youngest kids here or the oldest adults."

Whatever. It's a pretty good time. Enjoy: