Meteor Shower
Starring Amy Schumer
Written by Steve Martin
Directed by Jerry Zaks
Booth Theatre
January 3, 2018
Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.

Meteor Shower was 80 minutes of good sincere fun. Amy Schumer showed up and did her magic and the audience was hers for the afternoon. The lines were sincerely funny and the ensemble of the two quite contrasting couples gave lots and lots of opportunities for laughs. Watching the beautiful slick couple of Laura Benanti and Keegan-Michael Key interact with the decidedly not slick couple of Amy Schumer and Jeremy Shamos was very rich in comic moments. Even the chest wounds of a direct meteor hit – – brought the house down as it squirted blood every time there was a cough or laugh.

To me, though, it did feel like really good TV. I felt like I was watching Saturday Night Live back in the good ol’ days when it WAS sincerely funny. Now I was able to watch SNL without all of the adult words being beeped out. But it never crossed the line to live theatre for me. I felt like I was being talked to rather then invited in to experience the moment. For God’s sake use the stage and the power of a live audience. We were right there at your calling if you had only asked.

On a side note, it does worry me that plays are getting shorter and shorter – – I mean, come on, paying well over $100 for 80 minutes? Really? (But not to worry – I was able to snag one of those TDF tickets for $36). Soon Broadway will be little more than one acts that we will cough up a $100 bill for just so we can say we spent an hour (if that) in the room with one of our favorite celebrities.