Image: 5th Ave Theater
*This post is in collaboration with the 5th ave Theater. I received 2 complimentary tickets to “ Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion” in exchange for an honest review.
Yeah Baby, ha cheers to the 90’s! Last weekend my daughter and I saw the musical “Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion." It is based on the 1997 blockbuster film by Robin Schiff. The show was beautiful and loaded with lessons about friendship. The 5th Ave Theater is a stunning venue, not to be missed, the architecture is amazing!
Romy and Michele takes place in the year 1997 and it’s reunion time for these two best friends , who attended Sagebrush high in Tuscon AZ. The show flashes back to their senior prom days and how they were bullied by the “A” group of girls at school.
The idea for the characters of Romy and Michele first came to Schiff when she was in a fashionable Los Angeles club, and overheard the trite conversations between two women in the restroom.
3 Lessons
about Friendship I learned from Romy & Michele:
1)A true friend helps
you overcome insecurities
Romy was a very insecure girl who just wanted
to fit in. At first this wasn’t important to Michele, but after a trip back in
time, she realizes what matters to her friend, also matters to her. In the end
she helped Romy regain her confidence.
2)Everyone wants a best
friend who accepts them as they are: the
good and the bad
A best friend may be a companion, a spouse , or sibling. In
the end peeps want to have someone in their life that “gets’ them, accepts
them, and is not judgmental about their flaws.
Romy and Michele looked beyond the annoying habits, and saw characteristics in each other, that
no one else did.
3) Being matter-of-fact
about your thoughts strengthens the friendship bond
In the movie the girls are kind of shocked that ten years have
gone by, and both of them have not accomplished much in their careers. Romy resorts to fabricating a story about
inventing the now famous Post it Notes- to make a good impression at the reunion.
She leaves
Michele out of that conversation and this leads to a huge argument and a
hysterical scene. They were fuming at each other and decided they would go
separate ways at the reunion. They did manage to work things before getting
there, by being upfront and honest with each other.
The Costumes:
The performance was super funny and the costumes were the best! ( We couldn’t stop giggling) The flamboyant fashions were inspired by the original designer Mona May, who also designed costumes for the original stage play “ Ladies Room.”
Mona was the forerunner in costume design for the Nineties and established what it meant to design for a chick flick movie. Today athleisure wear is super popular, but at this time there was nothing in the stores for fashion "workout" wear. May decided to come up with her own rendition of gym clothes.
She used crazy spandex, shiny , reflective, and iridescent fabrics. These choices reflected to the true spirit of the two characters.
Cool fact about Romy and Michele:
You can actually spend the night at Romy and Michele’s place
in Los Angeles. Their apartment building
in Venice Beach, is now a hotel called the Venice Suites! Check it out- fun
place for a girlfriend’s weekend getaway!
I won’t spill all the details of this fun spoof about the
90’s- there is still 3 weeks left to see the show- I do hope you can go see it!
It runs until July 2nd, and it truly is a top tier production. The 5th
Ave Theater is the leading musical theater in the nation. I' m excited I was able to collaborate with them to review this show!
The 5th Avenue theater is a great experience for
travelers, as well as locals, do check it out! I hope you have a great summer,
thanks for visiting MapleLeopard. Follow the theater on Instagram, for news about upcoming shows.
