Welcome to the first of a series where I write reviews about the Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway shows I see as a local living here in New York City. I’ve been hesitant to start this as I mostly see Off Off Broadway shows with such short runs that they are likely no longer running when you are reading this. But let’s face it, this blog has always been more diary like than informative so fuck it.  I’ll also confess to coming up with this idea while thumb typing on my phone traveling between two shows yesterday.  I have a lot of ideas, none of which I am prepared to do.  (Ideas such as sharing photos of the curtain calls, maybe show better photos of the outside of the venues, absolutely less lazy Instagram photos with my dumb thumbnail in them, etc.)   If I waited until things were perfect to start making posts, I’d likely never make a post.

One last rambly ramble before I start my inaugural review.  Just in case you were wondering what the differences are between Off, Off-Off and Broadway, it goes by capacity.

0-99 seats = Off Off Broadway
100 – 499 seats = Off Broadway
500+ seats = Broadway

Today’s show was Mr. Puppy at AMT Theater. This was an 11:00 AM show geared towards children.  If you have a vision of a theater filled with screaming, crying and kicking kids, I have to tell you there was really only one distracting kid who’s dad was pretty quick to whisk him out of the theater.

The show’s story is about our hero, Mr. Puppy, a dog toy, who escapes the shelf at the pet store and heads out in a hot air balloon to see the world.

He visits Brazil, Kenya, India, Jamaica, Japan, France, Mexico and New York City.  Through his travels,  he makes friends and learns that music brings people together.

It was an adorable show. I did find myself laughing at parts that I wasn’t sure were meant to be funny, such as when the woman playing the fish began singing.  My laughter was harder to control when the guy next to me, also attending solo without kids, would be laughing.

This was my first time at this small theater.  Capacity per their website is 99 seats, making it one seat shy of being a Off Broadway venue, rather than an Off-Off Broadway venue.  Theres just the one seating area,  no mezzanine or balcony.  The seats were comfortable.  The women’s bathroom is up 2 flights of steps, very tiny room with 2 stalls.  There is no bar at this venue.

Right around the corner is Westway Diner.  This is my favorite diner in New York City. Supposedly this is the location where Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David came up with the idea to create Seinfeld.