Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Pride Performances, Part 1: An eclectic bunch that that’s representative of how far we’ve come

• By drediman
• June 27, 2019
• No Comments

If you’re gay, then really the place to be this week is New York City, when and where World Pride festivities not so coincidentally collide with the 50^thanniversary of the landmark Stonewall Riots. In reaction, the city’s performing arts scene has pulled out all the stops with an eclectic set of performances – across plays, operas, musicals (both campy and serious) – that’s wonderfully representative of how far we’ve come as a community. And of course, there’s no shortage of staged readings (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater’s wonderfully curated Pride Plays series quickly comes to mind), concerts (e.g., the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus at Carnegie Hall, as John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s The Origin of Love tour at the Town Hall), and the ubiquitous drag shows. Here’s just a snippet of what you’ll be able to catch if you’re in town.

Megan Hill in Crystal Skillman’s “Open” at The Tank. Photo by Maria Baranova.

OPEN
Off-Broadway, Play
All For One Theater / The Tank

First in line is Crystal Skillman’s Open, an All For One production which recently closed at The Tank. Ms. Skillman’s poetic, affecting one woman play makes the direct connection between magic and the act of making theater. In essence, the play is a plea which resorts to “magic” – or theater – to make the world a better, more accepting place for members of the LGBT community. Its effort to conjure collective belief and imagination (at least within the intimate confines of The Tank) to make things so in a society that isn’t quite as accepting and inclusive as one would like was a powerful act of defiance. As Kristen, the piece’s lesbian narrator and central metaphorical magician, Megan Hill gave an ardent performance that was lovingly articulated.

RECOMMENDED
Closed

Jordan Weatherston Pitts and the company of New York City Opera’s production of “Stonewall” by Iain Bell and Mark Campbell at the Rose Theater. Photo by Sarah Shatz.

STONEWALL
Opera
New York City Opera / Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center

One of the centerpiece productions this Pride is the highly anticipated New York City Opera premiere of Iain Bell and Mark Campbell’s opera Stonewall, which was written to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the historic riots. With a running time of less than 90 minutes, the opera is at once succinct and expansive.  Mr. Bell’s score is sweeping and accomplished – varied, accessible, and brash when it needs to be.  Some might complain about Mr. Campbell’s libretto, which opts for impressions of characters (covering the gamut of LGBT identies) rather than fully fleshed out beings. But it’s precisely this vagueness that allows them to dissolve so effectively into the collective mob, giving the effect of momentous history unfolding before your eyes. Addidtionally, with scores of bodies onstage and in the pit, Stonewall impresses with its sheer size.

RECOMMENDED
Through June 28

Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Colin Woodell in Second Stage Theater’s production of “Dying City” by Christopher Shinn at the Tony Kiser Theater. Photo by Joan Marcus.

DYING CITY
Off-Broadway, Play
Second Stage Theater / Tony Kiser Theater

Then we have Christopher Shinn’s Dying City– a Pulitzer Prize finalist from more than a decade ago – which is receiving a polished but relatively lifeless Off-Broadway revival courtesy of Second Stage Theater at the Tony Kiser Theater. The play tells the story of one woman’s uneasy, tense relationship with her deceased husband’s identical twin, who happens to be gay (and an actor). Although the atmospheric, time-traveling play has interesting things to say about the contributions of nature versus nurture, Second Stage’s disappointingly limp production (the third production of the play I’ve seen), directed by the playwright himself and icily acted by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Colin Woodell, does the play no favors.

SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED
Through June 30

The company of Jay Falzone’s “Camp Morning Wood” at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre.

CAMP MORNING WOOD
Off-Broadway, Musical
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre

One of the sillier, and more adult, entertainments to be had this Pride is the musical comedy romp Camp Morning Wood, a surprisingly winning and inspired cross between the long-running Naked Boys Singing and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yes, there’s ample male nudity to ogle at – refreshingly, all body types and, ahem, “sizes” are represented – but there’s also real heart in the production. The skillfully derivative Broadway-meets-pop score by Jay Falzone is well-crafted and instantly catchy. The ultra gay and book, also by Mr. Falzone, is sufficiently sweet and current. And although the cast’s musical theater abilities are admittedly uneven, they ultimately had me cheering for them by the end, thanks in part to Marc Eardley’s tight, campy (pun intended) direction.

RECOMMENDED
Through July 7

Larry Owens in Michael R. Jackson’s “A Strange Loop” at Playwrights Horizons. Photo by Joan Marcus.

A STRANGE LOOP
Off-Broadway, Musical
Playwrights Horizons / Page 73

Of the lot, I’ll probably come away remembering one show the most – that would be Michael R. Jackson’s singular and fearless post-AIDS musical A Strange Loop. Written in the seemingly benign idiom of musical comedy, A Strange Loop starts off brightly and sprightly enough. But as the work digs into the psyche of its central character (an astounding Larry Owens), the show quickly uncovers the murky and knotted realities of being a gay man of color in contemporary America.  The show isn’t for everyone – the show resolves little by the time it ends; it’s also unafraid to get messy and uncomfortable. But if you are a fan of outside-the-box musicals like the uber-meta and irresistibly charming [title of show] and the sensational, intensely personal Passing Strange, you’ll find much to love in this slicing, unnervingly honest, and moving piece of new musical theater.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Through July 28