Dirty Little Showtunes rocks New Conservatory Theatre Center
L to R Joe Wicht, Tom Orr, Cameron Cummings, Alpha Mulugeta, Eric Brizee, & David Bicha doing the parody "The Leathermen and the Drag Queens Should be Friends" to a tune from Oklahoma! DIRTY LITTLE SHOWTUNES : A Parody Revue. Lyrics by Tom Orr, conceived and directed by F. Allen Sawyer with musical direction by Scrumbly Koldewyn. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC), (Decker Theatre) located at 25 Van Ness Ave. at Market St. in San Francisco, 94102. NCTC Box Office (415) 861 8972, or online at www.nctcsf.org. EXTENDED THROUGH JANUARY 29, 2011
EVERYBODY LOVE TO SIN IN SAN FRANCISCO (To the Tune of “Everything’s Up to Date in Kansas City” from Oklahoma!)
It was in 1925 when Harold Ross, the new editor of The New Yorker, famously declared “It is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque.” Be assured that this recent incarnation of Dirty Little Showtunes most certainly is not for the old lady in Dubuque and even though Tom Orr suggested in a recent Bay Times interview “ Hopefully. . . she’ll be happy to hear our three wise nuns offer a safe sex symposium in “How Do You Solve Your Problem Gonorrhea?” or open her mind to everything from queer teens to gay marriage, adopting kids and surviving HIV.”
It’s all there and much, much more. It is written for a gay/queer audience and it is a barrel of fun. Orr has supplemented the original cast of David Bicha, Eric Brizee and Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone) with Cameron Cummings and Alpha Mulugeta, better known as Honey Mahogany. The show would not be complete without musical director Scrumbly Koldewyn, one of the original Cockettes of the 1960s or F. Allen Sawyer, the genius who directed the show 13 years ago.
You are reminded that It is parody, parody, parody from the opening number “Parody Tonight” (music from Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum) to the grand finale “Nude” to the tune of “Mame” with a dance stolen from Full Monty. Orr insists, more than once, “No parody of Andrew Lloyd Webber. It would be redundant!”
The sets and costumes are gorgeous and the cast is so full of energy that their exuberance fills the entire 100 seat auditorium. There is no listing of the musical numbers and their origin but the any musical comedy aficionado will recognize most or all of the shows/song writers. They include (not in any order ) Sweet Charity, Cabaret, Fiddler on the Roof, The Producers, Mame, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, West Side Story, Wicked, H.M. S. Pinafore, Gypsy, Bye, Bye Birdie, , Stop the World I Want to Get Off, Company, A Little Night Music, Chorus Line, Fame, The Sound of Music, Annie Get Your Gun, Guys and Dolls, Pippin, Le Cage aux Folles and others.
Every actor has his/her show stopper and you will not find a more elegant drag queen than Honey Mahogany or a happier, funnier production hoe-down number “The Leathermen and The Drag Queens Should be Friends” from Oklahoma. The show runs two hours with an intermission and is highly recommended for San Franciscanites living in “Sodom by The Bay” to the tune of “Everything’s Up-to-date etc”).
Kedar K. Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com