Photo by Christopher Zaleski

Luna Tart Died
Tonite@10:30; Sat 2/2@4:15pm
Blue Theatre (916 Springdale)
Part of Frontera Fest Long Fringe
[info] | [tickets]

The other day, I mentioned that I’d seen Laura Freeman’s Luna Tart Died: A New Musical. Written by Laura along with Rudy Ramirez (who also directs), with music and lyrics by Laura, this is a full-length production of her last year’s “Best of the Fest,” Frontera performance. She is wryly, dryly, and spryly accompanied by “one long-suffering pianist,” Datri Bean, decked out in a lovely long-tailed tux.

Laura has been putting on shows around Austin for years. For kids. For adults. Planned and sometimes totally spontaneous. The woman cannot keep herself from bursting out into song and if I had a voice like hers, I’d use it all the time, too. I mean, her singing is astounding.

But there are plenty of gorgeous voices in this town. What sets Laura and her show apart is a wild imagination and an ability to get the audience inside her head. Not only that, but she pulls this off with no set to speak of and very few props, key among what little she uses being a ukulele and a shopping cart. Luna Tart, the character, much like her creator, is not just from another era, she’s from another planet.

Through songs including “Life’s a Party” and “Damn the Clarinet,” she takes her audience through a career that we discover was maybe only as big as that very big imagination. But maybe not. She sings of shows in Vegas and Paris. She works in multi-lingual and historical references. And she does all this in rhyme and in tune.

I saw the show opening night. There were moments I longed for the audience to laugh louder and harder but as I wondered why we were sitting often in silence, it occurred to me that it was an awe-filled quiet, a yearning not to miss a single word. And in the end, we leapt to our feet to offer a standing ovation. I wished I could’ve done even more to show my appreciation—like, say, throw my bra onstage. But I’m old enough to need that thing in place at all times.