EVENINGS OUT

Stage production of Jeffrey

is better than the film

Jeffrey

by Paul Rudnick

Factory Theatre Through September 17

Reviewed by Barry Daniels

Paul Rudnick's award-winning play Jeffrey might well be sub-titled "Coming of Age in the Plague Years." The play successfully combines witty satire with romantic comedy while showing the profound effects dealing with AIDS has had on the gay community. Rudnick provides astute observation of gay life in this age of AIDS with outrageous satire of contemporary manners-televangelism, 12 step programs, game shows, high society fund-raising events, jackoff clubs, etc. Jeffrey, in response to 10 years of the AIDS crisis, the frustrations of safe sex, and the dementia of romance in general, has decided to give up

sex.

This vow of abstinence made, Jeffrey immediately meets a dreamboat of a guy, Steve, who happens to be HIV positive. How Jeffrey, a cute, healthy, and sexually exuberant gay man, deals with the conflict between his fears and his very real desire for Steve is the stuff of traditional romantic comedy: it's all very Cole Porter combined with a downtown Manhattan gay sensibility. As a compliment to the couple that is trying to form, Rudnick provides a second couple, Sterling, Jeffrey's best friend, and Darius. Sterling is a an interior decorator, witty and urbane. His lover Darius is a dancer in Cats who has AIDS.

Enterprising producer and director Marc Andreyko has had the courage to bring this funny and profoundly affecting play to Cleveland. Apparently its out gay sensibility and frank sexuality were considered too much for our established theatres, despite its long-running success in New York and its current release as a major Hollywood film.

Andreyko has assembled a fine cast of Cleveland area actors and has efficiently staged the comedy on the somewhat bare Elizabethan-type stage of the Factory Theatre at Cleveland State University. I saw the last dress rehearsal of the production, which will surely benefit from audience response.

I especially enjoyed the performances of Tim Champion as Sterling and Stephen Hood as Darius. They both found the reality of their characters, whose surfaces are obvious stereotypes. Their love and courage in dealing with AIDS is what Jeffrey is all about. Handling a variety of secondary characters are Danny Morris, Stephen Tollafield, Clark Taylor and Juliette Johnson. Johnson and Taylor have the showiest bits and deliver outstanding comic caricatures of contemporary types.

As HIV-positive Steve, Jeff Caruthers is the quiet strength of this production. He has some the most preachy scenes in the play and managed to carry them off with dignity and charm. The most problematic aspect of the production is Michael Anderson's performance of the title character. Anderson is an accomplished actor, but in the role of Jeffrey, he fails to grasp the reality of the character whom Rudnick describes as "an innocent...outgoing and optimistic, cheerful despite all odds."

Anderson is a rather dour Jeffrey, whiny, manic and oddly asexual. He never manages to play the ache of desire for Steve that is the essence of the character, and which is readily understood by any gay man. Despite the considerable heat generated by Caruthers, there are no sparks between him and Ander-

son.

Rudnick's writing in Jeffrey is so assured that, despite my major reservation about the performance of the title role, the production succeeds as an entertaining and thoughtful evening of theatre. Coming back from three months in Paris where homophobia seems entrenched and AIDS is profoundly closeted, I'm especially sensitive to the message of Jeffrey, and proud that we have such work moving into the mainstream of our culture. I do think the play is better than the film and hope readers will support Andreyko and his company's efforts.

Performances of Jeffrey continue through September 17 at the Factory Theatre, East 24th Street and Chester Ave., Cleveland, Thursday-Sunday at 8 pm, Saturday and Sunday at 3 pm. For reservations telephone 216-522-1300.

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