In ‘Quarantine The Musical!’ actress mocks her stir-crazy reactions to pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic was a triple-whammy for Christi Moore.

Since no one was leaving town, her job as a tour director for Village Travel dwindled — “completely thrust, head first, into unemployment,” she says — and she was unable to participate in her two biggest avocations: theater and music.

But the longtime Wichita performer found some bright sides. She sheltered in place last year with her parents in southeast Kansas, helping them with chores and reconnecting.

“To be honest, it was a little bit of a blessing for me,” Moore said.

Like so many, Moore looked at the pandemic as a time to learn new things and better herself.

“I was very ambitious about losing weight and several other aspects,” she said. “My plans were bigger than reality.”

Moore takes her own experience and that of others and has combined them into a one-woman show, “Quarantine, the Musical!” which debuts April 8 and runs through the end of the month at Roxy’s Downtown.

“I’m kind of conglomerating a few different things, how everyone had great ambition in the beginning of the pandemic,” she said. “When the lockdown and the shelter in place happened, people were just very ambitious about all of the things they were going to accomplish that they hadn’t: Learn a language, get in shape, (how) working from home will allow me to learn guitar.

“There were so many different things.”

Set throughout 2020, Moore’s unnamed character progresses through the pandemic with a combination of wit and dozens of pop-rock tunes while facing various challenges.

“Reality kind of sets in in the show, and it gets crazier as the show and the year progresses,” she said. “She makes a journey through the year, speaking with her mother on the telephone, and in the end, she finally gets out to get her vaccine.”

Backed by a live band, she selected pop, rock and even some Disney music to help tell the character’s story.

“Many of the lyrics are rewritten to fit what I’m doing and some really fit on their own,” Moore said.

Moore was brainstorming with Roxy’s artistic director Rick Bumgardner about a show to do, and he suggested she revive “Sweet Southern Comfort and Rock ‘n’ Roll,” the last show she produced as the owner of Cabaret Old Town, the predecessor to Roxy’s, where she played “kind of a Janis Joplin-esque character.”

When a few key musicians from the band would not be available, the brainstorming turned to the pandemic.

“Quarantine, the Musical!” she said, is in no way diminishing or mocking coronavirus, rather the stir-craziness caused by the isolation.

This will be the third one-woman show for Moore, besides “Sweet Southern Comfort” and one she performed as a final project at Emporia State.

“It’s always fun when you have someone to play off of, but I do like talking to the audience,” she said.

Moore has proven herself as a director, guiding more than two-dozen Cabaret Old Town shows, and as a performer, with a national tour of “The Wizard of Oz” on her resume, so directing and acting the part is no problem.

The script, which she wrote, shows the vulnerability of herself and her character.

“It’s all me,” she said. “I’m hangin’ this all out there.”

‘Quarantine, the Musical!’

When: April 8-25; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays

Where: Roxy’s Downtown, 412 ½ E. Douglas

Tickets: $30, by calling 316-265-4400

This story was originally published April 2, 2021 at 5:01 AM.