Waiting for the Podiatrist

Calling Terry Baum's unusual play about her parents a "solo show" is a bit of a stretch, since Baum isn't quite the only person onstage. When she needs to speak to another person, she pulls out a hand puppet or talks with her pianist, Scrumbly Koldewyn, instead of slipping into character as someone else. It's a strange effect. Baum turns out to be the largest, most sympathetic person on the stage, at the heart of a story about an old Jewish father dying in a hospital while the equally old, jewelry-laden mother tries not to admit her feelings of grief. It's autobiographical, but the names have changed: Baum plays a lesbian baby boomer from San Francisco named Alexandra Bergman. Mr. and Mrs. Bergman -- the puppet parents -- are clichés of difficult, homophobic retirees in suburban L.A., and all the old arguments between the baby boomers and their World War II-era parents are trotted out again, at length. Does Baum know how funny she looks, as the only human up there (except for Koldewyn), in the spotlight of a sad story reduced to an absurd cartoon? I think she does. Her self-deprecating moments are amusing, but most of the songs -- in spite of Koldewyn's solid compositions -- are not. -- Michael Scott Moore