Divided, like many a Shakespearian play (if we’re to believe editor T. W. Baldwin), into five acts, the clever story of Becca McCoy and her family’s move to a tiny Florida town, could have been a tragedy but turned into comedy. They went from bustling, big Chicago to Palatka, where Becca mentions in song that she found “Life Is So Peculiar.” She asks audiences to forget about why a chicken crosses the road and picture an alligator doing so in front of her family car and then in front of their house. The new town did not have a Starbucks! It did have a Dairy Queen, a WalMart, and a Church. Becca thought it couldn’t be a safer place to live and raise infant Nancy. Yet The Hogwaller in the town was a huge pothole and “a mosquito gave my daughter a shiner,” Becca recalls, wincing. Next the family car got hit by a bird. In Act II of Pearl in the Hogwaller, Becca describes having a New Life as a stay-at-home mom or, as she sings, “someone’s mother.” Yet she was busy learning. She was especially proud of making a spectacular covered dish for meetings: marshmallow lime jello cottage cheese surprise. Act III reveals how she coped with supplying baked goods. Her accompanying song involves Sara Lee. Act III recalls Becca using Facebook to try to connect with old friends. Only they were few among the connections she was making. She was being driven to drink. She arrived at blocking her e-mail and phone too! Act IV unfurls the reason she named her present program. Act V tells of Becca’s last days in Palatka and how her daughter had developed there. Added are a picture and song. All accrue to her credit by the time of her final “Where I Found Myself,” sung in her typical Ethel Merman-like style. SaraSolo proved wise to have found Becca McCoy.
