It’s hard to see what compelled Cathy Elliott to present Moving Day as a musical. It certainly wasn’t a surfeit of great melodic ideas — I’m hard-pressed to hum a single tune now, though the compositions are at least solid and Elliott has a robust, expressive voice. The same can’t be said for her lyrical chops, and a few more monologues could have saved us from terrible devices like “lie”/“library” puns.

What Moving Day does right is present the historical struggles of women to be taken seriously — both in and out of homemaking roles — with a light but precise touch. There is a lot of heart in Elliott’s tale of Sharon Sharpe, a 1960s housewife stuck packing up her family’s home alone on the night of the moon landing. Too bad her script lacks the same credibility, giving Sharon an unconvincing addiction, a mysteriously collapsing marriage and a round-trip ticket to complete insanity in a suicide-attempt/monster-movie musical sequence.

Though Elliott gives a warm and believable performance, lots of inappropriate, sudden shifts in tone and mediocre music do nothing to sustain the show’s momentum or interest. The appearance of Godzilla Lady is almost totally incoherent as it relates to Sharon’s story, though watching a monster sing showtunes in Engrish is perhaps its own reward.

Luminettes Cyndi Carleton and Jane Miller are great additions to the show, with their sometimes maniacal smiles and over-the-top facial expressions lending a sinister edge to Sharon’s fantasy sequences.

However, much like Sharon, Moving Day can’t handle the strain of being too many things to too many people: a musical, a wacky experimental comedy, a wrenching domestic drama and a heartwarming one-person show. It’s a unique experience, but it doesn’t work.

 

http://www.cathyelliott.com

Cast: Cathy Elliott as Sharon; Konrad Pluta on piano
Set Design: Cathy Elliott and the ZillA team

Musical / General Audience / Warning: Fog machine
Running time: 90 Minutes

Factory Studio Theatre
Wed, January 2 - 8:45 pm
Fri, January 4 - 7:00 pm
Sat, January 5 - 4:45 pm
Sun, January 6 - 7:15 pm
Tue, January 8 - 7:00 pm
Thu, January 10 - 4:45 pm
Fri, January 11 - 9:00 pm
Sat, January 12 - 3:00 pm
Sun, January 13 - 9:00 pm

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