Today is Saturday, September 28, 2024. It’s already late here owing to my seeing an off-Broadway play with Elliot, a big, gay spoof called The Big, Gay Jamboree, being shown at the Orpheum Theatre, on 2nd Avenue and 8th Street. I had no idea what the show was about; I only decided to get tickets for it when I saw a long line of people waiting outside to enter the theater at 7 some weeks ago. I decided to treat myself right after my colonoscopy on Thursday, so I ordered two tickets online just a week ago for the 5 p.m. performance. I had also called a reservation in for John’s Italian restaurant on 12th Street and 2nd Avenue just yesterday for 7.

The musical stars Marla Mindelle who wrote the book, music, and lyrics. (In the Playbill, I discovered that Mindelle starred as the title character on Off-Broadway in Titanique, a tribute to Celine Dion.) The plot of this campy musical finds the title character here, Stacey, after a night of heavy drinking, finding herself transported back to the 1940s in a town called “Bareback,” Idaho, where everyone sings and dances and smiles a lot. She discovers she’s one of six sisters and is on the eve of her wedding to someone who we never see. There are many laugh-out lines that some might find offensive like the one in which the townsfolk say that the town is a lovely little town “with no Jews here.” And there are many references to gay sex acts like Stacey’s assessment of “bottoms are usually twinks who love Britney Spears instead of having a personality,” which is a little cliched and out of date today.

Others in the cast like Paris Nix as Clarence, a Black man in the town who is only noted for singing gospel songs, and Natalie Walker as Flora, one of Stacey’s Idaho sisters who belts out a Marilyn Monroe-esque number in which she revels in her sluttiness, shine in this paean to big, broad musicals.

One of the funniest bits, I thought, occurred when Mindelle as Stacey takes someone out of the audience to help her in her quest to escape from the town; at one point, she even takes the man’s cell phone to leave a message with an actual person claiming who she is.

There are send-ups of actual songs like Do Re Me from The Sound of Music in which the audience is given a lesson in gay slang and is asked to sing along to it. There are many pop references that Elliot and I didn’t even get since their appeal is with a younger audience.

There are also many references to Jennifer Lopez and her many bad decisions (I’m assuming they’re referencing her taste in bad marriages here) and there is even a bit about Stacey auditioning for a role in a Jennifer Lopez musical.

All in all, the show was a melange of gay jokes and pop culture, even sending up Artificial Intelligence toward the end of the 100-minute show.

Thus I enjoyed the show a little more than Elliot who was not as enthralled with it. He claimed he couldn’t hear some of the lyrics or lines, so that would explain his lack of enthusiasm for the show. However, the audience, which was composed mainly of young and gay theater lovers, responded enthusiastically to every song and dance number.

If you are in the mood for some silliness and laughter, then rush to the Orpheum Theatre to see this funny production which the actor Margot Robbie is a producer on.

Yesterday I didn’t mention that I signed on as a volunteer for the Harris-Walz campaign to write letters to unregistered voters in Pennsylvania. Elliot’s friend “Megan” in Los Angeles got me in touch with someone from the campaign in that state who sent me an email with the names of seventy individuals who are to be targeted with appeals to register as Democrats before October 7. I lost several days trying to find that email which was sitting in my junk file. Then I had to order postcards from Amazon that just came today; I also had to buy stamps for the seventy postcards. Even though I committed myself to this endeavor, I do wonder why volunteers like myself should shoulder the expense of buying both the postcards and the postage. Now I’m glad that I only committed myself to writing only 70 postcards, not 100. There is not much time to address the postcards and to send them out before the deadline.

Next week, we won’t be home on Thursday or Friday because of Rosh Hashanah, so I lose two days of postcard writing. We’re driving down to my friend “Harold” to spend the holiday with him and his family. Thus I have to try to get these out before Thursday. As soon as I got the postcards, I began addressing them today. I was able to finish 11 postcards before we left for Manhattan.

Have a good Sunday.

Stay safe and be well.

Here’s the colorful backdrop that awaits you when you enter the theater.

Here’s the Playbill from the show.

Here’s Natalie Walker in her role as Flora.