Who needs a $10 million budget and a Broadway theater? Starr Ahrens can do it all by herself. Her "Let's Go See a Show!", described as an unaccompanied solo exploration of an original one-act musical, is a must-see for musical-theater fans – and even those who don't quite understand why it's so bloody funny for a ghostly mother figure to appear on stage to sing a motivational ballad to the heroine will still succumb to Ahrens' infectious enthusiasm.

With the help of the audience, which is provided lyrics before the show, Ahrens -- who performs improv with For Play at Second City in Los Angeles and Knife Fight and Rewind at Improv Olympic – basically delivers an entire one-act musical. (The audience gets to be the chorus.) As a naive Nebraska college student on her first trip to Europe, our heroine bids farewell to her parents at the airport (with a touching song, of course), explores Paris, takes the Chunnel to England and even gets mugged in London. Ahrens knows exactly how to poke fun at the conventions of musical theater, right down to the meet-cute moment between the heroine and her new Aussie boyfriend.

And her description of the London mugging -- with the panhandlers chanting "spare some change?" even as they execute professional dance moves -- is worth the price of admission.

The bad news: Ahrens is only in Fresno for one weekend, so you have to act fast. Additional performances: 3:45 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. March 5 at Ashtree Studio (1035 Fulton St.) Tickets cost $4.