This show is an abomination.
There's so many problems it's hard to know where to start. First of all there are no drag queens except in the last 30 seconds. There is a tired tranny in a $2 house dress and a couple of women but that's it. The one drag performance comes at the very end, a plot device you can smell in the first 30 seconds of the show, and the man doesn't know the words to the song and can't dance or lip synch. The two women behind him doing the "walk like an Egyptian" move behind him don't help.
The action comes screeching to a halt for three 5 minute monologues that will make you want to scratch out your eyes. The one by the "straight" man is so offensive it borders on homophobic. "I really like vagina. No seriously. As in no cock. Vagina. More vagina. I beat up a drag queen once. Did I mention vagina?" is a summary of the speech.
So terrible it makes you not want to go see other Fringe shows.
So terrible I was, I'm not kidding, sitting in the audience thinking how little time we have on this earth and how I was spending it watching this.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Mickey & Judy - Tarragon Theatre Extra Space
Michael Hughes, the writer and star of this one-man show, is a revelation.
This show is full of heart as Michael takes situations like being taken for psychiatric testing for cross-dressing at age six and presents them with humour and without self-pity. He describes how he has gotten through difficult situations in his life by watching musicals and escaping to a different land and the show itself is intercut with musical numbers by this gifted performer.
The honesty and humour of the piece draws you in and won't let go.
A standing ovation well deserved, you'll laugh and cry.
The feel good show of the Fringe.
This show is full of heart as Michael takes situations like being taken for psychiatric testing for cross-dressing at age six and presents them with humour and without self-pity. He describes how he has gotten through difficult situations in his life by watching musicals and escaping to a different land and the show itself is intercut with musical numbers by this gifted performer.
The honesty and humour of the piece draws you in and won't let go.
A standing ovation well deserved, you'll laugh and cry.
The feel good show of the Fringe.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
La Duchesse de Langeais - The Central - Fringe Festival
It's that time of year again, the Fringe festival is back in town.
As I step out of The Central I look at my watch and see the play runs 21 minutes short of it's promised 60 minute duration, but you won't mind. The Central is a bar with an amazing patio just behind Honest Ed's with an inside like a house of horrors. The walls appear to be cobbled together from other walls of other abandoned buildings. There is no room at all, when you walk up the steps to use the bathroom the person at the top has to stop as two people do not have room to pass each other.
The "stage" is a long room, maybe 15 feet long and 7 feet wide. In the 7 feet wide there is a table, three chairs, an aisle and no air conditioning. The chairs are made into rows the length of the 15 foot long room at a very tight angle, leaving you hot and cramped.
Once the play started it became apparent the "stage" was by the bar as every five minutes or so a server would get a drink. The "stage" was also in the kitchen, separated by a door that did not fully close. The parade of staff streaming into the kitchen did not stop for more than 30 seconds and rarely then. Being beside the kitchen did not help the temperature either which got hotter and hotter as the show went on until the sweat was pouring off my forehead in buckets. Despite the fact that it was only 24 outside, inside it was at least 35 with no breeze.
The show would have been less disturbed if it was held in the middle of the street and like in a suburban road hockey game, the play could have stopped and the audience could have picked up their chairs whenever a car came.
The play would have felt less disrupted if it was held in Union station during rush hour. That may have even added to the play with the people going about their busy lives while La Duchesse, The Duchesse, pauses to reflect on hers.
The original play was written as a monologue by Michel Tremblay, whose work St Carmen of the Main was recently produced by CanStage. This version is presented with three characters, La Duchesse and her male and female inner voices and the change really works well. It serves to amp up the emotion of the piece, something absent from the recent production of St Carmen.
There's a trick in translation whereby you leave certain words un-translated. It helps to add a feeling of the original and when done well it doesn't matter that the audience doesn't understand the odd word as they get the gist and a sense of another place, in this case Montreal. By the end of the piece the translator gets it right and there's a decimate flow mixed with a French je ne sais quoi. The beginning still needs more work with entire sentences or two sentences left untranslated it only serves to draw non French speakers away from the story.
The cast are all consummate professionals, in perfect attire giving mostly flawless performances. The lead did flub a series of lines in the middle but his acting was fantastic, playing La Duchesse with a coy smile and frowning funnily when her female or male counterpart brings up something unpleasant.
A great piece that deserves to be seen by a wide audience but that I cannot recommend in it's current venue.
As I step out of The Central I look at my watch and see the play runs 21 minutes short of it's promised 60 minute duration, but you won't mind. The Central is a bar with an amazing patio just behind Honest Ed's with an inside like a house of horrors. The walls appear to be cobbled together from other walls of other abandoned buildings. There is no room at all, when you walk up the steps to use the bathroom the person at the top has to stop as two people do not have room to pass each other.
The "stage" is a long room, maybe 15 feet long and 7 feet wide. In the 7 feet wide there is a table, three chairs, an aisle and no air conditioning. The chairs are made into rows the length of the 15 foot long room at a very tight angle, leaving you hot and cramped.
Once the play started it became apparent the "stage" was by the bar as every five minutes or so a server would get a drink. The "stage" was also in the kitchen, separated by a door that did not fully close. The parade of staff streaming into the kitchen did not stop for more than 30 seconds and rarely then. Being beside the kitchen did not help the temperature either which got hotter and hotter as the show went on until the sweat was pouring off my forehead in buckets. Despite the fact that it was only 24 outside, inside it was at least 35 with no breeze.
The show would have been less disturbed if it was held in the middle of the street and like in a suburban road hockey game, the play could have stopped and the audience could have picked up their chairs whenever a car came.
The play would have felt less disrupted if it was held in Union station during rush hour. That may have even added to the play with the people going about their busy lives while La Duchesse, The Duchesse, pauses to reflect on hers.
The original play was written as a monologue by Michel Tremblay, whose work St Carmen of the Main was recently produced by CanStage. This version is presented with three characters, La Duchesse and her male and female inner voices and the change really works well. It serves to amp up the emotion of the piece, something absent from the recent production of St Carmen.
There's a trick in translation whereby you leave certain words un-translated. It helps to add a feeling of the original and when done well it doesn't matter that the audience doesn't understand the odd word as they get the gist and a sense of another place, in this case Montreal. By the end of the piece the translator gets it right and there's a decimate flow mixed with a French je ne sais quoi. The beginning still needs more work with entire sentences or two sentences left untranslated it only serves to draw non French speakers away from the story.
The cast are all consummate professionals, in perfect attire giving mostly flawless performances. The lead did flub a series of lines in the middle but his acting was fantastic, playing La Duchesse with a coy smile and frowning funnily when her female or male counterpart brings up something unpleasant.
A great piece that deserves to be seen by a wide audience but that I cannot recommend in it's current venue.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Toronto Gay Pride 2011
Another amazing weekend at Toronto gay pride. It's always a highlight of my year, and every year I am always astounded at how fast you get to feeling tired and run down in the hot sun. I plan events for 10 or 11 pm every year and never make it to them as I'm too tired.
Sunday night I saw this fellow singing and thought how much he looked like the guy I remembered.
When I got home I looked up the old photo from last year and it is the same guy. Notice in the first shot above and in the shot below from last year, he's wearing the same pair of underwear!
I have yet to ask anyone to pose for me after attending the erotic photo workshop and I knew this would be the guy. I was too chicken to talk to him as he was surrounded by like five women. I would have had to say "Excuse me women - move. Would you pose naked for me?"
I Googled "Nathaniel - Queer Idol" and came up with his full name and sent him an email this morning asking him to pose for me. Yikes! Now it's all I can think about.
I Googled "Nathaniel - Queer Idol" and came up with his full name and sent him an email this morning asking him to pose for me. Yikes! Now it's all I can think about.
From Sarah's camera, us with the Trojan folks.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
9 to 5: The Musical - Toronto Centre for the Arts
I have sat through a lot of terrible musicals. South Pacific, The Color Purple, Cats. This misadventure ranks up there with the best of these.
I bought tickets to this show as all the gays love Dolly. She can sing, she has charisma and huge tits. What's not to love?
I found out as I and a half full theatre trekked all the way to North York for a night of the shows 10 day run. The lights went down and an audience of gays and old ladies settled in for a blast from the past. The show takes place in 1979, a time when women's lib was building to a crescendo. A time when all men were sexist pigs and all women hard done by. We're transported there inside the mind of Dolly Parton, who has a weird child-like view of the world. The show is all about girl power but not true girl power the women find themselves. The power they get is from behaving like the men, using tactics on them like they used on the women.
The plot involves a group of secretaries who are unhappy with their boss and their jobs. They then poison their boss, hold him at gunpoint, tie him up, kidnap and blackmail him. Seriously. Girl power, right?!?!
This is the end of act one and during the break I tried to guess how many references the play had to castration. MANY. Too many to count. Also too many to count was inside references to the future. For example "Why is there an apple beside your typewriter? You can't type with a Mac apple silly!" Cue hilarious peels of laughter.
The cast was fairly good but too small. During the all male dance number for example I noticed about half the men had breasts. The standout was Mamie Parris (what kind of name is that?!?) as the lead Judy. She can act and sing and could step on to any Broadway stage tomorrow. The draw was Diana DeGarmo from American Idol. Her singing surprised me, she was excellent. The acting was not good though that could be due to the direction. Rather than play the character she played Dolly Parton playing a character and something got lost in the translation. Same with Dee Hoty as Lilly Tomlin as the character, it didn't work.
A distraction from life but not worth a trek north on the subway, or really across the street.
I bought tickets to this show as all the gays love Dolly. She can sing, she has charisma and huge tits. What's not to love?
I found out as I and a half full theatre trekked all the way to North York for a night of the shows 10 day run. The lights went down and an audience of gays and old ladies settled in for a blast from the past. The show takes place in 1979, a time when women's lib was building to a crescendo. A time when all men were sexist pigs and all women hard done by. We're transported there inside the mind of Dolly Parton, who has a weird child-like view of the world. The show is all about girl power but not true girl power the women find themselves. The power they get is from behaving like the men, using tactics on them like they used on the women.
The plot involves a group of secretaries who are unhappy with their boss and their jobs. They then poison their boss, hold him at gunpoint, tie him up, kidnap and blackmail him. Seriously. Girl power, right?!?!
This is the end of act one and during the break I tried to guess how many references the play had to castration. MANY. Too many to count. Also too many to count was inside references to the future. For example "Why is there an apple beside your typewriter? You can't type with a Mac apple silly!" Cue hilarious peels of laughter.
The cast was fairly good but too small. During the all male dance number for example I noticed about half the men had breasts. The standout was Mamie Parris (what kind of name is that?!?) as the lead Judy. She can act and sing and could step on to any Broadway stage tomorrow. The draw was Diana DeGarmo from American Idol. Her singing surprised me, she was excellent. The acting was not good though that could be due to the direction. Rather than play the character she played Dolly Parton playing a character and something got lost in the translation. Same with Dee Hoty as Lilly Tomlin as the character, it didn't work.
A distraction from life but not worth a trek north on the subway, or really across the street.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Pride
In honour of Pride I present this photo from the new issue of Fab magazine. This model I think has the best bum on planet earth.
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Saturday, June 18, 2011
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