At La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, the audience enters The Life and Times of Daisy Forbes as though stepping into the middle of someone else’s memory. Scout Davis is already sitting beneath the glow of a bus stop light before the performance officially begins, quietly holding the space while distant sound cues and passing announcements slowly bring the world of the show to life. It creates an immediate sense of intimacy and curiosity, making the audience feel less like spectators and more like witnesses to something personal already in motion.
Created, directed and performed by Scout Davis as part of their La MaMa residency, the production is built around an ambitious central idea: a full-length lip sync performance constructed not only from songs, but from recorded dialogue, interviews, personal reflections and pop culture fragments. Over roughly seventy minutes, Davis lip syncs with strong commitment and impressive stamina, moving between diva anthems, television clips, emotional monologues and personal recordings. The level of concentration required to sustain that timing throughout is clear, and the concept itself feels fresh and inventive.
The production makes strong use of La MaMa’s long, narrow playing space. Rather than staying fixed in one position, Davis constantly moves through the room, performing close to different sections of the audience and making the experience feel immersive without forcing interaction. The design work across the board is excellent. Camila Ortiz’s sound design keeps the collage of voices and music flowing smoothly, while Zack Lobel’s lighting transforms what initially appears to be a simple fluorescent bus stop light into one of the production’s most expressive visual tools. Anton Volovsek’s set design also delivers one of the evening’s strongest surprises through the reveal of a shimmering pink curtain hidden behind the initially plain black backdrop, suddenly shifting the atmosphere of the show into something far more theatrical and dreamlike.
Davis themselves is magnetic throughout. Their physical control, movement work and commitment to the performance never waver. Even during the quieter moments, they maintain a powerful stage presence that keeps the audience focused entirely on them. There is also a clear emotional sincerity beneath the camp, glamour and pop references. As the piece gradually reveals itself to be connected to grief, memory and the loss of a close friend, the performance gains a more personal and vulnerable layer.
The strongest moment of the evening comes late in the show when Davis finally picks up a microphone and speaks directly to the audience in their own voice while reading a letter. After spending so much time inside layers of lip synced recordings and borrowed voices, hearing their real voice land in the room is unexpectedly moving. It creates the emotional breakthrough the show has been building toward and briefly transforms the entire atmosphere of the piece. It is a reminder of how powerful contrast can be.
That contrast is also where the production occasionally struggles. While the lip sync concept is undeniably clever, the show relies on it so consistently that the rhythm begins to flatten over time. Most songs are performed in full, and several sequences continue well past the point where the idea has already landed. The same applies to some of the dance sections, which remain at a similar energy level throughout rather than building toward a larger progression or transformation. There are flashes of fascinating imagery and theatrical ideas, including costume pieces and visual motifs that appear briefly before disappearing again, but many of them never fully develop into something larger.
As a result, the production sometimes feels longer than it needs to be. Several moments carry the feeling of an ending before the show continues onward again, which softens the impact of the genuinely emotional final sections. There is clearly a brilliant and deeply personal piece inside this material, and with some tightening and reshaping, it could become something truly exceptional. The ideas, talent and originality are already there.
Even in its current form, though, The Life and Times of Daisy Forbes remains an ambitious and memorable work. It is technically impressive, emotionally honest and filled with striking theatrical images. Most importantly, it feels like the work of an artist experimenting boldly and searching for new ways to tell deeply personal stories on stage. We would be very interested to see where this piece evolves next.