Barbara Gehring and Linda Klein sit in their underwear, on a stage designed to look like a school girl’s bedroom, playfully chatting with each other as an audience full of women, a handful of gay men and a couple straight men find their seats, order drinks, enjoy the girl power anthems blasting through the speakers (think “Popular” from Wicked, I’m Just A Girl and few Cher classics) and anxiously await the show’s beginning. When the lights dim, the audience is almost instantaneously silent and within a few quick moments the audience is already full of laughter.
Gehring and Klein do an excellent job playing to the crowd in this half improv, half-staged show full of slapstick humor. From stealing purses from audience members for one bit to throwing a random woman in the crowd her very own “Just Because” Shower and then singing a song on the spot about her.
Although parts of the show are highly interactive, Gehring and Klein also invite us into their own lives by reading small snippets from their preteen diaries. Memorable passages include, “I want to break up with Cal. I told him I’m giving him up for Lent. He said, who’s Lent?”
The women also share stories about items in their childhood keepsake boxes. There are stories about an autograph book, sock puppets even an empty package of edible underwear.
Despite the show’s title, Girls Only, I wasn’t the only male and the jokes geared mainly toward women were not only made for women. The jokes are well written and highly entertaining.
As the women take their final bow the crowd erupts in applause, acknowledging the heart, humor and talent just witnessed by the two women who not only created the show but made it a success. After a project as successful as Girls Only, I can only expect great things from these two women.
Click here to find out what’s in store for Girls Only.