Current Tours

Man of La Mancha - Theatre at the Center - Munster, Indiana - Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Addams Family - Chicago IL - Oriental Theatre - Saturday November 21, 2009

The Nutcracker - by the Joffrey Ballet - Chicago Auditorium Theatre - Saturday, December 12, 2009

Phantom of the Opera - Milwaukee Marcus Center Theatre - Saturday, August 15, 2009

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Man of La Mancha - Theatre at the Center - Munster, Indiana - Sunday, September 27, 2009

Theatre Getaways is off to Munster, Indiana to the Theatre at the Center for a production of the musical, Man of La Mancha.  This professional theatre complex is just over the Indiana state line, south of Chicago. The award-winning musical originally appeared on Broadway in 1968 and tells the story of Don Quixote, a delusional knight who goes forth chasing windmills and rescuing fair damsels. The show is cleverly structured as a play-within-a-play where we find ourselves in a Spanish prison during the Inquisition. Miguel Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote has been thrown into prison, and he uses the prisoners to act out the scenes of his novel. The Impossible Dream is just one of the wonderful songs from this show.
Our 1 p.m. champagne brunch before the 2:30 p.m. show will be served right at the theatre. Our menu starts off with chicken rice soup. You will need to preselect an entree of either roast sirloin of beef or baked cod. The entree is served with Duchess potatoes and glazed carrots. The dessert is strawberry ice cream. After the show, we will make a brief fast-food stop before our return trip home.
The per person price for this tour is $95 which includes the charter coach transportation, main floor theatre seating, and the champagne brunch including gratuity and taxes. Please call VanGalder Tour and Travel directly at 608-752-5407 (then press “4”) if you would like to order the Man of LaMancha tour.

Note: For a complete plot summary of the musical scroll down to the bottom of this page.

Check out the theatre’s website at http://theatreatthecenter.reachlocal.com


The Addams Family - Chicago IL - Oriental Theatre - Saturday November 21, 2009

Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth will star in this brand new show! The Addams clan is widely known for populating a TV sitcom in the 1960’s and two feature films. They're "creepy" and "kooky," according to the original TV theme song. Charles Addams' cartoons – about a ghoulish family whose members include father Gomez, mother Morticia, uncle Fester and daughter Wednesday – appeared for more than 50 years in the New Yorker magazine.  The characters, who hilariously relish in the macabre and grotesque, will fill the stage at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago in a pre-Broadway premiere of a brand new musical. The cast includes Broadway stars Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. After the 2 p.m. matinee, we will walk to Petterino’s Restaurant, practically next door to the theatre. There we will indulge in a Petterino salad, and an entree choice of Parmesan Crusted Chicken Armando or Seared Filet of Atlantic Salmon. For dessert, it is an apple tart with caramel sauce. A cash bar will be available. Check out this lovely restaurant’s website at http://www.petterinos.com/about
The per person price for this tour is $219 which includes the charter coach transportation, main floor theatre seating, and the complete dinner including gratuity and taxes. Please call VanGalder Tour and Travel directly at 608-752-5407 (then press “4”) if you would like to order the Addams Family tour.


The Nutcracker - by the Joffrey Ballet - Chicago Auditorium Theatre - Saturday, December 12, 2009

Plan to take in a true Christmas tradition with one of the top flight ballet companies in the country, Chicago’s very own Joffrey Ballet. In the classic NUTCRACKER ballet, Clara dreams of adventures with the Nutcracker, the dancing mice, growing Christmas trees, and the land of the Sugar Plum Fairies. The Joffrey’s performances of the Nutcracker with full live orchestra are held in the beautifully restored historic Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. For this tour we will first be dropped off at Water Tower Place on North Michigan Avenue. We will arrive there around 11 a.m. which will give you about two hours for last minute Christmas shopping, for enjoying all the store decorations, and having lunch on your own. At 1:15 p.m., we will reboard our bus and be taken to the theatre for the 2 p.m. show. After the show, we will take the short ride to Greektown, where we will enjoy dinner at Costa’s, a wonderful “top 10 rated” restaurant located just west of the loop in downtown Chicago. Your entree selections include: Whitefish; Basil Grilled Chicken Breast; or Pork Kabob. The dinners come with oven roasted potatoes, vegetables, salad, beverage, and a dessert of Baklava. A cash bar will be available. Check out their website at http://www.costasdining.com/chicago.htm
The per person price for this tour is $145 which includes the charter coach transportation, main floor theatre seating, and the complete dinner including gratuity and taxes. Please call VanGalder Tour and Travel directly at 608-752-5407 (then press “4”) if you would like to order the Nutcracker tour.


Phantom of the Opera - Milwaukee Marcus Center Theatre - Saturday, August 15, 2009

Yes, it's back! The thrilling Andrew Lloyd Webber music, the sumptuous sets (including the crashing chandelier) and glorious costumes, and all the spectacle of the original Broadway production is returning to Milwaukee in August of 2009. The show is now the longest-running show on Broadway, having premiered there in 1988. The national tour has been on the road almost as long; it is a duplication of the Broadway production and hasn't lost any of the power and beauty of its romantically lush music. In the story, a disfigured musical genius haunts the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera and exerts a strange control over a lovely young soprano. Of course there is a romantic hero she falls in love with, much to the disdain of the Phantom. The show has been on Broadway for over nineteen years now, and still packs them in every night. If you happen to be one of the dozen or so people on the planet who haven't seen it yet, here's your chance. For those of you who love the show as much as I do, it's time for another peek. We will have orchestra seating for the 2 p.m. Saturday matinee at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Milwaukee. After the show, we will walk across the street to the four-star Hotel Intercontinental for dinner. Our entree selections will be a 16 oz. pork chop; grilled Scottish salmon; or Chicken Wellington (chicken in a puff pastry with mushrooms.) Salad, warm rolls, coffee and a dessert of carrot cake will round out our meal. A cash bar will be available. Check the following website for a Phantom video clip:
http://broadwayworld.com/videoinfo.cfm?showid=6624 The cost for the entire day including escort, transportation, orchestra seating at the theatre, and full meal including gratuity is $165. Please call Van Galder Tour and Travel directly at (608) 752-5407 (then press “4”) to make your reservation.


I personally escort all of these tours, and the groups are always made up of a combination of couples, singles, families, and senior citizens. We all sit in the theatre together and eat as a group, so don’t pass up the opportunity to join us just because you may be alone. For those of you who are vegetarian or have special dietary demands, please let us know when selecting your menu choice. Almost every restaurant can accommodate a vegetarian food preference. Cocktails are available at dinner, but the cost is your responsibility. On all tours, you will receive an invoice and a written confirmation letter when we receive your order. This will include bus loading times and other details about the trip. The Chicago and Milwaukee one-day trips that have a 2 p.m. curtain time, with dinner after the show, usually have us back in Beloit by 8:30 or 9:00 p.m.


Plot summary for MAN OF LA MANCHA:

Man of La Mancha begins with the imprisonment of novelist Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra during the Spanish Inquisition. Thrown into a dark prison to await trial, Cervantes and his faithful servant soon find themselves set upon by the other inmates, a bloodthirsty horde of thieves and murderers who organize an underworld trial in which the new inmates must defend themselves before "The Governor," the self-annointed kingpin of the prison.

Being a novelist, Cervantes convinces The Governor that his defense should take the form of an entertainment. He will present the story of a country squire named Alonso Quijana who, overwhelmed by the evil that men do toward men, put aside his sanity and set out into the world as a knight errant, dubbing himself Don Quixote of La Mancha, champion of the oppressed and righter of wrongs. The Governor agrees, and Cervantes begins to spin his tale, telling how Quijana left behind his family, and set out along a great highway to glory, a road which looked, to his servant Sancho, remarkably like the road to El Toboso where the chickens are cheap. After a misguided attempt to do battle with a windmill, the two men eventually stumble upon a great castle--or a small inn, depending upon which of them you ask. The inn is populated by a band of rough drinkers and several women of easy virtue, one of whom Don Quixote hails as "a sweet lady and a fair virgin" and proceeds to worship as his "Dulcinea." Aldonza, the whore Don Quixote has chosen, doesn't know quite what to make of this, and when Don Quixote sends Sancho asking for a token to carry into battle, she assumes that he wants what every man wants and angrily tosses him a dish rag. Aldonza is intrigued, however, by Don Quixote's strange words and his gentle manner, and when the old man successfully defends her against a whole band of manhandling hooligans, she is finally won over to his quest which he describes to her in song as "The Impossible Dream."

Meanwhile, however, Quijana's family has convinced the self-important Dr. Carrasco to retrieve their mad patriarch. Carrasco is not so much interested the Quijana's well being as he is in the old man's fortune, which Carrasco stands to inherit as he is engaged to Quijana's niece. When the doctor arrives at the inn, Quijana mistakes him for the Great Enchanter, the most dangerous enemy of all good men. Don Quixote prepares to do battle once more, but this time, he has no defense against his enemy's weapon--a bright, mirrored shield in which the old man can see nothing but his old, foolish reflection. Thus defeated, Quijana returns home and agrees to draw up his will in his niece's favor--that is, until he receives an unexpected guest from the inn who begs him not to renounce "The Impossible Dream."

The Governor is impressed with Cervantes defense, as are the other prisoners, and the novelist's crimes are forgiven. But now the guards have returned, and Cervantes has managed to defend himself in front of one court only to be dragged in front of another. It has not been wasted time, however, for as he climbs the steps out of his dark prison, he can hear the prisoners below still singing "The Impossible Dream."

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Mr. Loren M. Sass
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