NOVEMBER 12, 1993 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 21

ENTERTAINMENT

East Village gay theater is delightfully silly and refreshingly youthful

Reviewed by Barry Daniels

Planet Q (The Queer Comedy Troupe) is a talented group of gay and lesbian artists and performers who enchanted East Village, New York, audiences last season with the review, Homo Alone: Lost in Colorado. They opened their second production, Yabba Dabba Q: Still Having a Gay Old Time, on September

23.

The company was conceived by Michael Hyman (executive producer) and Chrisanne Eastwood (performer) three years ago. After several years of performing in clubs and temporary spaces, the success of Homo Alone has made it possible for them to create a permanent home in a 70 seat basement space on St. Mark's Place. The new production is directed by David Mowers and features Stephen Early, Eastwood, Tony Javed, Veronica Mittenzwei, Eric Rockwell and Ann Stengel. Rockwood and Eastwood also wrote the music and ¡yrics.

sane. The Village has become a restricted area known as the Greenwich Ghetto."

Eric Rockwell plays the evil, power-mad Boy Scout Leader, J.B. Fishbone, who has forced his wife, Ruby Sweet(Veronica Mittenzwei) to perform in heterosexual porn films. She confesses in her first song that her dream is of "A Wholesome Lesbian Life." Chrisanne Eastwood plays the Pope who hosts a TV show, Pophra, “a heavenly show of three hours of talk and prayer." Tony Javedplays Esquela, her assistant, a gay choir boy, hopelessly in love with his holiness. Plot complications involve the imprisonment of Weasel, a gay scout who loves Fishbone, and a romance between Ruby Sweet and the Pope, when the former finds out that the "titular head of the Vatican has tits." A prison break is engineered with the help of Archangel Ann (Stengel). Of course, Millennium, like its inspiration, Angels in America, Part I, is to be continued.

The first act of Yabba Dabba Q is a grab bag of very funny sketches that parody TV, film and Broadway musicals. I especially enjoyed an Oklahomo that featured the song "The Bulldykes and the Fairies Should be Friends," and a Sondheim musical version of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? starring Carol Channing as Jane and Julie Andrews as Blanche. QNN headline news featured improvisations based on audience suggestions. A soldier sang "The Shower Song" which had the poignant refrain, "I can't take a shower. I'm afraid my dick might get hard." A Slumber Party for gay high school boys was suitably giggly and sweet. There was a hilarious commercial for people suffering from LBD, Lesbian Bed Death syndrome. The act concluded with a medley of Broadway song parodies that included the stirring, "Homo on the Roof," the thoughtful, "If I were a Straight Man," and the inspiring, "Abstinence Tomorrow, Sodomy Tonight."

Act II is a 25 minute original epic musical, Millennium, written and conceived by Dave Garrett and David Mowers with music and lyrics by Rockwell, Eastwood and Mittenzwei. A program note informs us "the year is 2003. The Conservative Fascist Oppressors, a rock group turned grassroots political movement, have won a battle to criminalize any and all homosexual activity, and to create a mandatory Boy Scout tour of duty for all boys age twelve and up, in order to 'reestablish our national values.' Fire Island has been walled and turned into a Maximum Security Prison for the Sexually In-

33

MARTHA SWOPE ASSOCIATES/CAROL ROSEGG

The Planet Q troupe includes (top) Chrisanne Eastwood, (bottom, left to right) Veronica Mittenzwei, Eric Rockwell, Tony Javed, Anne Stengel, Stephen Earley.

All of this is delightfully silly and refreshingly youthful. It is performed with wit and enthusiasm by the talented cast. Also I think it reflects a new spirit in the traditionally divided gay and lesbian community in New York. Here we have a troupe composed equally of gay and lesbian artists. Director David Mowers commented, in a discussion with me before the performance, "There are too many battles to fight for us to make another one.... We're lucky because men will laugh at women and women will laugh at men. Everybody shares jokes and everybody works. That's good." When asked if it was significant that Plant Q's home is in the East Village rather than in the West Village, the traditional gay ghetto, Mowers noted, “It is a big thematic point that gay things are really out of the closet now. We have the right and the ability to do our work now wherever we want to do it. And part of what is important about Planet Q is that it is a home for gay people. Come in and laugh about gay stuff. Be gay all together and have a good time laughing and singing. It is equally important that anybody can come to our house, that nobody needs to not come.

Straight people are invited; young people are invited. That's great. Our audience isn't ghettoized anymore either. So we don't need to stay in the ghetto."

I can't imagine a more pleasant way to pass an evening in New York than laughing yourself silly at Yabba Dabba Q. Planet Q Theatre at 74 St. Mark's Place is in the heart

of the East Village where you'll find New York's liveliest and cheapest bar and restaurant scene. Performances are Thursday at 8 pm, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm and 10:30 pm, and Sunday at 7 pm. For reservations telephone the box office at 212-978-7300 or Ticketmaster at 212-307-7171. ♡

EXCUSES

PASTRY

CAKES ▼ PASTRIES▼ CANDIES 13006 Larchmere Blvd. • 229-7007

Mercedes-Benz

VOLVO

Drive Safely

THE KOEPKE MOTOR SALES CO. 11905 DETROIT AVE., LAKEWOOD⚫221-3530

* NEW CARS-SALES & LEASING

★ PRE-OWNED CAR DEPT.

★ PARTS & SERVICE

EXPERT BODY & PAINT REPAIRS

Mark Davison Licensed Massage Therapist

$10.00 off your first visit when you mention this ad.

Gift Certificates Available Call for Appointment: 216/535-8262