Today, Mom and I went to see "An Officer and a Gentleman," which is apparently a new Broadway-ish-but-not-Broadway musical--the girl selling the merch said this was only its second week! (She also said she hadn't seen it yet, she was reading a book. "A woman after my own heart," I said.) Now, I haven't seen the movie at all so I can't really speak to that, and Mom saw the movie and didn't like it "because something bad happened, but I don't remember what." She liked this better, though. I did Google for what the plot of the movie was, so I have that general idea down.

It's 1981 and this is kinda "jukebox musical" of 80's songs--I don't think this one had any originals. It features a 12 week stint at Officer Training School for the Navy. Our main characters are:

Zach, whose mom (vaguely) killed herself and his dad was a douche, so he grew up alone and fending for himself, everyone yells that all he cares about is himself. He decides to do some "I'll get paid to give people math answers" scheme, which, DUH, you're going to get caught at.
Paula, a townie girl working at the casket factory who wants to be a lawyer and is going to school part time. Zach isn't great, but he at least believes in her.
Paula's mom, who got loved and left by a Navy officer previously.
Sid, Zach's bestie, the son of a vice admiral, African-American, super sweet. Has hinted-at Mental Issues in his past.
Lynette, Paula's bestie, who openly wants to marry an officer so she can escape the casket life. I gather in the movie she's an obvious scammy gold digger, but in this play she's much nicer.
Foley, the sgt. who runs everyone's life.
Casey Seeger, the one girl in the officer class, can't climb up the wall. She is awesome and needs her own musical.
The plot is Casey trying to succeed, and Zach and Sid dating townies. Zach is kind of a jerk but shapes up and gets with Paula in the end, while things go awry with Sid and Lynette and he ends up killing himself--which is kind of off/random in this one?

It had gorgeous backdrops (stars, beach) that the show used to GREAT effect. The set is basically some kind of generic factory/hangar space, but it gets very pretty with the backdrops. And I enjoyed the music since I've heard a lot of it before.

Overall I enjoyed it. Even Mom did.

In other news, Mom got out of the car and got obsessed with "I stepped in something sticky" and proceeded to scrape the bottom of her shoes off. I mean this literally, like she scraped half of the soles OFF to the point where she was kinda waddling like a penguin. Totally ruined the shoes. She sent a photo of this to Roger, who said about what I did: "Jesus, go buy some new shoes!" Ironically, I told her to go to DSW and neither she (nor 1) actually found any she wanted. Go figure. She kept griping about the shoes "falling apart" though...and how expensive they were...and oh, she's had them for 25 years?! I kind of doubt that last part, I'm lucky to have shoes hold up for 2, for chrissake.

I also told Mom about what went on with Scott and then she kept insisting I ask him out and specifically offered her ticket to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Sac at the end of December. I said that was a bit too much too soon and also on a Thursday afternoon and that might not be doable, but will keep it in mind.

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