We loved our theater weekend in NY. Our favorite show was Kinky Boots with a delightful musical score by Cindy Lauper. Some songs were full of energy and dancing; some were tender and poignant. I will admit to being skeptical beforehand because she’s a pop star who lives in the stratosphere, not where real people are. I’m looking forward to the Tony awards to see how the three shows we saw will fare.

Cinderella was fun, full of surprises and clever dialog, not much that was in the movie with Leslie Ann Warren that I saw years ago. The fairy godmother was a bag lady type from the village who magically became dressed in a big flouncy costume. The metamorphosis happened on stage, no puff of smoke, no hiding behind a rock, just a whoosh of her hands [probably to release the velcro and reverse the outer stuff] and there she was in her new look. Same changes for Cinderella who spent time with our group after she got out of her makeup and costume. She just whooshed herself into 3 costume changes during the performance. She called it velcro and costume design magic. Impressive.

The other show we saw was Pippin about the son of Charlemagne during the Middle Ages. The script writer thought it would be interesting to use circus people as part of the cast. That brought the story to a different and amazing new level, with trapezes, acrobats, pole climbers. . .The first half was fantastic.The second half was predictable and a little disappointing. All three have many Tony nominations, with 13 for Kinky Boots.