Proctors Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Musical: BOOP! The Musical

Aliya Grace

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.

Follow The Bouncing Ball

I was vaguely familiar with Betty Boop. Oddly enough, my daughter was, too. She found the fact that some of her contemporaries wore Betty Boop graphics “cringe.” Of course, she noted this before seeing the show.

The story’s premise is that the animated character leaves her familiar black-and-white cartoon world for a colorful adventure in present-day New York City, starting with New York Comic-Con.

Aliya Grace, featured in a Times Union newspaper story, commented that she was “especially excited for audiences to experience the score by Grammy-winning songwriter David Foster, which blends Broadway showstoppers, jazz and contemporary pop into a versatile musical showcase.”

“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 Katherine Kiessling noted, not particularly strong. But “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.

Some of us sang along at the end as the bouncing ball pointed out the lyrics. It was a fun show.

The non-Equity tour is now in Cincinnati, followed by St. Louis and Hartford.

The 2025-2026 Cap Rep/Proctors season

Theater!

Capital Rep I’ve been really bad about chronicling the 2025-2026 Cap Rep/Proctors season. Part of it is that there is often little time from seeing the production to the end of the run. The other factor is that when I see a play or musical I don’t love, it’s harder for me to write.

But now that the season is largely over, I’ll take a shot. Know that we had season tickets only for Capital Rep, but that comes with a crossover ticket to Proctors. And we went to one other Proctors show.

Becky Nurse of Salem, September 27, 2025, at 2:00 PM, Cap Rep. I liked the IDEA of Sara Ruhl’s exploration of history, literature, and feminism in juxtaposition with the Salem witch trials.

Becky (Brenny Campbell) gives a lecture to a school group at the Salem Museum of Witchcraft, but she can’t stick with the script and gets fired by her boss, Shelby (Briana Gibson Reeves).

She ends up visiting a witch (Kathy McCafferty) or hanging out at the local bar with her high school boyfriend Bob (James Joseph O’Neill), in each case, seeking advice. Meanwhile, Becky’s daughter Gail (Alexandra Szeto-Joe) is just getting out of rehab.

My wife and I liked the second act far more than the first, which was mired by too many scene changes that wrecked the flow. Act 2 was more mystical, metaphysical, and fascinating.

A killer show

Murder for Two: Holiday Edition on November 29, 2025, at 2:00 PM, Cap Rep. An eclectic group of characters arrives at an old New England mansion for the surprise birthday party of a celebrated novelist. But the novelist is killed! Who done it?

An eager young policeman (Anthony Norman) is tasked with solving the crime. He interviews the dozen guests (ALL played by Joe Kinosian, who wrote the music a decade and a half ago).

From Steve Barnes’ review in the Times Union: “Directed at The Rep by Scott Weinstein… ‘Murder for Two’ speeds along. Mayhem increases as the show progresses — kudos to set designer Czerton Lim and the production team for pulling off multiple special effects — and showcases Kinosian’s strengths in giving each of his dozen characters a distinct physicality and voice: An imperious angle of the head and an outstretched leg signal a ballerina’s presence, the writer’s niece flirts with the officer by peppering him with questions, the kids walk on their knees and wear the same hat differently.”

I thought it was hysterical. My wife liked it well enough.

Archduke on March 14, 2026, at 2:00 PM, Cap Rep. I wrote about this. Thumbs up.

Former royal?

Dodi & Diana on April 25, 2026, at 2:00 PM, Cap Rep. A married couple, Jason (Shaun Anthony) and Samira (Jessica Damouni), together for about a decade, spend three days alone in a Paris hotel room. This is based on the advice of Jason’s astrologer, who believes them to be “the astrological doubles of Diana Spencer and Dodi Fayed.”

We had to agree with Steve Barnes’ review: “Strong work from the actors, designers, and director cannot fully redeem a script that is at times tedious and/or exasperating in ‘Dodi & Diana,’ a play that’s neither as sexy nor provocative as author Kareem Fahmy seems to intend.”

Near the end, they do, sort of, become the title characters, but that was confusing as well.

Billy Shakes, shaken

& Juliet on May 1, 2026, at 7 PM, Proctors. My wife was given a ticket for the “What If Juliet Didn’t Die” jukebox musical. So I bought one, but we were not seated together.

The audience reaction, particularly in the front rows of the theater, was instantly engaged. By contrast, the guy sitting next to me hardly reacted at all until the second act.

Will Shakespeare (CJ Elder) thinks he has a big hit on his hands with Romeo and Juliet. But his wife, Anne Hathaway (Crystal Kellogg), thinks the ending is terrible. She suggests that he could rewrite it? Might she help him?

The saved Juliet (Fabiola Caraballo Quijada) decides that maybe killing herself over a boy she knew for “four days — almost” isn’t very smart. Since her parents decide that Juliet should “hie thee to a nunnery,” Juliet runs away with her nurse, Angelique (Kathryn Allison), and reinvents herself.

I liked it pretty well, particularly as the pieces started to fall into place.

Also, a book and a movie

The Outsiders, May 24, 2026, at 2:00 PM, Proctors. No, I never read S.E. Hinton’s coming-of-age tale or its 1983 film adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola.

The story is narrated by 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis (Nolan White). Ponyboy gets jumped by a group of Socs (think frat boys) for seeing “Cool Hand Luke” at the movie theater on their side of town. We meet the Greasers: his big brothers, Darrel, forced to work after the Curtises’ parents died in a car crash, and high school dropout Sodapop; prankster Two-Bit; Johnny Cade, who is brutalized by his father when the abuse isn’t dumped on his mother; and Dallas, who has a police record to prove it.

There is also Ace, who my wife rightly notes was analogous to Anybodys in ‘West Side Story,’ but no particular function beyond being the token girl Greaser. In fact, there were a few WSS tropes, which didn’t bother me.

At the drive-in, Ponyboy meets Cherry, the red-headed girlfriend of the Socs’ de facto leader Bob. Cherry and Ponyboy bond over their shared love of sunsets, but this connection ticks off Bob.

Telling more seems unnecessary. It was a very good production.

Last up this season, Mystic Pizza.

Funny Girl; Hindustani violin

Albany Symphony Orchestra

My wife said to me, “Should we try to do both of these things, or is this really stupid?” I replied, “Yes, we should, and yes, it’s really stupid.” We had tickets to see Funny Girl at Proctors at 2 pm on April 5th as part of our subscription.

I’ve never seen Funny Girl, as a movie or as a musical. I did know that it was based on a real vaudeville performer named Fanny Brice, who was in Flo Ziegfeld’s Follies and became a big star on Broadway. Yet I know some of the music: If A Girl Isn’t Pretty, I’m The Greatest Star, and People. Don’t Rain On My Parade contains some of the most interesting chord changes I’ve ever heard.

I liked the first act. The second act seemed to have more focus on Fanny’s husband, Nick. It was less exciting, and the actor’s voice wasn’t consistently strong, cracking at least once.

The genuine local interest was that there was a former Albany High School young woman in the cast, Annabelle Duffy, an understudy for Fanny Bryce, as well as a couple of other characters, and also a swing. Melissa Manchester, known for songs like Midnight Blue, played Fanny’s mother. I’m glad I saw it, but I didn’t love it. I wonder if it was the end of the tour’s wear and tear, for the next stop, in Rochester, was the last for the touring company.

Next gig

We had obtained tickets from friends of ours who were under the weather to attend the Albany Symphony Orchestra concert at the Palace Theater in Albany that evening. After we got something to eat, we needed to pick someone up and take her to the Palace by the 6:30 pre-concert talk led by conductor David Allen Miller and composer Reena Esmail, who had written the Concerto for Hindustani Violin, a piece in five parts: Aakash (space), Vayu (air), Agni (fire), Jal (water), and Prithvi (earth) with an atonement postlude.

We learned that the soloist was Kala Ramnath, playing the Hindustani violin while seated on a platform with her legs crossed. It’s tuned lower than the standard violin, often using viola strings. She’s considered the Ravi Shankar of Hindustani violin. She was accompanied by her tabla player, Abhijit Banerjee.

The first piece of the program was Bolero by Maurice Ravel. We heard it by ASO 11 years ago. As I said at the time, Bolero is much better and more interesting than listening to recordings.

The Hindustani violin piece of music doesn’t adhere to standard Western music signatures. I’m not sure about this, but I could have sworn that Ramnath was looking offstage at composer Esmail to see when to come in. Whether that was true or not, it did seem to work.

Passion

After intermission, it was an early Berlioz piece, Symphony fantastique. The story that Miller told about Berlioz highlighted how he was inspired by his passionate feelings for Irish actress Harriet Smithson, whom he first saw in 1827 in the Paris production of Romeo and Juliet. She later became his wife in an unhappy marriage. The unconventional 55-minute Symphony was subtitled Episode de la vie d’un artiste (episode from the life of an artist).

Then my wife took TWO people home, making it an entertaining but exhausting day.

Re: Berlioz, check out Discovering Classical Music and a live recording by The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Myung-Whun Chung.

Theatre!: Lehman Trilogy; Bring It On

cheerleading

My wife and I saw the Lehman Trilogy at Capital Rep on March 8, a 3 p.m. performance. It is the story of three immigrant Jewish brothers from Bavaria who started a small clothing store in 1840s Alabama. Henry arrives first, followed by his two younger brothers, Emanuel and Meyer. Over a century and a half, the business went from being a cotton dealer to railroads to banking and other activities before the 2008 economic collapse.

Lehman Trilogy is a three-act play by Italian novelist and playwright Stefano Massini. It initially ran for five hours as it was performed across Europe. It was translated by Mirella Cheeseman and adapted by British playwright Ben Power, trimmed to three hours.

The show was initially scheduled for Broadway on 7 March 2020 in previews, to open officially on 26 March. But everything shut down on 12 March. Eventually, the Broadway production won five Tony Awards in 2022.

“What’s remarkable is that all of the characters. From Steve Barnes’ TU review: “It’s hard to overstate just how good the cast is or the epic nature of the acting tasks set before them. Two are long familiar to audiences at The Rep: Kevin McGuire for 14 years (‘Man of La Mancha,’ ‘Red,’ ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’), Oliver Wadsworth for 24 (‘Fully Committed,’ ‘A Sherlock Carol’). The chameleonic triumvirate, who combined play 47 roles, is ably completed by William Oliver Watkins, returning to The Rep after an impressive performance in ‘Sweat’ a year ago this month.”

You always knew which characters they played: sons, wives, competitors. It was remarkable. See if you can.

Bring It On: The Musical

I’m sure I never saw the 2000 movie Bring It On, though my wife and daughter had.

Albany High School staged a production of Bring It On: The Musical, and though it was a busy week, my wife and I attended the March 14 show. While both stories centered on cheerleading, my wife stated that the musical’s narrative, created a decade after the film’s release, was far more compelling. “On her last day of junior year, Campbell Davis prays to be named the captain of the Truman High School cheerleading squad.” She gets the gig, but “two weeks before the end of summer, Campbell receives a letter with terrible news: she’s been redistricted to inner-city Jackson High School.”

The musical was fabulous, from the videos telling us to turn off our phones to the metal detectors at Jackson High. (The audience went through detectors before the show.) Campbell’s telephone conversations with her Truman buddies were likewise on the screen in the back, to significant effect.

In the past decade, we have seen several musicals at Albany High. There have often been star performers, but the ensembles have become stronger musically. The sound is better, and so is the orchestra.

“Each year, the Collaborative School of the Arts High School Musical Theatre Awards (HSMTA) celebrate the incredible talent, dedication, and creativity of high school students from across the Capital Region.” I’m rooting for Albany High.

Gala

On March 10, I went with my friend Mary to the 2025-2026 Season Announcement Bash for the shows that will be playing at Proctors in Schenectady and Cap Rep in Albany. Broadway World shared the list. Performers from A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond musical (Sweet Caroline), Spamalot, The Sound of Music (Do-Re-Mi), & Juliet, and The Outsiders sang.

My wife and I got season tickets for both venues this current season, which was probably overly ambitious; we’re figuring out what to do in the future.

Theater: Parade; Maybe Happy Ending

from Atlanta to Seoul

By happenstance, I saw two theatrical productions in three days, Parade and Many Happy Ending.

In February 2024, Proctors Theatre in Schenectady held an event to announce the 2024-25 Broadway schedule for Proctors and Cap Rep in Albany.

When they discussed the musical Parade, which would start its tour at Proctors, an older gentleman on a screen said essentially that it was a sad and depressing story, but it was good. That could not be the “sell” the Proctors’ folks wanted to hear.

The musical won the 2023 Tony Award® for Best Revival of a Musical and was nominated for a Grammy Award® for Best Musical Theater Album.

Katherine Kiessling of the Times Union wrote, “The heart of the show is assigned to Leo and his wife Lucille, played by Max Chernin and Talia Suskauer. The pair is charged with embracing the Franks’ rough edges—his aloofness and her initial desires to cling to her privileged life and flee the hardships of her husband’s trial—and eliciting empathy.”

They are a Jewish couple in the nineteen-teens Atlanta. He’s from Brooklyn, but she’s a native of Georgia. He runs a pencil-making factory. A young female employee is killed, and Leo is suspected.

Variety asked about the 2023 revival: “Will audiences take to a disturbing but captivating musical that deals with racism, antisemitism, and injustice?” Newspapers superimposed on the stage area ensure the audience knows the outcome before the production begins.

It’s very well done and important. While having a downer of an arc, it’s not all depressing, and it was worthwhile. My wife and I attended the January 11 program. It will be touring throughout the country through September 7.

Made in Korea

Two days later, my daughter and I were in Manhattan working on a project. We contacted one of my nieces and her Significant Other. They secured four rush tickets for Maybe Happy Endings at the Belasco Theatre for January 13. The show opened on November 12.

“Inside a one-room apartment in the heart of Seoul, Oliver (Darren Criss, probably best known from Glee) lives a happily quiet life, listening to jazz records and caring for his favorite plant…

“When his fellow Helper-Bot neighbor Claire (Helen J. Shen) asks to borrow his charger, what starts as an awkward encounter leads to a unique friendship, a surprising adventure, and maybe even…love?”

The Will Aronson and Hue Park musical reminds us that “love is never obsolete.” It was delightful, not just because of the storyline, dialogue (“She’s a 5” was particularly funny), songs, and performances, which included lounge singer Gil Brentley (Dez Duron) and James and others (Marcus Choi).

Maybe Happy Ending uses specially made video projections, plus a fantastic physical space. “The musical exists in the relatively constrained spaces of the Helperbot retirement home, but there are also a series of flashbacks to Oliver’s time working with James in his house and Claire’s time working for her owner. Then, when the two robots eventually leave their apartments, there’s an entirely new landscape and horizon to contend with. And all of this takes place in a single unbroken act…”

Technology

Laffrey’s solution was to create a “machine that moved us through this world.” He used a “giant mechanism that encompasses the whole stage and fills it with moving pieces. For most of the show, the audience’s view is comprised of one or two boxes, one for each of the robot’s rooms—those boxes can slide horizontally, meaning there’s occasionally a single room and, more often, two side-by-side. The stage also has a central turntable, upon which some sets (James’ house, for instance) rotate.

“Simultaneously, Laffrey designed four huge black panels trimmed with neon. These panels, which are positioned in front of the stage where a curtain would be, slide up and down and side-to-side in order to act like a camera lens’s iris, opening wide to show the whole stage or narrowing to focus on a single piece of action. It’s a tool that occasionally makes the musical feel more like cinema than theater—the audience is seemingly viewing the play through a giant lens.”

A Korean-language version of Maybe Happy Ending opened in Seoul in 2016, and its English-language premiere was in Atlanta the following year. The show was very enjoyable, though sitting in the fourth row of the balcony, I had difficulty seeing some limited action in front of the stage.