One of many offerings at the inaugural Broadway Bound Festival is a slice of life drama about a couple engaged to be married who are physically injured in a violent anti-gay attack and broken by the emotional torment that contaminates their relationship. It is refreshing to see an LGBTQ play that is not sugar coated, melodramatic, or steeped in sorrow….
There have been several media depicting the life of the famed piano virtuoso Liberace; including, novels, documentaries, film, television, interviews and now, following the attempted effort of the stage musical “All That Glitters,” comes “Ben, Virginia and Me: The Liberace Musical” currently running as part of the NYMF Festival. This endeavor concentrates mainly on the relationship between the celebrated showman,…
“I Am, I Will, I Do” is a new musical being presented as part of NYMF by Dan Manjovi Music. It is classified as a Beta musical which means it is further along than a staged reading but not yet ready for a full production. In other words, it is a platform for the creative team to work out the…
“The Body Politic,” currently running at the New York Musical Festival at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater chronicles the journey of Iphis (Samy El-Noury) a transgender young man from Kabul who emigrates to Chapel Hill, North Carolina at the height of the Afghan War. This new life is offered by Chris, an American Aid Worker, and Iphis leaves his mother…
“These parting words, she left behind/These parting words she left behind/And I put them in your hands now/These parting words she left behind.” – The Nun Lee (Brian Charles Rooney) is the twenty-something female impersonator who graces the small stage at the Golden Lantern, an old bar – a joint – in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The small…
“Errol and Fidel,” part of the New York Musical Festival 2017, retells the story of Errol Flynn’s (played with just the right Hollywood bravado by Jonathan Stewart) visit to Havana in 1958 during the shooting of his self-produced B film “Cuban Rebel Girls” where he met Fidel Castro (played with rich revolutionary ruggedness and charm by George Psomas). Flynn is…
After a successful run at the 2016 Midtown International Theater Festival, “The Crusade of Connor Stephens” moves to the Off-Broadway stage at the Jerry Orbach Theater. There have been changes in this revival – not all of them necessary – but the heart of the play remains intact. Big Jim’s (James Kiberd) Baptist Mega-Church is expanding. More space is need…
Joey Miller’s (Nick Ryan) dream in college in 1985 is to play professional basketball after graduating. Ideally – like his favorite player Larry Bird – he would play for his favorite team the Boston Celtics. Although he could imitate Bird’s moves on the court, his 5’9” stature prevents him from reaching his dream. But it is not only his height…
“It’s not always the way it is in plays. Not all faggots bump themselves off at the end of the story!” – Michael in “The Boys in the Band” by Mart Crowley (1968) It must be said that it is refreshing to find a young, talented member of the LGBTQ community using their voice to bring awareness to a valid…
Big Jim’s (James Kiberd) Baptist Mega-Church is expanding. More space is need for its growing congregation. That conservative congregation also seems to need a television studio and a gym with a basketball court for outreach and youth ministries. One of the church’s young recruits is Connor Stephens the teenager the church “took in and helped him and his mama get…