My Ship Has Sailed: Laura Ainsworth's Humorous Take on Aging

Are you worried about the effects aging is having on you?  Concerned that you now require reading glasses to see the fine print?  Do some of your "senior moments" turn into "senior hours"?  Then you need to see Laura Ainsworth's show, My Ship Has Sailed, which she performed on November 3 at the Stone Street Theatre.

My Ship Has Sailed is a one-woman show in which Miss Ainsworth pokes fun at how society treats the natural aging process.  As she succinctly points out, age is the one bias that is still acceptable.  Miss Ainsworth is an accomplished comedy writer with hundreds of commercial jingles to her credit.  In My Ship Has Sailed, she writes her own lyrics to several well-known songs with highly entertaining results.

Miss Ainsworth is a quite accomplished singer-comedienne.  She wrings maximum doses of humor out of every last wonderful lyric that she has written.  She channels a Busby Berkeley Chorus Girl in "Keep Young and Beautiful," Madonna in her own version of "Frozen" and sings double-time and then quadruple-time in "These Are The Very Promise of a Youth That is Ephemeral."  The ending was a powerful rendition of "Everybody Says Don't" which brought the house down.

Miss Ainsworth is a vivid personality with a wonderful stage presence.  She was especially relaxed in between the songs when she discoursed on the steps American people take to look younger so they can be more successful emotionally as well as financially.  She was aided in this with pungent visual aids prepared by her and her husband, Pat Reeder.  She was backed by Brian Piper on Piano and Carl Hillman on Bass.  Both proved to be talented musicians who greatly added to the general enjoyment.

Although many of the jokes and routines were directed toward women "of a certain age," Miss Ainsworth did her own version of "My Man" toward the end of the evening which poked fun on how the American Male ages.  One wishes that she had balanced out her show with more universal humor throughout her performance, rather than just at the end.

The Stone Street Theatre is an excellent place to see cabaret-style entertainment in downtown Dallas.  For more information and a list of future events, visit their website.

Laura Ainsworth performs My Ship Has Sailed on a regular basis.  For more information on her, see her website.

 
Photo Credit:  Pat Reeder