Dad has displayed some weird behavior over the years, but perhaps none more baffling than what he did the last time the family traveled to New York City to see a musical. Here are the five different times Dad raised his hand during Broadway’s “Aladdin.”
1. When he raised his hand the second we sat down to ask when the show would start
Now, Dad’s definitely been to plays before, but he sure didn’t show it during our family New York trip when he dropped into his seat at the New Amsterdam Theater in Manhattan and immediately shot his hand into the sky, then leaned over to Mom and said “Don’t worry, I’m going to figure out what time they’re getting this show on the road.” When an older lady sat down in front of us, Dad made eye contact with her and pointed to his raised hand using his other hand, which suggests that maybe he thought some sort of council of theater elders would be present throughout the show to answer his questions. There’s no telling with Dad sometimes—the man is a maniac.
2. When Aladdin asked Jasmine “What’s stopping us?” and Dad raised his hand mid-song to say “Jasmine’s domineering father”
The musical itself had barely begun before Dad raised his hand again, though this time he didn’t wait to be called on. He instead put up his pointer finger and responded directly to a question that Aladdin asked during a song, totally throwing off the cadence of the music and perplexing everyone around us. A couple people looked over like maybe he was a plant and his comment was part of the show, but his answer to the question was so clunky and awkward that they quickly realized he was not. His voice even cracked halfway through saying “Jasmine’s domineering father,” as if he was worried that maybe he’d given the wrong answer. We’re not sure if Dad thinks there’s a quiz portion to musicals, but he absolutely might.
3. When he raised his hand during the tap dance break in “Friend Like Me” to ask what country the play was supposed to be set in
Dad was probably right to be confused by the musical’s nonspecific, generic Middle Eastern setting, but that didn’t really justify the way he threw his hand in the air while the ensemble performed a tap number and yelled “Where the hell is this thing set, anyway?” Multiple people shushed him, and nobody gave him a satisfactory answer. He put his hand down after that, though it was clear by the way his arm kept twitching that he was tempted to raise it and ask again.
4. When he raised his hand during intermission to make sure that Aladdin got the chance to use the bathroom
An usher actually came over when Dad raised his hand during intermission, which was helpful, but Dad made her lean all the way in towards him before he whispered “I just wanted to make sure that Aladdin will get a chance to take a leak.” At this point it was questionable whether Dad was referring to the actor playing Aladdin or thought Aladdin was a real guy, but regardless, it seems pretty intuitive that intermission would be a bathroom break time for everyone involved. When the usher explained that and turned to leave, Dad raised his hand a second time so that he could tell her “Thank you.”
5. When he raised his hand so patiently for an entire scene that Genie called on him, at which point Dad just said “I like this play.”
Dad actually got called on at one point when he raised his hand high in the air for the entirety of the song “Someone’s Got Your Back.” The guy playing Genie, clearly worried that there might be an emergency happening or something, walked to the front of the stage and said “Sir, is everything all right?” Dad let out a huge sigh of relief and dropped his hand like he was exhausted from waiting for so long before saying “I like this play a lot, and I’m having a great time.” The orchestra had stopped due to the interruption, so Mom did a paltry little round of applause to signal that Dad was finished, and the play started up again. As with all the rest of the instances, we’d love to know why he did that, but we do not.
