By Isa Goldberg
A little show with a big heart, “Fay Lane’s Beauty Shop Stories” is an irresistible treat. Her tale, told mostly in song, is about growing up – a lonely, fat kid in small town Texas. Lane tells us about her one true friend – an imaginary one, Jesus. “For some reason,” she recalls, “Jesus smelled like hot buttered popcorn.” It’s not the kind of story a New York audience expects to hear, but Lane has such presence it becomes endearing.
With her Marilyn Monroe-colored hair, Lane recounts a lively fantasy life – one in which she becomes a Hollywood star. Her story about following her dreams begins in her mother’s beauty shop where she learned to imitate the big haired
ladies she met there. It continues in London, living in Anthony Hopkin’s house and to Paris where she meets her leading man, only to be deported back to Texas. The rest, in spite of hardship and disappointment, is about a beautiful, enduring romance.
The songs are basically Country Western with traces of Patsy Cline. And the narrative, delivered in humorous anecdotes, is inspirational. “Fay Lane’s Beauty Shop Stories,” which won the New York International Fringe Festival’s Overall Excellence Award for a Solo Show, plays at the Huron Club at the Soho Playhouse Sunday evenings through January 9th. It’s a lovely evening of cabaret.
