The quest for spiritual enlightenment has become the latest national fad (replacing last year's, pilates and teen pregnancy). It has been sanctioned by Oprah and appears in more bestsellers than one can possibly keep up with. Jenniffer Weigel, who writes and stars in the solo show "I'm Spiritual, Dammit!," takes audiences on a sometimes farcical, sometimes touching journey through her spiritual life, through childhood, her rise to fame as a local reporter and the loss of her father, sportscaster Tim Weigel, who died of a brain tumor at a relatively young age. Jenniffer's questions surrounding death and spirituality are threaded with humorous asides, which add a pleasant veneer of amusement and skepticism to the more morbid moments. A natural storyteller, (the production is based on her book of the same subject) Jenniffer begins her quest as a precocious child whose pressing concerns involve questions like, "Are there leotards in heaven?"
Her father's death prompts an obsession with making contact with him on the other side, so she reaches out to a handful of "mediums" (people who can channel the dead) including James Van Praagh (whose abilities were the basis for the movie "The Sixth Sense") and Caroline Myss, a psychic CEO consultant who reads past lives and opens heart chakras with an alarming efficiency. At times the sparse set (which consists of three chairs that she sits on at varying intervals) and the overbearing self-focus can cause the production to drag (it is a 75-minute monologue, after all), but Jenniffer covers all the aspects of spirituality (the paranormal occurrences, the inevitable cynicism and the exciting exploration of the unknown), with charming ease and comical clarity. Leaving the voodoo, the chanting and the lotus flowers at the door, Jenniffer approaches spirituality with a reporter's zeal, but also with a human touch.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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