Catch Me If You Can
The world premiere of the new musical Catch Me If You Can is wrapping up this weekend at the 5th Avenue Theatre. And it's really good. The music is by the guys who did Hairspray, the play is by Terrence McNally (he did Love! Valor! Compassion!, among many other things), and the costumes are by Bob Mackie. So, it's pretty and it sounds good. And the cast are all pretty amazing. The big opening number and the sort of torch song toward the end were my favorites and, hot damn, make me want to jump into acting and dancing classes.
I'm really glad I got a ticket to go...I hadn't planned on it, but last week I got a discount code and got my ticket for half price.
The last few seasons I've seen shows that have either been really really great or really really mediocre. And the mediocrity bums me out. There really aren't that many theaters producing musicals (AN AMERICAN TRADITION...really, musicals are the most American theater form) and seeing shows (that aren't cheap) that leave me with a "meh" feeling at the end? Not cool! But CMIYC was good. I wish I'd been closer to the stage.
Oh. So I was at the 2pm show and I always forget that matinees are chock full of olds. So many blue hairs. There was a woman who'd been in front of me at the Will Call window who ended up sitting behind me. She felt that the 5th Ave was "gaudy." Um, lady? It's an old theatre and they all used to look like this, which you should know. Because you're old. The couple next to me (they moved when the lights went down and they noticed there were a bunch of empty seats, thank god) I guess only had one program. Which the man read to his wife before the show started. For, like, 15 minutes. He was reading ALL the shows and movies ALL the cast members had appeared in. And when they moved he put his hand on my knee to let me know they were scooting by. Upside of the elderly being such a huge percentage of the audience? I totally got to the bathroom first during intermission. It's on account of me having both my natural hips.