Review: A....MY NAME IS ALICE at Red Curtain Theatre Is a Girl-Power Celebration

The women at the Red Curtain Theatre had me considering joining an all-girl band Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, during the Red Curtain Theatre's performance of A...MY NAME IS ALICE. The company made use of their intimate space at 913 W. Oak Street, in Conway, which was perfect for this super funny, sometimes touching, girl-power musical revue.

Written by a collection of writers and composers including Marta Kauffman and David Krane of FRIENDS, and Lucy Simon, sister of Carly Simon, and composer of THE SECRET GARDEN and a musical version of DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, A...MY NAME IS ALICE touches on a lot of different subjects and situations that women face, but with a sketch comedy twist.

Directed by Liz Parker, Act One opened as a group joining an All-Girl Band and introducing themselves all as Alice. From there, they touched on subjects about wanting to be desired, going on a date At My Age, being too much of a power mom, wanting to slow dance with boys, missing her mom, and feeling sorry for themselves. Also, in the mix was an eclectic group of basketball players, some tap dancers, and a poetress who dies funnier each time she recites her poems.

Act Two continues on with moms who gather at a strip club, a woman who doesn't want to be friends with her ex, sister relationship, a woman pretending to be French, a woman in love, a business woman who lost her way, the poetress who was very detailed on whose fault it was on why she dies in her last poem, a cat-calling construction worker who gets called out, friends who chat on the phone, and back to the All-Girl Band finale. Each of the scenes didn't necessarily go together and could be done as individual one-acts, however they flowed nicely and told many stories that mirrored the lives of women.

These women were a hoot. Some of the scenes had them playing men, behaving badly, and basically acting all sorts of crazy ways, and they went for it. They didn't hold back on the absurdness of the characters, and they did it while singing their hearts out. You never knew what they were going to do scene after scene. In Act One, Amber Welch had me going right from the start wanting a trashing office romance, Wendy Shirar and Serena Wharton hit home going out on their first dates, Cindy Nations with the assistance of Savannah Raup singing Portrait almost made me cry, and Josie Dickerson, Emily Hurley Baumann, and Shirar trying to outdo each other on Bluer Than You had me thinking I could have joined in on their pity party. In Act Two, it was so naughty and great at the same time watching Nations, Amy Wittenburg, and Shirar react to the young guys strip, and the friends Wittenburg and Shirar who started as kids on the phone and ending with the friends having memory loss was so heartfelt. My favorites, though, were Nation singing the French Song, where her papa mixed in all the French he knew, and the Poetress Alisa Kindsfater, who wrote poems only for women, and was uncannily relatable. The whole show was a celebration for women and needed to be shared with all of your girlfriends. The only thing missing was the wine.

Coming up next for the holiday season is RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINEER, JR., beginning Friday, Dec. 9 For more information about this wonderful theatrical company, check out their website at www.redcurtaintheatre.com.

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