Four days after being fired by President Donald Trump as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), James B. Comey showed up at the matinee of a touring Broadway musical on Saturday.
Comey, who has faded from public sight in the days since his abrupt ouster, spent the afternoon at the National Theatre in Washington, catching the penultimate performance there of Fun Home.
The acclaimed show, which won the Tony Award for best new musical in 2015, is a true story about cartoonist Alison Bechdel as she tries to understand her father’s suicide and reconstructs her own coming of age.
The cast of the touring production is led by Kate Shindle, who is also the president of the labour union Actors’ Equity. Comey posed for pictures with the cast after the show.
One of the show’s lead producers, Barbara Whitman, said that Comey and his wife had bought tickets some time ago and that they said Saturday that they did not want to miss the show.
“Their daughter saw the tour in Chicago and told them they had to see it,” Whitman wrote in an email.
“They were wiping away the tears as they came backstage to meet the cast.
"He said something to the effect of it was the best thing they could have picked for their first outing.”
Shindle said the Comeys “both said they were really emotionally affected by the show”.
“It’s awfully moving, but I would imagine doubly so at the end of a week like this,” she wrote in an email.
“I was a little tongue-tied, and as they were leaving, I said, ‘Get home safe’, as if I were his mum, and also as if he doesn’t know every FBI agent in the country.”
Comey is not the first public official who has sought solace in theatre after being dispatched by Trump.
Hillary Clinton has repeatedly been seen on Broadway in the months since her loss in the presidential election.
The Fun Home tour will continue to travel the country; the show opens Tuesday in Houston.
