Shift Happens
"Shift Happens" is an autobiographical, one-woman musical about the challenges Juliette Marshall faces as she joins "The Brentwood Divorcee Club" and constantly searches for the Romeo to her Juliette.
The opening number, "Oh, no. Not another one person show," begins with her hollering in celebration, "You don't know who the hell I am!"
Marshall introduces the audience to the several divorced characters she has met, including one woman whose face she hysterically stretches with her hands, showing what women in Brentwood look like. She speaks of mental illness running in her family and tells us the story of her aunt, who tried to kill herself using Bayer's children's aspirin and a bottle of Bailey's, pointing to a family audience member who could testify to the truth of that fact. She also refers to the book, "The Power of Now," and how she'll "read it later."
The first 20 minutes set the entire hour up to be quite a riot. However by the time 30 minutes pass by, it becomes quite a bore as she forgets the order of her own script. Reminders are called out by a male voice from the back of the room (the director?), prompting her quick-witted outbursts, such as, "Ladies and gentleman, that's the best psychic in Hollywood," or later, "Everybody hears their own god … who knows the running order [of the show]."
Although beautiful, sexy and often comical, Marshall's script lacks detail, and she can't hold a note to save her marriage. There is nothing in this script that is interesting, thought provoking or educational. It is simply an unknown woman, standing at a microphone for an hour, talking (and singing) about her life, the divorce of her husband, and the love for her daughter. (I've heard more intriguing stories from diner waitresses.)
In addition, the laughing of other audience members makes you feel like you're an outsider to the sometimes very lame, uncontrolled jests.
Don't get me wrong. I wanted to love it. I REALLY wanted to love it, and I did so, very much, for the first 20 minutes. However, when I found myself thinking, What else you can get for twenty dollars in Los Angeles?, I gave up.
On A Grading Scale - C-
Written and Performed by Juliette Marshall
Directed by Clifford Bell
Musical Direction/Keyboards: Mitch Kaplan
Drums: Denise "Delish" Fraser
Original Music by Juliette Marshall, Mitch Kaplan, and Clifford Bell
Sundays, July 27th and August 3rd