Now, that's real entertainment!

The Boston Globe

Beverly Beckham

I took my granddaughter Lucy to Wheelock Family Theatre's production of ``Annie'' last Sunday. Forty minutes from my house, and I'd never been there before. I'd never been to Riverside Theatre Works in Hyde Park, either, which is just 15 minutes from my door, until my daughter Julie became managing director there, two years ago.

How had I overlooked these places? I used to take my children to plays on the South Shore and in Boston. Why didn't I know about these other places?

What amazed me about Wheelock's production of ``Annie'' is what always amazes me about live performances: They never go out of style. A good story is always a good story, and what worked in ancient Greece - Give `em the old, razzle dazzle - still works all these centuries later. Good acting, good singing, good dancing, and an audience is mesmerized.

Lucy is 7 and definitely a good audience. She is obsessed with ``Annie.'' She knows the words to every song. She has the CD. She's seen the movie a million times.

Still, I wondered how a simple stage ``Annie'' would compete with the loud, bold, overly dramatic, over-the-top movie version, which she loves.

It did not compete. It stood on its own. Real people on a real stage talking and laughing and singing and dancing, plus a real dog playing Sandy brought the house down.

The children in the audience, like all kids today, have access to TVs and DVD players and computers. Instant entertainment is at their fingertips. So this very old-fashioned, intermission-in-the-middle humble fare should not have wowed them.

But it did. A medium as old as knights and chariots still works its magic.

Wheelock Family Theatre and Riverside Theatre Works and the Turtle Lane Playhouse and Boston Playwrights' Theatre, all small theaters, are all celebrating their 30th seasons. This is a testament not just to entrepreneurship and ingenuity, but to the hard work of many.

It is also a tribute to the medium itself, because we can get from Netflix and On Demand almost everything that these theaters offer. We can order ``Scrooge, the Musical'' and ``Godspell'' and ``A Child's Christmas in Wales.'' Plus we can listen to any kind of music any time we want. No one needs to go out to be entertained.

But still we do. Because what we don't get from film or recorded sound is the experience of seeing and hearing something performed live.

A live performance is like an apple plucked from a tree. It can be fresh and delicious, and if you take a second apple from the same tree, it may be fresh and delicious, too. But not identical. It's not ever the same.

It can be bitter, too. Or mealy. Or wormy. No guarantees.

Movies, TV, radio, the rest of our entertainment is far more predictable. It comes packaged. It's apples cut up and processed and sealed and sold in cellophane. It's applesauce in little cups. Not bad. Sometimes good. But never unique.

It's a struggle to lure people off their couches and out of their homes when it's cold and dark. But if you're sick of Charlie Sheen, consider this: Riverside Theatre Works is presenting ``Scrooge: The Musical'' Dec. 10 to 19. ``Annie'' will be featured at Wheelock Family Theatre until Nov 21. Turtle Lane Playhouse is hosting ``Godspell'' Nov. 26 through Dec. 30. And Boston Playwrights' Theatre ``Two Wives in India'' will run until Nov 21.

Then consider this song from ``Avenue Q.''

``There is life outside your apartment.

I know it's hard to conceive.

But there's life outside your apartment.

And you're only gonna see if you leave.''