You Mutha!: It Ain't All Carol Brady

Jennie Fahn is one angry mutha! Fortunately, she's also a comic hurricane and her whirlwind of a solo show, You Mutha!, is a hilarious high-energy musical comedy rant on the frustrations of being a wife and mother while just barely holding on to one's sanity.

Forget about Donna Reed and Carol Brady; Fahn shows us that parenting is really about trying to retain some kind of adult identity and sexual self-esteem while immersed in a world of play dates and purple dinosaurs. In one bizarre little song (music by Daryl Archibald, lyrics by Fahn) she explains how she and her husband can only make love when her son is distracted by a 27-minute Barney video, and as a result she winds up associating sexual feelings with certain children's songs.

In another bit, Fahn shows us how the slightest change in a mother's monthly schedule can set off an insane chain reaction of rescheduling. A simple children's book, Love You Forever, triggers off a furious protest against family entertainments that keep killing off mothers. "How come it's never the mother-in-law!!??"

Her rowdy comedy can get a little graphic at times, such as her story of an nontraditional use of a diaper while finding it impossible to find a suitable bathroom while driving her baby back home, but director Larry Sousa keeps Fahn sympathetic, even when she's doubled over in outraged delirium.

But with all the headaches and marathon days, Jennie Fahn keeps reminding us how she wouldn't trade being a mom for anything, although I suspect if you make her show required viewing for high school students it could seriously cut down the teenage pregnancy rate.

Photo by Cynthia Saffir