Candace Bushnell asks, ‘Is there still sex in the city?’ Hmm, get me a Cosmo, quick.

Any dedicated repeater line Sex and the city fans know there are at least two Sex and the city‘S; the first seasons in which Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha exist in a rather deserted New York, where there is an echo of the vibrancy of pop music. Desperately looking for Susan. Widely known across the globe, the show has since morphed into a sobering, high-fashion fairy tale about princesses who reject frogs and seek out princes. Sex and the city always a joy to watch, but its later seasons are a notable departure from its initial sharp celebration and questioning of sexual freedom and celibacy, emphasizing ” essence”.

Turn on your TV and the episodes will repeat somewhere. Those of us who love it and throw parties watching it for the first time can watch it over and over again. How many times have I seen Carrie send that vase of carnations flying according to Berger’s Post-it: “I’m sorry, I can’t help but hate me—”? Oh, so many readers.

The movies: yes yes they are not good, especially the second movie is horrible. But like a bad relationship, they are born, not completely rejected. Mention them, and fans look as amazed as the group did when Carrie momentarily became a “fashion walker.” (But look, she got up and smiled again, with Heidi Klum!)

This week, HBO launches And just like that, will show us where the “girls” are today, except for Samantha because Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker failed famously. For better or worse, the series will join it officially, and its fans will welcome it. And this is also Candace Bushnell, from their typewriter Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte originally appeared with a stage show called Still sex in the city?

However, instead of a lavishly adorned Manolo, which this show reminds you, truly overwhelmed and depressed, is that everything is marketing now. The stage show is set to perfection, opening at the Daryl Roth Theater (through February 6), the same week as the TV show. When you step inside the theater, there is a bar set up where you can get your Cosmo. After the show, you can drink more of them downstairs.

On stage was a posh New York apartment, clothes racks, Martini glasses, and all. And throbbing with joy from the sound system, in the wake of Bushnell, was a chart-topping megamix of female empowerment songs like Spice Girls’ “Wannabe.” The theme is both girls’ night out and embarrassing brand extensions. The pre-show atmosphere had all the warmth expected of a fan convention of all ages. Around me, people seemed to be very excited to be there. Old friends are catching up, just as in a few days we will catch up with Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte (and I want to add Samantha to that too).

This is where the weird disconnect begins, because Candace Bushnell wrote the book (which came out of newspaper columns) based on the TV show, but she didn’t write the TV show everyone knows. and favorite. And this stage show isn’t about whether there’s still sex in the city, and it’s not really about Sex and the city; the show, if it begs any questions, is whether it’s okay to have sex if you’re over 60, like Bushnell.

And while there’s a weird clip from the TV show, this is actually a one-woman show about Candace Bushnell, and her life, and Sex and the citywas part of her enormous publishing success — which she worked so hard to point out, not just Sex and the city. She even has slides about New York Times bestseller list to show us the achievements of Jungle lipstick and the rest.

The problem and it is not easy or pleasant for a Sex and the city fans type this, that Bushnell is not a great storyteller on stage. This is more of a pastel TED talk than a female performance, and it’s about rather flat and scattered timbre. Set is one Sex and the city– Glamor dream has style, and she looks amazing, but it feels like Sex and the city-lite; any poignant story must have a lightning zinger as a bookend.

Not boring stories, but stories by heart. We heard about how “Candi” became Candace; How the girl in the small town became a fixture in the scene, then a fixture written about the scene. Bushnell is most interesting when it comes to life in New York that is most recognizable, as a young writer trying to make it, tapping into the stories of her friends — how Sex and the city was built – despite their futile pleas for resolution. Sex and the city is a column in New York Observer, and then, to her great excitement, a TV show.

She details her personal life, although she does not elaborate on Ron Galotti, Mr. Big in real life. She doesn’t talk about ex-husband Charles Askegard, though she does mention that marriage and the shock of going back to being single after it ended. And there is a blurred line, too unexplored, between Candace Bushnell and Carrie Bradshaw.

Today, says Bushnell, she’s still single (the real Big Guy and the non-Big Guy are both long gone), has moved to Long Island, and lives around nature with Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha in real life, where they remain in a constant game of phone tagging, detailing their sexual and romantic misdeeds. She loves her life, she insists.

This stage show is eerily disarming for a colorful roller coaster of a life. You won’t learn much about Candace Bushnell and Sex and the city which you can’t Google yet — although her stories about it happening on the set of the TV show in its early days are moments of fairy tale thrills coming true right in front of your eyes. she. If you’re a fan, you won’t feel like an evening wasted, you just might feel overwhelmed, like the Cosmo isn’t as chilled as you’d like, or the champagne cocktail is a bit flat.

It reminds you that Sex and the city is a novel made by television writers. We didn’t watch Candace Bushnell. And can’t believe Candace Bushnell will be the TV show she inspires. Also: Most writers don’t live like Carrie Bradshaw or Candace Bushnell, and most writers keep their wisdom for the book page rather than performing it on stage for good reason.

Audiences on the night the critic went to see the stage show were at their happiest when the TV show’s theme tune was played or a familiar clip was played. Look at me, Candace Bushnell is saying, when audiences want a look at the televised looks of what she’s created. Creativity can be merciless, even if millions in the bank provide a comforting cushion.

What the stage performance also tantalizingly makes clear is that the real life of Candace Bushnell and her other single friends is infinitely more appealing than her married protagonists. Sex and the city. The somber, dreary Victorian conventions of the original TV show’s final episodes — marry them, make them believe in the savior side of love! —Removing a living reality would probably be much more difficult and worth dramatizing than the flashy fairy tale we’ve embraced.

No cavils really matter, with revival Sex and the city juggernaut is above us. Come here And just like that, just after this opening night. Here are detailed articles about Sex and the city remains. And here are the fans, who have certainly read every word of the frantic media, but are just as happy to see old friends again.