"THEATER BOYS"
"Theater Boys" is the most entertaining gay musical in years. It's every bit as funny as such fondly remembered gay shows as "Whoop-Dee-Do" and "When Pigs Fly."
But to call it the most entertaining gay show in years doesn't quite do it justice. Because "Theater Boys" is not simply a good gay show. It's a good show--period--that will work for most anyone, gay or straight. The first half is playful--a breezy comedy about guys auditioning for a gay musical, enlivened by some irresistible vaudeville-style songs. And writer/director Chip Deffaa, who has created the book, music, and lyrics, knows how to make an audience smile, and laugh, and pat its feet. He can concoct a spirited nonsense song about a town called Chilliwack that somehow gets inside of you and won't let go. (I left the theater with the Chilliwack song running through my head.)
The first act gave me some good laughs. And I would have been perfectly satisfied with that. It's great to laugh.
But the show really hits its stride in the second act. Here, Deffaa is aiming for something deeper, more ambitious, more heartfelt. He offers two long flashback scenes, in which the show's two main characters recall their first loves. And now the writing becomes subtler, more nuanced, more true to life. And a show that had started out as light escapist entertainment becomes unexpectedly moving. The show becomes far more substantive than traditional gay musicals like "Whoop-Dee-Do." Deffaa writes of first love with poignance, grace, and honesty. And then somehow pulls us back to the bright entertainment style with which the night started, for a kick-ass finale. And somehow manages to makes that big shift of styles work.
You'll also see a bit of skin, en route--always welcome! The cast, incidentally, includes some actors who are quite good-looking, not just talented. But there's a lot more to this show than the typical gay musical offering us some skin, like "Naked Boys Singing" --which, we might add, gets a few affectionate pokes in this script.
Standout performers include Tyler Watkins (playing the naive, open-hearted protagonist Kipp, fresh off the bus, with dreams of becoming an actor, and some wonderfully choice Liza-like moves), Danny Kingston (playing his first love, a "bad boy" teenager named Reese Brock). Both possess great likeability; Kingston has lots of warmth. And they get to sing--quite appealingly--one of the show's best songs, "Crater Lake Blues." Tyler Etheridge carries off effectively the role of the con-man director trying to seduce Kipp, and gets to put across with zest a near-definitive ode to the theater; it really needs to be recorded, if only for future theater queens who may want to use it as an aide in attempted seductions. John Kultgen has fun as a love-besotted figure skater.
Special mention must be made of the cast's youngest actors, David Cronin and Eric Stevens, who carry off brilliantly what is arguably the show's best written, most compelling scene, in which two teenaged boys--both insisting they are straight--try hard, through deftly interwoven dialog and song ("Tell Me Why")--to seduce one another. Admirable writing, singing, acting. Their scene--really a play within the play--packs a real punch. Rounding out the cast are Michael Montalbano, Chris Scocca, and Jacob Burlas. Gregorey Garrison co-directs (with Deffaa) and choreographs. Music director Brett Kristofferson provides engagingly honky-tonk-type piano accompaniment.
Several years ago when I reviewed a show that Deffaa wrote and directed about George M. Cohan, I noted that Deffaa not only knows how to entertain an audience--a rare-enough asset--he also knows how to move an audience, how to touch an audience. And that remains true today.
"Theater Boys," which is having its world-premiere engagement at the Kaufman/Algonquin Theater on 24th Street in New York City (as part of the Sixth Annual Fresh Fruit Festival), has some rough edges, some uneven moments, and some cast members of varying abilities--as might be expected of any new work being showcased in a festival. Those are the sorts of minor imperfections that can easily be resolved.
But there is so much that is perfectly right with this show, in terms of both material and cast, and moments of real magic, that "Theater Boys" seems certain to have a future life. It is also, we might add, a very "New York" kind of a show, with references to everyone from Stephen Sondheim, Tommy Tune, Joey Reynolds, and Jonathan Larson, to Billy Stritch, Jim Caruso, Seth Rudetsky, and Barry Z. The show's target audience might be the younger gay crowd. But if any proof were needed that this show will entertain anyone, in the audience the night that I attended was Joe Franklin--a fixture of New York broadcasting for some 50 years. He left beaming, telling everyone, "This can't miss."
--R.A.
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