Reviewed by Amalisha HuEck
Adult Baby Doll is a blend of musical comedy, standup, and solo performance. Stand up Harper-Rose Drummond tells uplifting truth about everything, from sex, work, her family, to her DUI. She is accompanied on the keyboard by accompanist – piano comic, Gregory Hoffman. Those two artists work beautifully together.
At the top of each show, we have the announcer leading us to certain house rules or giving us some announcement. For this show, the announcer is encouraging everyone to take all the pictures and videos they desire. Then a beautiful young girl with long gorgeous curly hair comes out on the stage skipping and starts with the comedy gigs. The stage is simple but nicely decorated with white fluffy carpet and an electric piano on the side. On the carpet there is a shiny silver stand and a shiny pink mic on it. Rose has an enthralling singing voice.
She is dressed like a baby doll, in a pink dress, maroon boots and red jacket. She talks about her conventional childhood a lot. Her dad is bald and mom, who is also balding, provokes lots of jokes and her language is very punchy about her family. She has lots of amazing energy, but at one moment she got shy and made that shyness into an act. Glitter is all over her arms and face.
She got fired from all the jobs because she doesn’t like to listen to anyone. She is addicted to cheating too. Rose wants to be taken as a serious comedian. Something silly happened to her and she got humiliated for two years. Now she seems a little angry. There are lots of F words being used and all the songs seem to have the same kind of melody, similar tone and rhythm. That may be on purpose and part of her comedic choice. With stage singing and talking, she tells her story. Also, a big section is dedicated to her boobs.
Mum got hold of her nasty video on social media … and made some not very nice comments about her. She calls her parents ‘evil people’ and spends a lot of time judging them. That’s what stand up comedy is all about – laughing at your own expense. At the end of the show, we discover that long, beautiful hair is a wig. It looks good on her. She gets a lot of applause and people are cheering and laughing out loud throughout the performance.
Adult Baby Doll is a darkly funny exploration of how one small quirk from childhood can define our entire adult life. The Let Live Theatre show was performed at Actors Company at 916 N. Formosa Ave, Los Angeles, CA. 90046. Performances are on Sun. 6/7 at 5:30 pm, Fri. 6/19 at 10 pm, Sat. 6/20 at 4:30 pm, Thurs. 6/25 at 5 pm and Sat. 6/27 at 10:30 pm. General Admission is $20. The show is 60 minutes long. Tickets can be purchased at https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13926?tab=tickets