Fantastic Comic Fan Review: Rob Hanes Adventures

Reviews: Four Nights/Four Shows in NYC

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the primary reason we traveled to New York City at the beginning of April was to see Broadway shows. The announcement of Glengarry Glen Ross last fall triggered our trip, so when dates for the spring were announced in February, we immediately purchased our tickets. These were followed by tickets for Good Night and Good Luck and Maybe Happy Ending. As recounted in the earlier post, we obtained tickets for a fourth show, Boop, on opening night the same morning as the performance!

Below are my reviews of all four shows. But first a few observations about the New York theater experience versus our experiences theater-going in Los Angeles.

Interestingly, all our shows started at 7 p.m.—versus 8 p.m. for evening shows in L.A. The earlier start allows theatergoers to grab dinner afterwards. This was reinforced by the fact that, after Maybe Happy Ending, when the cast came out after the curtain call to fundraise for Broadway Cares, an AIDS charity, they promised the audience they wouldn’t keep us long and people would still be able to make their restaurant reservations! In L.A., the late start is likely to accommodate the fact that most people have to navigate L.A.’s busy freeways to get to the venue. As such, this means shows usually end anywhere between 10 or 11 p.m. In L.A., by that time, most good restaurants are already closed so theatergoers usually head home. 

By contrast, we found that many restaurants (and, of course, bars) were still open and serving diners in the theater district. Indeed, nearly all the shows we watched clocked in at a surprisingly crisp two hours (two, Good Night and Good Luck and Maybe Happy Ending, didn’t even have intermissions!). And the show with the longest runtime, Boop, which is about 2-½ hours, started at 6:30 p.m.

In addition, because New York City’s theaters generally have smaller footprints, the mezzanine sections feel close to the stage, nearly atop the orchestra seats. In contrast, in L.A., the mezzanine sections tend to be fairly recessed back, away from the stage and the orchestra section. As such, at most of the shows where we were in the mezzanine, we were surprised at how close we still felt to the stage, like we were right on top of the actors!

Now on to the reviews (in the order watched):

Maybe Happy Ending 

Maybe Happy Ending is an original new romantic comedy musical one act that originated in South Korea in 2016 and made its American debut in Atlanta in 2020. It made its Broadway debut in Fall 2024, featuring a diverse cast that includes Tony Award winning Darren Criss (who is half-Filipino) and Helen J. Shen as the leads. (The show has a relatively small cast, with only two additional actors, one playing multiple roles.) 

The musical is a deft blend of the modern and traditional, and thoroughly charming, heartfelt and delightful. Though it’s a fairly small, modest production, it nevertheless features dynamic and innovative staging and stage craft that gives the show plenty of life and energy.

It's the story of two helpbots—android companions that are very human-like—who have been retired and abandoned many years before, and while searching for new meaning to their existence, find each other. As the story unfolds, we learn their backstories, including the reasons they were abandoned. Hanging over their blossoming romance is their fear that they will soon shut down forever due to the inability at some point to re-charge themselves, or to replace aging, obsolete parts. But this self-awareness of their pending expiration dates clearly is clearly a commentary on the audience's own mortality and limited shelf-life. How to best make use of that time and our fleeting lives—and whether love is worth pursuing even if it will inevitably end in loss and heartache—is very much the heart of this story.

Much of the show's charm comes from the performers. Criss and Shen have great chemistry and wonderfully bring out the heart and humor of the play. (As an older helpbot model, Criss subtley projects a slightly more robotic demeanor that is not too different than someone on the spectrum.) Kudos as well to Dez Duron, who provides musical interludes—though he never really interacts with the leads, he possesses a silky smooth voice that I could have listened to all night. 

In truth, of all the productions we saw, Maybe Happy Ending is the one I would recommend to anyone unreservedly.

Glengarry Glen Ross

As I said up top, this Broadway revival of playwright David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross is what triggered our travels. It's probably the play I’ve most wanted to see on stage and the announcement of this show—with actors Bob Odenirk, Keiran Culkin, Bill Burr, and Michael McKean—made it too irresistible to pass up.

I first encountered the play, of course, through the 1992 film adaptation, featuring a stellar cast that included Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Jonathan Pryce, and, in what I consider one of the most electric and commanding cameos ever captured on film, Alec Baldwin. 

I knew going in that the film adaptation (also written by Mamet) was very different than the play, though I had heard that some productions had incorporated aspects of the film into the stage show.

Of course, I can’t speak to other productions, but this one seems solely based on the original play. Indeed, it has a very different structure. Whereas the film opens up the story a little and unfolds in a fairly straightforward chronological manner, the play is more impressionistic and primarily told in two acts. The first consists of three vignettes—all set in a Chinese restaurant—that establish the play’s main tensions. The second act, following an intermission, consists of what is the last extended climactic scene of the movie, in which all is revealed and resolved. (Indeed, as much as I love Alec Baldwin's scene in the film, which gets the story rolling in an explosive and immediate manner, it actually would not work in the play without major restructuring.)

While the film, of course, somewhat overshadows and colored my viewing of the play, the production and actors do their best to make the story its own thing and the roles their own. While all are solid, Bill Burr is a standout, perhaps the one performance that transcends the film and, perhaps, even surpassed his film counterpart (Ed Harris). Burr is a perfect fit for the role, projecting more of a lived-in sliminess that isn't quite there in the film. In contrast, Culkin has the unenviable task of trying to make you forget Pacino as Richard Roma…which, of course, given the actor’s presence and line readings in that film, is very difficult.

Revelations in recent years about Mamet’s views and politics also somewhat affected my response to the play. In the original film, the obsession with alpha maleness and what it means to “be a man” are somewhat undermined by the film’s humor, leading one to see the movie as somewhat of a satire of hypermasculinity. In contrast, Mamet’s views make clear that these are themes he is seriously exploring in the play, which makes the play feel somewhat dated and badly aged.

It’s hard to tell how much of the audience had seen the film, but going in knowing the story is somewhat of a disadvantage since the revelations at the end are not a surprise. That said, the play is a smaller and more intimate piece, while the film plays more like Shakespearean tragedy.

Good Night and Good Luck

Good Night and Good Luck is a stage adaptation of the 1995 film of the same name about television journalist Edward J. Murrow that was directed and co-written by actor George Clooney. In the film, Clooney played Murrow’s producer and partner-in-crime, Fred Friendly, but for the stage adaptation, Clooney plays Murrow himself.

The piece tells the story of Murrow’s efforts to stand up to and challenge U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy during the infamous Communist 1950s witch hunts. It hews fairly closely to my memories of the film, complete with the use of the framing device of Murrow speaking at a dinner event in his honor, which bookends the opening and closing of the film, as well as of musical interludes featuring a jazz singer recording in the same studio.

To be clear, this play only happened because of Clooney. The actor clearly believed that the story's message of the importance of journalism as the Fourth Estate and its role of speaking truth to power—while also acknowledging the challenges that our news media face as subdivisions of corporate entities whose goals are commercial and avoiding offending its audience, rather than the public good—remain as relevant as ever. Like the film, the production has Clooney (as Murrow) interacting with real footage of celebrities and other figures. The production and performances are solid, with actor and comedian Ilana Glazer particularly a standout as journalist Shirley Wershba.

What really elevated the production was the final coda, which returns to where the play began, with Murrow speaking to the audience at a lectern at an event. It segues into a cacophony of media clips over the years from the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Iraq War, and the Obama years, culminating in a powerful final image that directly connects the show to the modern day, which brought a collective gasp to the audience.

Below: Curtain call from the night we saw Good Night and Good Luck

Boop

Boop is a traditional family-friendly big Broadway musical about animated star Betty Boop, filled with show stopping numbers. It opens in the black and white cartoon world of Betty Boop (giving a nice nod to the Fleischer Studio), who eventually finds her way into the “real” world, where she tries to find herself and navigate the modern world, though the show also makes clear that the character was an early symbol of feminism and self-agency.

While the show was entertaining enough and the performers topnotch, we never felt fully engaged or invested with the characters in the same way as, say, Maybe Happy Ending. Nevertheless, we’re glad we were able to see it—and on opening night, no less! 

Below: Curtain call from the opening night of Boop.

Retro Review: Top Secret

Weeks ago, when our local theater announced a film series called "Springtime Spoofs ‘N Goofs," my wife said she wanted to see one of the films on the slate, Top Secret, Val Kilmer’s first film, from 1984. Kilmer’s passing a few weeks later, of course, made seeing it even more poignant, which was acknowledged by the theater staff introducing the film.   

I found it amusing, if not a bit disconcerting and ironic, that in an early scene, to show how oppressive the (somewhat fictionalized) East German regime in the film was, a senior official demands over the phone that they “seal the borders and cancel all visas!” All they needed to add is "tariffs" to hit the trifecta. 

Coming off the heels of the success of Airplane, Top Secret is not really a great film—it's a mishmash parody of World War II and teen rock and roll films with not enough laughs to sustain a full-length movie though they try to maintain interest with a barebones story. But you do get to see a pre-Batman Michael Gough, a very pre-Downton Abbey Jim Carter, and Omar Sharif sending up his reputation as a gentleman with one indignity after another.

A New York State of Mind

Though I posted about our trip to New York City while still on the road on Facebook and other social media, most of which were re-posted on this blog, below is a more comprehensive account of our trip. Or click here for the full photo gallery from our trip. 

Over the past year or so, we’ve contemplated a major vacation, particularly with our 25th wedding anniversary looming this year. While Europe was on the table, so was New York City, primarily to see some Broadway shows.

The announcement last October of a new production of the David Mamet play, Glengarry Glen Ross, with Bob Odenkirk, Keiran Culkin and Bill Burr, was what convinced us to pull the trigger. I’ve always wanted to see it on stage and my wife agreed that this might be the show to plan our trip around.

I put myself on a mailing list for the show and, in February this year, learned that the dates for the production had been scheduled. After grabbing tickets for the April 3 show, we soon found flights and a great deal for a hotel in the heart of Times Square and Broadway (via Expedia—my plan was to see if I could find a better price for a hotel later, but learned that we indeed got a terrific deal).

Almost at the same time, George Clooney’s stage production of Good Night and Good Luck was announced, based on his 2005 film, about journalist Edward J. Murrow. We purchased tickets for that as well and, after a little research, thought that a new stage musical, Maybe Happy Ending, which received some nice reviews, sounded like good counter programming for the two stage dramas we signed up for.

Flight and Arrival

We’d booked an early morning flight so scheduled a Lyft pickup for 5:30 am for a 7:45 am flight. All went smoothly except for one little glitch. After going through the TSA checkpoint and settling in our gate, I was paged over the terminal loudspeaker by my full name, telling me to report back to the TSA security checkpoint. My wife said later half-jokingly that she wondered if she’d ever see me again when I walked off. It turned out I simply left my ID in the bin at the checkpoint!

Though I’d heard horror stories about JetBlue, we found the flight and crew perfectly lovely. The free wifi on board was a great boon, as it allowed me to be productive and get a lot of social media done while en route.

On our trip to Seattle back in 2023, my wife taught me a great life hack for flying that we took advantage of on this flight. Like most people, we don’t check in our luggage to save on the baggage fees and just use carry ons. However, when a flight is fully booked, at the gate the airline often asks people if they are willing to check in their bags, for no charge. On our trip to Seattle, I opted not to accept this offer while my wife did, but on this flight, I agreed—and it was rather nice not having to board the plane with any luggage. (This trick worked for us on the flight home as well!)

We arrived at JFK at about 3:30 pm EST. I’d researched in advance options for getting into Manhattan and, similar to our last trip to NYC in 2010 with our kids, there was a set price by taxi, though considerably higher than our last visit: about $85, but after tolls and tip, $105.

Our lodging, the Millennium Broadway Times Square, was on 44th Street (with a rear entrance on 45th). Though the room could’ve used fresh paint or wallpaper, and new carpeting (or perhaps a good steam cleaning), it was otherwise good sized and the bathrooms looked like they’d been updated fairly recently. That all said, we did get it for a reasonable price for the area, and the location couldn’t be beat: we were a half block from Times Square and within walking distance of all the theaters we were going to, as well as to Rockefeller Center. Conveniently, a 24-hour Walgreens was next door! In addition, two of the four shows we were seeing were on the same street as our hotel (one just at the end of the block); the third only a block over; and the last about 4 blocks north of us. Since my wife tends to like to sleep in and I am an early riser, I often used the mornings to get breakfast (usually a croissant and orange juice) that I ate either in the lobby, or often just while sitting in the middle of Times Square, while posting to social media and catching up with the news and on email.

The evening of our arrival, we explored our surroundings a bit and had a lovely dinner at an old school Italian restaurant, Tony di Napoli, and ordered waaaay too much food!

Day 2

Our first full day in Manhattan, we took the subway down to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. (We loved the ease of riding the subway by simply using a tap on our mobile devices to pay our fares, though early on we had trouble with the subway turnstiles properly reading them.)

Though I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island, I told my wife there was no need to visit the borough as we have on previous trips—a trip to Staten Island would essentially kill a day and there was no need for me to revisit my old haunts as I have done in the past. Nearby Battery Park was unfortunately closed for renovations, but we could still see the Statue of Liberty from the terminal. From there, we walked up to the Financial District/Wall Street, briefly stopped at Trinity Church, and then visited the 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial.

After that, we took the subway up to the Society of Illustrators—where I saw a piece from a longtime fellow comics pro, Lonnie Milsap, on display in the museum’s 100 Years of the New Yorker exhibition. We initially thought about then walking across Central Park to get to Strawberry Fields, a favorite spot in the park of John Lennon’s, across the street from his building co-op, the Dakota, but thought better of it and took a taxi instead. (Our visits to the Society of Illustrators and Strawberry Fields are detailed in earlier posts.)

We got back to the hotel around mid-afternoon, so as to have some time to relax before going to our evening show, a schedule we kept on the other days as well. That evening, we saw the first of our four shows, Maybe Happy Ending (I will detail my thoughts and reviews about all the shows we saw in another post). This was followed by a dinner at an Irish bar, O’Donaghue’s Pub.

Day 3

The next morning, before my wife got up, I visited Midtown Comics (reported here). Once my wife was awake, we visited the FDNY’s Firehouse, Hook & Ladder Company in Tribeca—we’d actually meant to visit the day before when we were more downtown, but forgot, so took a quick subway ride there to see it, then shot back uptown where we saw the Ed Sullivan Theatre, home to the Late Night with Stephen Colbert show, which enabled to discover the location of the Winter Garden Theatre where we’d be seeing Good Night and Good Luck later that week, about 4 blocks north of our hotel. We also grabbed a lovely lunch across the street at an upscale dim sum palace, Din Tai Fung. (I later learned from my wife that this restaurant has a location near us in L.A., in Century City.)

We also found time to visit the Empire State Building—though it had been cloudy all day, the weather cleared up enough that we had great views atop the building. To get there, our subway stop was at Penn Station. We took the opportunity to see the commuter trains and platforms while there.

That evening, we saw Glengarry Glen Ross, followed by dinner at Brooklyn Diner (which frankly was our only disappointing meal on the trip).

Day 4

Our 4th day, Saturday, April 5, happened to be the date of the nationwide Hands Off rallies. Though we were 3,000 miles away from home and would have participated in L.A., we happily took time to participate in the NYC protests, at Bryant Park/New York Public Library.

Due to timing issues, we got afternoon tickets to tour Radio City Music Hall. After getting our tickets, we took a taxi to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Upper East Side in Central Park. Though we did spend quality time there, we did not get to see the entire museum and did have to leave after a few hours to make our Radio City tour, which was another taxi ride back.

One of the most interesting factoids from the Radio City tour was that the nearly 100-year-old hydraulic system beneath the stage is still being used—when the theater underwent a major renovation years ago, after inspection, that was one feature the engineers said did not need work or an upgrade. The system was an engineering marvel in its day, such that, before World War II, military engineers studied it for use on aircraft carriers. According to the tour, for this reason, a military presence was kept at the site during the war to safeguard the technology.

In the evening, we saw Good Night and Good Luck at the Winter Garden Theatre. This was followed by my favorite dinner of the evening at Gatsby’s Landing, where I had duck.

The restaurant happened to be directly across the street from the Belasco Theatre, where we had seen Maybe Happy Landing two nights before (as well as just a half block from our hotel). That night’s performance had also just let out and people milled around in front of the theater, hoping to get autographs and catch a glimpse of the show’s lead star, Darren Criss, and other members of the cast. As we waited for dinner, Criss did indeed come out. So I took the opportunity to run across the street to take some photos!

Day 5

We toured NBC Studios and 30 Rockefeller Center on Sunday, just before departing for the airport, and saw Studio 8H, where SNL is broadcast. No photos were allowed at any time during the tour. (I also looked into getting tickets months before. It turns out, they offer tickets during a week’s window in August and you are given a take-it-or-leave-it date, though they do also offer stand by tickets.) As noted in an earlier post, we ended up on the same flight back to L.A. as one of the musicians who had performed on the episode of SNL that had aired the night before, featuring host Jack Black. (This reminds me of another celebrity close encounter when I was once in NYC back in the day—we saw actress Téa Leoni at an ice cream shop with what I assume were her children and perhaps her parents!)

It was a memorable, terrific trip that confirmed for us that NYC is indeed one of the world’s great cities, with an incredible energy and vibe. I’m usually ready to go home near the end of my vacation, and while I didn’t feel the vacation went by too quickly, I happily could have stayed longer.

Click here to see the full photo gallery from our trip. 

30 Rock and Radio City Music Hall

Talk Show Appearance

Catch the show below live on YouTube and Twitch.

Four Plays in Four Nights!