Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Pride Plays Aplenty: There’s no shortage of queer-themed plays to choose from this Pride Month

• By drediman
• June 21, 2022
• No Comments

This Pride Month in New York, there’s no shortage of queer-themed plays to choose from. Last week alone, I attended two new plays with heavy LGBTQ+ messaging, MCC Theater’s production of Soft by Donja R. Love and The Bushwick Starr’s production of Quince by Camilo Quiroz-Vázquez and Ellpetha Tsivicos (I reviewed each of these plays individually). Now you can add to the mix Mansa Ra’s …What the End Will Be courtesy of Roundabout Theater Company and Mara Vélez Meléndez’s Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members courtesy of Soho Rep (read on below for my thoughts on these two). And it doesn’t end there. This coming week, I’m also slated to attend Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s Snow in Midsummer at Classic Stage Company, Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley’s Pulitzer Prize finalist Circle Jerk at the Connelly Theatre, and the final performance of Michael McKeever’s Mr. Parker at Theatre Row.

…WHAT THE END WILL BE
Roundabout Theatre Company
Through July 10

Last weekend at Off-Broadway’s Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, I caught Mansa Ra’s new play …What the End Will Be (RECOMMENDED) courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company. Set in present day Atlanta, the play tells the story of three generations of gay Black men and their respective challenges of reconciling their sexuality with their roles as Black fathers/sons (I saw the play during Father’s Day weekend, and the timing of the viewing couldn’t have been more perfect). Even if the premise of the play seems a bit contrived (really, three consecutive generations of gay men?), I found Margot Bordelon’s staging to be top notch, as you’d expect from a Roundabout production. And when Ra’s play veers towards sit-com humor or manipulates the heartstrings in obvious ways (I nonetheless find the imminently watchable play to be one of the playwright’s stronger works), the excellent cast invariably find ways to uncover authenticity and honesty in many of the characters’ interactions, particularly those that investigate Black masculinity and our inevitable mortality.

NOTES ON KILLING SEEN OVERSIGHT, MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMIC STABILITY BOARD MEMBERS
Soho Rep
Closed

Perhaps a bit more out-of-the-box last weekend was my other queer theater adventure, which was attending one of the sold out closing performances of Soho Rep’s Off-Broadway production of Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members (RECOMMENDED) by Mara Vélez Meléndez. The two-hander tells the story of Lolita, a trans Puerto Rican woman who makes up her mind to assassinate the seven board members of PROMESA (Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act) in her fight to rid her homeland of unwanted U.S. dominance and influence. To tell her tale, Meléndez audaciously mashes absurdist theater with a dash of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins and a really big dose of RuPaul’s Drag Race (you see, each of the board members is played by PROMESA’s receptionist, who also happens to be a drag queen). The result is a queer Kill Bill-like romp that seeks to decolonize Puerto Rico as much as it does the queer body. Both Christine Carmela (Lolita) and Samora la Perdida (everyone else) give it their all, delivering high octane performances that keep the intensity high. Especially impressive is the constantly shape-shifting work of la Perdida, who keeps the party going strong, even when the play’s set-up threatens to get monotonous.