This show is part of the 14th Annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, a/k/a IndyFringe, Aug. 16-26, 2018 on Mass Ave downtown. Info, etc., at www.IndyFringe.org.
By Wendy Carson
Elizabeth Young Collins has lived a very interesting life. She shares some of its highlights with us, punctuated by snippets of songs.
She grew up in a large non-Catholic family (which was so quirky that it was featured in a copy of Life magazine shortly before she was born).
She was an exchange student in France, attended a prestigious Finishing School and had a nervous breakdown in her teens. She even competes in a Junior Miss pageant, but loses out because she is considered to be too fat.
After earning a college degree in French, she moves to New York and becomes a school teacher. After a while she ends up as a financial analyst with Merrill Lynch. However, she quits that job to pursue her dream of performing on Broadway. She got a role or two, but it didn’t work out.
A few years later she is on a vacation with her girlfriends when they enter her in a singing competition. Not only does she end up winning it, she gets a singing job with the resort band. A good deal of networking later, she is, at the age of 40, a legitimate singer. At 47, she ends up marrying the handsome guy who’s been carrying her equipment around. Women’s World then does an article on her about never giving up on your dreams.
This offering is quirky and sweetly sentimental. While it is suitable for all ages, it will more strongly appeal to the Baby Boomer generation.
Elizabeth presents her story at ComedySportz, 721 Mass Ave.
Plays with John & Wendy 
Dear Wendy,
Thank you for your review!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Young-Collins
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Dear Wendy,
I know that I said thank you for writing the review but actually this was hurtful because I feel like you must’ve written this pretty quickly; some of the information you have is incorrect; my parents did not get put into Life magazine because they were quirky. They were put there because they contributed to their community, my father started and owned one of the main companies in Muncy Pennsylvania which is still in existence today and they were remarkable people who not only had five children but ended up having seven children (hence the song from The Sound of Music about the captain and 7 children). You laughed a lot during the performance yet I never read in your “review” that the show is funny. I also sang well and that was not even mentioned. I believe since this is my first one-woman show And I gave you a free ticket that it would have been nice had you given any credit for what was accomplished. One more thing: it was my alcoholic mother (Who had issues about weight since she was abused about her own self image) it was she who said that I did not win the Junior Miss contest because I was too fat; it was not a statement ever made by any of the judges! The point of my entire show is that we are extraordinary just for being who we are and being fat or thin or smart or whatever labels are put on us mar the beauty of who we really are; that was the point of the story.
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[…] “Why Be Normal” by Elizabeth Young Collins […]
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