This one-woman musical show sets out with a pleasant and watchable enough idea. After hitting her mid forties and finding herself divorced and lonely, Kerry Miller as Kitty decides it’s time to dust off her long forgotten dreams of pursuing a career on Broadway.
The parallels between her own life and that of Kitty are obvious to the point of overstatement. This just left me wondering: if this is the case, why wasn't she able to play herself more convincingly?
The story starts as Kitty tells us a little of how her life has gone, how she's ended up single and why now after all this time she has to decided to reimagine a new future for herself. She enters a playwriting contest, is chosen as one of 25 finalists and is invited to Broadway for the interview stage of the process. Nervous that she doesn't have what it takes, she visits an image consultant who gives her a bag of three costume pieces to help her choose exactly the best way to reinvent herself; a leather studded bra, long lace gloves and a pair of cowboy boots. Unsurprisingly enough a suitable ditty for each item follows. She then decides she might just be a little of all three and sets off to fight her corner.
I really felt for Miller, from when she took to the stage and throughout. Solo shows are hard to pull off, and keeping the audience engaged on your own is an impossible task when you aren't sure of your script and attempt to talk to your audience whilst looking over their heads. In saying that: had she made eye contact, awkwardness would have swallowed us up, I think.
She apologised for her own performance over and over in her twitchy gestures, pointless prop fiddling and wholly unnecessary costume changes. There was a point when she was adorned with all three "muses" - the bra, gloves and boots all at once - that was like watching an aunty drunk at Christmas. The limp songs only worsened this feeling, I'm afraid to say.
Miller obviously has a point of view and felt strongly enough about it to take it to the stage. The parallels between her own life and that of Kitty are obvious to the point of overstatement. This just left me wondering: if this is the case, why wasn't she able to play herself more convincingly?
