Choco-lot

Week 10: Hershey, PA

Our bus ride from Providence took us through the gloom of an overcast Monday into the Pennsylvania Dutch Country and finally into Hershey. In Hershey it is all chocolate, all the time. It is the Vegas of chocolate. Milton Hershey came into Derry Church, PA back in 1906 and created a chocolate dynasty, and named the town after himself. We are playing at the Hershey Theatre and staying at a hotel on Chocolate Avenue. Will I survive the run here without going into sugar shock? The drive into the town is truly surreal because the road winds its way, essentially, through a theme park, which right now in February is out of operation. The landscape looks like dinosaur skeletons with all the twisting steel roller coasters banking the road on either side. The street lamps are crowned with giant Hershey's Kisses and there is a very faint, odd odor of chocolate in the air at all times.


The Hershey Theatre is part of Milton Hershey's vision for his community, and was built in 1933 in a Venetian style. It is very attractive inside, with newly restored lobby complete with lovely gold mosaic ceilings. The proscenium arch is meant to evoke the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, and the place has little lion emblems and figures everywhere. Being a devotee of all things Venetian (I have the lion of St. Mark tattooed to my back!), I find the theatre really sweet and amusing.
The cramped backstage area with its shallow wings and antiquated dressing rooms is not as sweet but this amazing crew and company are making do and the show went off on our opening night without a hitch.

There are few things to do within walking distance of our hotel here in Hershey and the weather has been gray and rainy since we arrived. I did however feel obligated to do something chocolate while here. So I took a stroll over to Chocolate World, an attraction which is part of the Hersheypark compound, and which is essentially a place for kids to enjoy and for their parents to purchase lots of Hershey products and souvenirs. I of course had to buy chocolate and indulged in things I had not seen before--jumbo Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Special Dark Hershey's Kisses and a bar of antioxidant rich 60% dark chocolate (yeah, I am kidding myself that I bought it for health reasons). I sidestepped the "attractions" which included some sort of 3-D movie spectacular, and went over to the Hershey Museum. The exhibits primarily tell the story of Milton Hershey, the son of Mennonites in the late 19th century who went from confectioner's apprentice, to entrepreneur, to founder of a community and philanthropist. His is quite a fascinating story in the grand American tradition of the self-made man. And he did many, many great things for his community--he chose to build his base of operations near his birthplace here, built a town with its own transportation system for his workers, established a home and school for orphans. And of course, created a confectionary dynasty. The museum houses his collections of Native American artifacts and Pennsylvania German objects and antiques; there is also an exhibit commemorating the 100th birthday of the Hershey's Kiss. All in all, a pleasant way to spend a rainy afternoon. I wandered a little in the theme park, eerily boarded up, a sad little imitation Tudor village. I was very amused to find this oddity--the Roller Cowster--which is cute in view of the flying cow in our show. Fechez la Vache!