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FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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The Big Gay Musical Breaking
Glass Pictures, Directors: Screenplay Starring: Unrated, 90 minutes |
A
Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Eden
Musicals, generally, come in two flavors. Most feature characters who break out into fabulous song and dance numbers in the middle of a scene. Others, like Bob Fosse's 1971 film version of Cabaret, take place at the theatre or in a dancehall and the musical numbers are confined to the stage. The Big Gay Musical, co-directed by Casper Andreas (Slutty Summer, A Four Letter Word) and Fred M. Caruso, falls into the latter category. |
 The
Big Gay Musical
(2009) is a fun, and heartfelt, confection about Paul and Eddie, two young
gay men who are starring in a new Off-Broadway musical, Adam and Steve:
Just the Way God Made 'Em. Paul (Daniel Robinson) has just been dumped
by his boyfriend. He listens to advice from the "professional sluts" he
shares the dressing room with and throws himself into the dating scene.
His co-star in the show, Eddie (Joey Dudding), is a virgin who has just
come out. His parents are Southern Baptists who wouldn't let him read Harry
Potter and they have no idea that their son is gay. Paul, who befriends
Eddie, strongly suggests that he tell his parents before they come to opening
night and wind up having to be carried out of the theater on stretchers.
Their lives mirror the characters they play on stage and this anchors Caruso's
clever and well crafted script. |
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 I'm
going to be honest. When the film began with columnist Michael Musto running
out of a bad show (The Small Straight Play) screaming "I need a big
gay musical!" - and this was followed by a very campy chorus line of tap
dancing angels wearing wings and not much else - I feared that I was about
to sit through another Naked
Boys Singing. Thankfully this is not the case and I loved
this movie. It's a comedy, it's a drama, and it's filled with beefcake and
over-the-top showtunes. |
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 Its
second half is set in modern times as two sanctimonious televangelists deal
with their gay son, Steven, by establishing the Foundation Against Gayness
Society, or F.A.G.S. for short. They recruited "a wonderful reformed homosexual
to run it....he used to be a corographer [sic] on Broadway before he found
Jesus." At the ex-gay camp, Steven falls in love with Adam. The play ends
with the ultimate deus ex machina when God, Himself, reappears to set things
right by informing the fundamentalists that the Bible isn't His book.
"What do you think I faxed it down here?" He asks, sarcastically.
"It was written by man, it was interpreted by man, it was abused by man.
I never told people to hurt and kill; I told them to love." |
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 The
show is hardly West Side Story, but it's good campy fun. Some of
it is a little too over the top but the staging features many good
voices and a lot of precise and sexy choreography. A duet between the two
leads becomes a ballet. When God gives Adam and Steve special presents -
art, fashion, creativity and music - Eve's lament sounds like Ethel Merman
singing Man of La Mancha. At the ex-gay camp, the men wear pink T-shirts
that say "I'm Going To Go Straight... To Heaven" and their Fosse-esque production
number doesn't forget to include the classic bowler hat. Much of this is
very funny, like when Cain promises Eve that he will never sing a showtune
and then, of course, breaks into song. |
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 The
bulk of the film, however, takes place away from the footlights. Paul and
Eddie are likable guys whose stories are both amusing and touching. "Showtunes
and booze, that's what keep me happy," Paul tells the chorus boys backstage,
but he's also looking for love. He is devastated when his boyfriend stops
returning his calls because someone told him that he is HIV positive (he's
not). Since love is out of the picture, Paul decides to have some fun. "I
never realized being a slut was so hard," he says when he posts a Manhunt
profile and one of his co-stars screams, "Sweetheart, you never use
your head shot!" |
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 Paul
spends a lot of time at a bar's open mic night called "Mostly Sondheim"
and two of the songs he sings there are beautifully intercut with narrative
scenes about him, and about Eddie. I've written before that director Andreas
is a master at the musical montage. His earlier Slutty
Summer and A
Four Letter Word feature musical interludes that actually further
the plot and define character instead of just showing lovers rolling in
the grass or riding a carousel. There is also a great soundless scene in
a gym where Paul bops to his headphones between sets. He's cute, he's built,
he's a nice guy and there's nothing not to like about him. Amidst several
disastrous trysts, Paul meets a sweet young man who waits for him at the
backstage door and later sings a song to him from the piano on "Mostly Sondheim's"
stage. |
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 He
also becomes best friends with his co-star, Eddie, who has suddenly come
out of the closet with a vengeance. In time-honored musical theatre tradition,
we expect Paul and Eddie to fall in love. But, for a time, we're left wondering
if Paul is going to finally wind up with Eddie or with the piano guy. Either
way would satisfy. Eddie also receives dating advice from the chorus
boys. He goes out with them, gets drunk, and then goes home with a go-go
dancer. Paul runs after him to make sure that he knows what he his doing.
He doesn't. Eddie loses his virginity and has unsafe sex to boot. Paul,
who was seen opening a condom in an early sex scene, hears this and begs
Eddie never to have unsafe sex again. |
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 There
was something about this scene that really worked for me and I was glad
that they included it for all the young victims out there of the George
Bush abstinence-only sex education program. The scene isn't preachy; it
just shows Paul's concern for his friend in a very realistic manner. First
he's laughing and saying "I don't believe it, you bottomed for a bottom."
Then he asks, "You were safe, right?" The scene works, and the humor is
one of the reasons why. Before it becomes maudlin, or worse: an Afterschool
Special, Eddie changes the subject and asks what to do about his parents.
"Well whatever you do," Paul answers, "Don't tell them a bottom banged you
bareback." Later, Eddie meets a Mormon and asks if that's worse than a Southern
Baptist. |
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 The
Big Gay Musical is a nicely written film. It is well acted,
it is well filmed. The editing between the main plot and the stage show
is superb and the directors know just when to cut from one to the other.
So we don't forget that we are watching the previews of an Off-Broadway
play, we often see the tops of the first row's heads and we always hear
the audience's laughter and applause. The performers are all veterans of
the Broadway stage. Robinson (Paul/Adam) was in Hairspray, and Dudding
(Eddie/Steve) did Gypsy, A Chorus Line and La Cage Aux Folles.
Others appeared in Chicago, Wicked and South Pacific. Andreas
directed the narrative sections and Caruso the scenes on stage. |
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More
On Casper Andreas: Steve
Hayes also appears in: Brent Corrigan also appears in: |
The
play itself mines territory already explored by 
Like
most musicals, you get a happy ending but I'm not giving it away. The
Big Gay Musical is fun, it is sexy, there is drama and
there is comedy tonight. Mix in some irreverent showtunes and it's Jerome
Robbins meets