Most years, my wife and I get tickets to either Proctor’s Theatre, which runs touring Broadway musicals, or Capital Rep, which shows smaller productions. One recent year, we did both, which was a bit overwhelming.
This season, 2026-2027, we did neither, not even the Proctor’s Sampler subscription; my wife and I couldn’t find time to figure out when we wanted to see shows.
I became interested in seeing BOOP! The Musical, the first show in the series. Mark Evanier, the comic book blogger (gross oversimplification) had recently written about it. Here’s a Japanese version and a review of the Rochester show, which preceded the Schenectady run,
Also, here’s a curtain call of the Broadway show, which ran only about three months in 2025, despite being nominated for three Tonys: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, Jasmine Amy Rogers; Best Choreography, Jerry Mitchell; and Best Costume Design of a Musical, Gregg Barnes. This scene from Where Is Betty probably locked up the latter nomination.
I planned to go to a Thursday matinee at Proctor’s, but then my daughter said she wanted to see the show too. Since she works during the day, that realistically meant Tuesday or Wednesday night, October 13 or 14.
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“Among Grace’s favorite parts of the show is Pudgy, Betty’s loyal dog, brought to life through intricate puppetry. ‘They just told me, ‘Treat Pudgy like he’s a real dog,’ she said of working with the lifelike marionette. ‘That’s what it felt like. Now it’s just Pudgy. It’s just like my dog.'” The dog definitely worked.
The TU review called it “a playful yet perplexing musical.” I’ll acknowledge that the main love story was, as Grampy (a wonderfully gonzo Dan Mason)” and “teenaged superfan Trisha (a vibrant Ashley Calderon)” were great. Moreover, “Clever play between the 1930s black-and-white cartoon-iverse and a hypersaturated modern-day New York City conjures dazzling scenes.” Max Fleischer would have been impressed.
Substitute
One oddity: Trisha’s Aunt Carol, played by Ashia Collins in the first act, was replaced by Helena Elizabeth Laing during an extended intermission; Laing’s reporter was then taken over by Anya Katherine Jones. Aside from brief mic problems, the show went on well. Incidentally, when Carol, the woman suddenly running for mayor, talked about equal pay for women, the audience gave her a big cheer.
