Musicals Get a Gay Tune-Up

Related Content

• "The Anatomy of Harpo Marx": Singular Actor Singularly Celebrated
  April 4, 2012
• Arthouse Movie Listings May 23-29, 2012
  May 23, 2012
• The Oldest Profession Gets a New Look
  May 18, 2011
• War: What Is It Good For? Film
  February 1, 2012
• "Dirty Little Showtunes": Theater Review
  January 12, 2011

More About

• Tom Orr
• The Marx Brothers
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Showtunes: They're quite possibly the gayest thing in the universe, loaded with equal parts camp, pageantry, and flamboyance. They've also been places where gay culture could “hide in plain sight” on Broadway and in Hollywood (not to mention high school and college drama departments) during more morally restrictive times. Thirteen years ago, Tom Orr took off the disguise and wrote Dirty Little Showtunes, a queered-up collection of parodied Broadway favorites performed by six men who switch among leather daddies, muscle-bound drag queens, and impeccably dressed intellectual extroverts. This year's version includes classics from the likes of South Pacific (imagine what leather daddies and drag queens can do with “There Is Nothing Like a Dame”) as well as new bawdily tweaked numbers from Wicked, Hairspray, and The Producers. Orr's self-deprecating lyrics have the relentless verbal pace of a Marx Brothers movie — they keep you laughing but also wondering what you're missing whileyou're laughing. No matter. There's more to come with each line.
Dec. 15-19; Dec. 22-23; Sun., Dec. 26; Dec. 29-31; Sun., Jan. 2; Wednesdays-Sundays; Jan. 21-23; Jan. 27-29. Starts: Dec. 15. Continues through Jan. 16, 2010