Dinner theater reveals the theatrical nature of dining, wherein forks clash over appetizers and simple questions prompt waiters to deliver soliloquies on the nature of choice. Eat a dramatic dinner with today's Groupon: for $60, you get two tickets to For the Record and $50 worth of upscale fare at Barre Vermont and Vermont Restaurant (a $120 total value). Performances are on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Barre Vermont and Vermont Restaurant orchestrates a festive fusion of fine dining and live performance that celebrates the soundtracks of directors such as Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction) and Baz Luhrmann, (Moulin Rouge!, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet). Touting a cast of seasoned Broadway and Hollywood performers, For The Record: Baz Luhrmann surrounds spectators with dazzling renditions of songs such as "When Doves Cry," "Time After Time," "Roxanne," and "Children of the Revolution, while For the Record: Quentin Tarantino charts the idiosyncratic filmmaker's soundtracks from his debut up through 2009's Inglorious Basterds.
The audience's thunderous applause cools off steaming dishes from two restaurants on the premises. Show at Barre's menu of upscale fare includes brick-oven flatbread pizzas ($14) and the Fork burger layered with root-beer barbecue sauce ($15). Pre- or post-performance, Vermont Restaurant's kitchen staff sates appetites with a menu that pairs goat cheese and truffle ravioli ($18) with signature tonics such as the Kir Vermont with champagne, St. Germain, and mint cultivated through exposure to Baz Luhrmann soundtracks ($11). Previous performances, which may be revived, have included homages to John Hughes and the Coen Brothers.
Groupon Says
The Groupon Guide to Everyman’s Classics: Animal Farm
Everyman should enjoy classic literature, which is why the Groupon Guide invented the Everyman's Classics study-guide series. This installment covers:
Animal Farm: Chapter V
Summary: All right, so at this point the animals have been running Animal Farm for a while. This one horse, Mollie, gets treats and pets and ribbons from a neighbor farmer who is a man (not an animal), so she leaves to work on his farm instead of Animal Farm.
Meanwhile, the rest of the hilarious talking animals are arguing about whether they should build a windmill like Snowball the pig says or to not do that like Napoleon the pig says (note: Napoleon is also the name of an important man from France). So they argue and stuff and the animals seem like they want the windmill. But then Napoleon calls in all these dogs he’s been secretly raising and they come in and are big and scary and the animals are scared even though I’m pretty sure a horse could beat a dog in fights. The dogs chase away Snowball and Napoleon is like, “Basically, I’m in charge now and communism is flawed.”
The pigs explain to the animals that it is good that Napoleon is in charge and not bad and also Snowball was a bad pig. The horse named Boxer who always says “I will work harder” also starts saying “Napoleon is always right.” The animals continue to work because that is how they get food and the dogs are scary (even though, seriously, horses are strong [also donkeys can kick pretty hard]).
Analysis: Having recently discovered that there is no symbolism in this book, scholars agree that this chapter is particularly unsymbolic. It is well documented that walking, talking animals fall under Jungian archetypes of “the priceless” and “the adorable.” Scholars also agree that they are more excited for the later chapters when the pigs wear top hats and other human clothes.
Important Quote: “Nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. The animals cowered in fear and did not have an all-out, no-limits brawl with the dogs even though this would have been awesome and worthy of being put on a video website if such a thing ever exists.”
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