Messy White Gays
A Critwink* from the Intelligent Showmosexual
*In case you missed it: “critwinks” are mini-reviews turned out in a single draft
Rope but make it The Big Gay Sketch Show.
That seems to be the directive playwright and actor Drew Droege followed in creating Messy White Gays, a joke-packed indictment of a certain swath of privileged homosexuals that is intermittently funny, but ultimately not as amusing or incisive as it wants to be.
Droege carved out a niche specialty of sending up insufferable gay men with his one-man shows Bright Colors and Bold Patterns and Happy Birthday Doug. In both plays, but especially the former, his frequently irritating subjects were made tolerable by a sneaky undercurrent of empathy. Droege didn’t only skewer his characters, he slyly examined how and why they developed the traits he was lambasting. If Droege incorporated any similar sense of compassion or curiosity in the writing of Messy White Gays, it’s not evident in the direction and playing of it.
When the curtain rises, menacing Brecken (James Cusati-Moyer) and performatively woke Caden (Aaron Jackson) have just killed the third in their throuple, Monty, who’s played by a dummy that’s more believably human than most of the cast. Before Brecken and Caden can properly dispose of his body, unhinged out-of-work actor Thacker (Pete Zias) and sexy but simple influencer Addison (Derek Chadwick) have arrived at their apartment for brunch. Soon, they’re also joined by their prickly neighbor Karl (Droege), a gay man of a certain age who’s quick to criticize his juniors for failing to appreciate the rights he and his own peers fought to attain.
Droege lands every one of his many punchlines with a tongue so expertly sharpened, it would impress Bea Arthur—and yet he fails to suggest he is anyone other than Drew Droege. In a five-minute sketch, Zias’s fiercely committed but relentlessly one-note performance might be enjoyable; in the context of a full-length play, it’s grating. Jackson comes across as shockingly amateurish, but looks like Daniel Gay Lewis next to Chadwick. Cusati-Moyer, a Tony nominee for Slave Play (in which the ambiguity of his race was, interestingly enough, a plot point), appears to be the only real actor in the bunch. However fully realized his character is, though, he seems to exist in an entirely different world than the one created by director Mike Donahue, who has pitched everything in the production so high, it’s a wonder anyone but dogs can hear it.
Droege is a keen observer of gay men with an uncanny ability to fold those (often damning) observations into well-crafted jokes. Unfortunately, in Messy White Gays, his wit is not paired with any new or particularly insightful social critique. Did the audience around me laugh a lot? Yes. To be honest, I laughed a decent amount myself. But presenting a series of jokes as a play is just…messy.
the not-a-bottom line
🌈🌈 (out of five)
a guide to ticket-buying
With my TDF membership, I was able to get a pair of $37 seats in the front row for a Sunday evening performance.
The theater is small enough and the performances are broad enough that it probably doesn’t matter where you sit, but sound off below if you feel differently.