Michael Moore and Philip Andrew play conjoined twins — one gay, one straight — in the comedy ‘Made in Heaven.’
Uptown Players’ Pride Performing Arts Festival is at its midpoint, and the lineup has been exceptional. Here are reviews of the shows. (You can see the full schedule here.)
Good Boys and True. It’s 1989, and a VHS tape of a boy having rough sex with a girl is making its way around the campus of D.C.-area prep school St. Joseph’s. The St. Joe’s coach (Kevin Moore) thinks the boy in the tape could be Brandon (Clinton Greenspan), the son of his friend Michael and Liz (Kristen McCullough) and a star athlete. Brandon denies it’s him.
And it couldn’t be him, right? Cuz while only his classmate Justin (Nate Davis) knows it, Brandon is gay. But when word of the tape gets out, and the girl comes forward, we learn some shocking information about how far someone will go to stay in the closet.
Good Boys and True feels like a youth-oriented companion piece to Angels in America, with Brandon the teenaged Roy Cohn, whose sense of privilege blinds him to the havoc he wreaks on those around him. And yet Brandon is so charismatic and likeable (much like Greenspan, who resembles a young Brian Stokes Mitchell), you can’t fully blame him: Like Dr. Frankenstein’s Creature, he was made this way by those around him.
There are no heroes — and in many ways, no victims — in Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s morally ambiguous melodrama. The indignation of the adults seems to focus more on getting caught than what happened, and their ways of handling it (the coach’s bullying; the mother’s denial) only heighten our sense that the One Percenters have been getting away with murder for a long time. (Remaining performances: Sept. 12 at 7:45 p.m. and Sept. 14 at 4 p.m.)
Made in Heaven. Ben (Michael Moore) and Max (Philip Andrew) are conjoined twins who share six organs, a wardrobe … and a penis. For years, that’s been OK. But now that they have met Jessica (Arianna Movassagh) and decided to propose, things are getting complicated. It seems Ben has finally realized he’s gay — and he doesn’t want a wife, but slutty gay hustler Gilbert (Sergio Antonio Garcia) to get his rocks off.
In the tradition of the romantic triangle, Made in Heaven is a romantic rhombus where not all sizes are the same. Jessica has self-esteem issues, Gilbert pretends he’s just “gay for pay,” and Ben and Max … well, two heads aren’t always better than one — nor are three heads.
The premise itself is hugely ridiculous with insane twists. It is also non-stop hilarious, taking the idea of the awkward “blind date” and turning it into a perverse satire about being “of two minds” over a relationship. (The asides and off-handed jokes are among the funniest bits.)
The cast is exceptional, with Moore and Andrew tasked with acting while perpetually engaged in a three-legged race around the set. Garcia is sexy and cocky as the sleazy Gilbert, but Movassagh steals the show, delivering perhaps her best performance ever as the confused but optimistic woman of a certain ages willing to compromise a lot in order to land a husband. (Remaining performances: Sept. 10 at 8 p.m. and Sept. 14 at 6:45 p.m.)
Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche. Like Made in Heaven, the premise of this one-act comedy strains credulity: In 1956, at the peak of the Cold War, a group of “widows” gather for their annual brunch in which they enjoy homemade quiches, reveling in the eggy goodness that’s only possible when one embraces the ovum as the perfect food. But the yolk’s on them when they become trapped in their bunker with only one quiche … and the realization they might be able to cut the pretense of being “spinsters” and admit publicly that they are gay.
Five Lesbians gets a lot of mileage — too much — out of the double entrendres that the savory custard pie represents (you can fill in most yourself). It reaches a climax (pun intended) when the board members lap up egg pie with orgiastic fervor.
As a satire about the idiocy of the closet, the use of coded language and how repressed lust eventually explodes, Five Lesbians makes a point. Many times over. It doesn’t really sustain its premise for more than about half its 70-minute run-time, despite the frantically energetic efforts of Marisa Diotalevi, Andi Allen, Jill Lightfoot, Morgan Mabry Mason and Kourney Kimbrough. They portray a klatch of flibbertigibbets with reckless enthusiasm, giving the play the tone of a funnier, female version of The Boys in the Band. (Remaining performance: Sept. 14 at 8:30 p.m.)
Also up: Dishing It Out, Paul J. Williams’ hilarious one-man, six-character show set in a Luby’s. (Remaining performances: tonight at 8 p.m., Sept. 14 at 2 p.m.) … The Timekeepers, a drama set in a concentration camp pairing a Jew with a homosexual and their uneasy alliance. (Remaining performance: Sept. 13 at 8 p.m.) … Cock. Second Thought Theatre recently announced its 2015 season would include this off-Broadway hit (like Made in Heaven, a complex bisexual love triangle); it gave audiences a peek with two staged readings this weekend. (No remaining performances.)
