On Stage – March 2020

BEAUTIFUL THING:  Palm Springs – Desert Rose Playhouse, the Coachella Valley’s gay theatre company, has been enjoying unprecedented success with a string of zany comedies, most involving cross-dressing and recently some muscular, scantily clad cowboys.  This month, they are doing an absolute about-face by presenting the very touching and delicate 1993 British dramedy Beautiful Thing. Two young lads living in a council estate in South London are literally put into the same bed by external situations.  In a world populated by drug abuse, family beatings, unemployment and alcoholism, the boys find solace and eventually love in the privacy of a bedroom.  This is a beautiful script and I feel certain that the Desert Rose team will give it a wonderful production.  Hopefully, their audience will be willing to accept something truly heartfelt from the company that has given them so many laughs.   (www.desertroseplayhouse.org) 3/6 – 29.

MAME:  Long Beach – Auntie Mame has long been claimed by the gay community, even though it has no truly gay characters (well, little Patrick grows up to be Patrick Dennis, the very gay author of the novel, but he’s not out at this point).  Most of its attraction to gays is the strong leading lady, Mame Dennis, who frequently declares that life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death.  After the story’s success as a novel, a play, and a movie, Jerry Herman wrote songs for it and brought the story to Broadway as a musical in 1966, hot on the heels of his 1964 success with Hello, Dolly. Angela Lansbury was the unstoppable Auntie (Herman had wanted Judy Garland, but the producers deemed her too great a liability), and her best friend was played by Bea Arthur.  Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West does terrific productions at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, and this much-loved work should be in good hands. (www.Musical.org) 3/27 – 4/12.

A BRONX TALE:  Orange County – This show was a long time in development, but it was worth it.  It started in 2007 as a one-man autobiographical show, written and performed by Chazz Palminterri and directed by Jerry Zaks.  It was subsequently filmed, with Palminterri starring and Robert De Niro directing.  The 2016 musical, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glen Slater, adds a full company including a grown version of Chazz and a 12-ish version, called “C.”  The show has been described as a merger of Jersey Boys and West Side Story, with Menken’s doo-wop score a continuous delight.  The original production of the musical was co-directed by De Niro and Zaks.  When I saw the show on Broadway, I was literally on the edge of my seat because I was so engrossed by the action onstage, and when a key character was shot, I believe my tears probably hit the person in front of me.  Sergio Trujillo’s choreography is a perfect counterpoint to Menken’s score.  Sacramento Memorial Hall (www.auditoriumsacramento.org) 3/3 – 8, and Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center (www.scfta.org) 3/10 – 22.

PLOT POINTS IN OUR SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT: San Diego — Theo and Cecily want to be honest about their sexual histories, but what happens when telling the truth jeopardizes everything?  A contemporary queer love story, Plot Points in Our Sexual Development explores gender, intimacy, and the dangers of revealing yourself to the person you love.  Cecily is a cisgender lesbian.  Theo is a self-described “genderqueer trans person who is not a woman and is not a man, but is kind of a man, who loves lesbian jokes.”  Can they be a couple? The hour-long two-hander answers many questions, but probably asks even more, motivating those interesting discussions afterwards.  (www.diversionary.org) 3/26 – 4/26.