by Tracey Paleo, Gia On The Move

Flapping between bubbly and broken hearted, And She Bakes Live, playing at Theatre Asylum, is an actual and currently running YouTube series in which viewers write in and get their relationship questions smartly answered by The Bakeress, while being taken on a step by step dessert instructional that parallels the emotional process.

This particular (expanded) episode leads the audience through a recipe of marriage that has failed before it even starts,…and peanut butter treats, rounding up all of the ingredients needed for a healthy relationship, and comestible indulgences, the importance of each one, and why the right ‘timing’ to add them is essential.

Particularly delightful Ms. Karnofsky is a very mercurial, capricious sort of girl who tends to make bad decisions, that she regrets, about everything BUT her cooking.  Stuck in a somewhat abusive relationship, torn between passion and comfort, she finds her way out through the empowerment of chocolate, vanilla extract, peanut butter, honey, salt, a sprinkling of rice crispies for the quirks, a little bit of dance magic and a whole lot of much needed self-love.

Her happiness is her own creation.

And She Bakes Live is as tender as the heating mixture in the crock pot onstage and as silly as the go-go boys who join her for the celebratory ‘cut-loose’. Just go with it. A shared personal triumph, all around satisfying and darling.

Vegan and gluten free treats are passed out at the end.  And they ARE delicious!

Run time is 55 minutes.