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 Music by Nick Moore
Book and Lyrics by Anne Phelan
Directed by Jenn Womack, as part of “The Receipt Plays,” Milk Can Theatre Company, May 2004.
In this evening of short plays, each playwright pulled a receipt out of a hat. Nick Moore’s and mine was from a Joshua Tree Bar. The Joshua Tree is the name of a National Park in California, which we thought was a modern-day metaphor for the Promised Land, in particular during the Great Depression, when the musical is set. It also allowed us to play with the music and slang of the period. Throughout the Book of Joshua, God reminds Joshua that the Promised Land and all its riches are a gift. Similarly, through little effort on their parts, Joe and Mary acquire the ranch because of her letter. The major difference is Mary’s character, and the fact that the whole enterprise is built on her one, big lie.
Mary loves Joe, but he’s not sure how he feels about her. Mary enters a contest for a chance to win the Joshua Tree Ranch. In her letter, she lies and says she and Joe are married, and want to move out of Hell’s Kitchen to the ranch so they can start a family. Joe is initially upset, and then decides that maybe it won’t be too bad. At the end of the play, Mary wins, and Joe proposes.
Pictured are Larissa M. Heckler, Jennifer O’Brien, John Rochette, Robert Warren.
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