Two Show Day

It has been awhile since Don and I have seen two shows in one day, or what I call a double header. About six months ago we purchased tickets to attend the first preview performance of "Schmigadoon." Meanwhile we started seeing shows at 59e59 and their musical "How My Grandparents Fell in Love" caught my eye. Unfortunately their matinee performance was sold out. As this is a really small Off-Broadway site with at least four different theaters. We were in the middle-sized one. I was not very optimistic, still I called. The box office was very encouraging. They said often people cannot make performances and they resell the tickets at the last minute. 

I kept checking. On Friday afternoon I snagged one seat. As I was more interested in the show than Don was, he convinced me to take it. About 90 minutes before showtime another ticket opened up. He called and purchased it. 

Our seats were not next to each other, but once we arrived at the theater my seat mate graciously agreed to swap his aisle seat for Don's so we could hold hands during the show. As you can imagine from the title, it was on the mushy side.

The show was charming. It takes place in Poland during 1933. Charlie, who has been living in the United States repairing shoes since 1923 returns to Poland to find a bride. He meets Chava, a stunningly beautiful salesclerk at a hat shop. They are smitten. Spoiler alert: the return to the United States, start a family which includes the playwright. Yes, the show is a romanticized version of a true story.

The show is charming. They sing about Hoboken in a way that the local crowd really enjoyed. Much of the audience was Jewish, or so I suppose since they laughed at the lines said in Yiddish. As someone who grew up in New Jersey, I know a smattering of Yiddish, but not that much. It was nice hearing laughter.

The best part was learning the the playwright's family was in the audience. Not the grandmother who has since passed away, but his mother (or was it mother-in-law?) and her friends. She knew  the original Chava and Charlie. She remembers their home smelling not of Lipton Tea (which is a reference to the song "Hoboken"), but of Maxwell Coffee which was brewed in their neighborhood. 

She added, the actor playing Charlie looks and stands so much like the real one. Cary Gitter captured the essence of his grandparent's love story. Almost to be expected, no one else in her family survived the Holocaust. This is also a love letter to honor their memories.

After spending the afternoon at Roosevelt Island, we saw "Schmigadoon." The campy musical is based on the Apple TV show of the same name. Basically they took the highlights from the six one-hour episodes, took out some extra stuff, and turned it into a two and a half hour musical. 

The house was packed! As we walked past the long line of people entering the theater we noticed women wearing calico dresses, and others cosplaying. The thing about seeing opening night (we also saw "Smash" on opening preview night), the audience is ELECTRIC! Much applause for each person as they entered the stage for the first time. Much laughter. There was so much laughter from the woman next to me that the man in front of her glared at her during intermission and said he was leaving because she was laughing too much. Too loudly. I assured her she was not. Who does that man think he is to squelch her spark?

When we saw "Smash" we were given posters on opening night that are collecting dust because they are not that meaningful to us, nor do we know anyone who would really enjoy one. For "Schmigadoon" they quietly slipped postcards in each Playbill. The postcards are written by different characters. As we collect extra Playbills to share with Ashley and Hayden, we ended up with four different postcards: Carson (the boy who announces everything), Melissa Gimble (the doctor with musical theater dreams), Josh Skinner (the doctor with a chronic case of hating musicals), and Emma Tate (the tap-dancing schoolmarm). They are true to the character, down to the handwriting. Very clever. Here is a link to 11 postcards being sold on eBay.

It was a fun day of theater.

I am looking forward to True Spring arriving when one outfit suffices for the day, and it does not involve a lot of layers.