Best Foot Forward
Tina Sloan‘s (ex-Lillian, GL) one-woman show, Changing Shoes, is an inspiring tale of a remarkable woman’s life.
The title comes from the various shoes Sloan wore during certain periods of her life. Her love for shoes began when, as a young woman, Sloan spent a summer in Paris with her mother’s best friend, Aga. There she bought her first pair of Chanel pumps and decided that wherever her feet were, they had to be beautifully shod.
On Sept. 20, Sloan performed her show (written by Sloan and Joe Plummer; directed by Plummer) in front of a sold-out crowd at New York’s Florence Gould Hall, and Soap Opera Weekly was fortunate to be in the audience. The Upper East Side audience was mostly filled with family and friends. A few GL actors were spotted in the crowd, including Beth Chamberlin (ex-Beth), Maeve Kinkead (ex-Vanessa) and Orlagh Cassidy (ex-Doris).
The charming show — based on the book with the same name, by Sloan — is like a living scrapbook of Sloan’s life, filled with ups and downs, many related to a particular pair of shoes. The set was a sitting room, with Sloan either sitting or standing surrounded by shoeboxes and shoes.
Sloan was enchanting as she recounted her early days as an actress doing commercials. Her stories were brought to life when the actual commercial was shown on a large screen behind her. The clips were even more amusing when she started showing her early soap days. Then, as time marched on, Sloan had to deal with fewer storylines and no longer being the femme fatale of the show. Sloan readily admitted she was depressed, and showed us the bunny slippers she wore as she ate chocolates and put on the pounds.
But her family, particularly her son Renny, snapped her out of that, and she took up running and mountain climbing. And yes, she showed us those shoes, too.
After the show, Sloan was surrounded by friends gushing over her wonderful performance, although she told Weekly that having an audience filled with people she knew brought a different kind of stress to her. In reality, there was so much love in that room, it was practically palpable.
Go to www.changingshoes.com to see if Sloan will be performing near you, and how to get the book.
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