The Accidental Club at The Whitefire Theatre playing through April 28
Witten and Performed by Sherrie Scott
Directed by Trace Oakley
Presented by Awareness Media
Executive producer: Chip Frye
Accompanist: Noel Deis
It never ceases to amazing me how incredibly inventive the ‘One Woman Show’ genre can be.
I’ve seen just about every kind of story represented on stage in this particular form. So when I attended “The Accidental Club’s” opening night I was prepared to see something probably a little like what I had seen before. But boy was I ever wrong.
Sherrie Scott plays Mira Dawson, a fictional rock star with a bad drug and alcohol problem that causes her untimely death. Ms Dawson finds herself in a kind of limbo, somewhere between here and the afterlife, in the company of several other rock stars whose lives were accidentally ended by the same unfortunate problem…hence the title, “The Accidental Club.”
According to her newly found companions, Billie Holiday, Janice Joplin and Amy Winehouse, Mira is allowed one final visit back to the land of the living, to do whatever she feels she must. Mira’s choice is to hold a concert for her friends, to thank them, to forgive them and to ‘rock out’ one last time.
Clearly an accomplished performer, Ms Scott has very cleverly entwined the stories of some of the most familiar and most poignant songs about loss and addiction and the frailty of us all with the theme of the play…regret. Her renditions of some of the most powerful songs ever written and performed by these truly iconic musicians are thoughtful, touching and powerful. She reminds us that we all have our darkness and our tragedies and that those blessed with gifts as great as these three had must surely carry a heavier load than most. We only ever get glimpses of artists’ struggles through their lyrics and their recordings, never really knowing them at all.
The play is certainly a lesson in “judge not lest ye be judged,” and although it is ultimately about death, it’s much lighter than you might expect, and times very moving.
It’s a one-act play filled with music, laughter and longing…a longing to see what might have been if these incredible artists had been allowed to stay on this earth just a little while longer.
Ms Scott, with the help of her wonderful accompanist Noel Deis, offers us a window on a life full of the highs of success and the loneliness that comes along with it. The rock star Mira comes full circle, with the help of her new friends and her old ones and, in the end, she finds some peace in her life, even if she had to die to do it.
I congratulate Ms Scott on an interesting and well thought out play as well as on her excellent skills as a vocalist. Not many would attempt Joplin, Holiday and Winehouse in a single evening. Bravo!
If you have some interest in music, meaning and the real purpose of your life, as I do more and more as I get older, then “The Accidental Club” might be exactly what you need. At the very least it’s a very entertaining and thought-provoking piece with some great musical moments…well worth your time!!
The Whitefire Theatre, 135000 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, 91423
March 31 – April 28, Fridays only at 8pm