Misunderstood Messiah
'The Legendary and Fabulous Passion Play'
by Richard Dodds
Imagine a meeting of So You Think You Can Dance and Godspell. Then throw in some Queer Eye and maybe a bit of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. These are some of the ingredients conjured by the strange brew titled The Legendary and Fabulous Passion Play.
Now at the Exit Theatre, it's the second offering by El Gato del Diablo Theatre Company, as well as the second world premiere by its artistic director Shawn Ferreyra. A program note reports that the play was inspired by the troupe's reaction to the fight against same-sex marriage, and its pleas for acceptance are clearly heartfelt if simplistic.
Despite the religious rituals that frame the production, and the earnest sermonizing, the play also has a sense of humor about its subject. But the line between the serious and the comic at times seems unintentionally blurry.
The central character is a drag queen named Jesus Esperanza, a name that is definitely relevant to the story. Cast out by her own mother, she now takes in other societal strays with a sassy confidence that can be undermined by what seem to be druggy deliriums. Jesus has a ward she has dubbed Sugarpie, a straight boy who has a yen for a haughty club chic with a thuggish boyfriend and a lesbian groupie.
In one of those is-this-meant-to-be-funny? moments, Sugarpie and the thug decide to fight it out — in a dance-off with vogueing choreography by Wendy Marinaccio in which the two contestants range from barely competent to ludicrously bad, despite the oohs and aahs of the spectators.
Though only about 70 minutes in length, the play can feel longer because of a pace slowed by portentous silences and energy-sapping scene changes in director Amy Louise Cole's production. As Jesus, Norman Munoz offers the strongest performance in a cast that includes Alex Hsu, Nancy Dobbs Owen, Christina Lowery, and Matt Socha.
Somehow, everyone ends up in same-sex couples, are then bashed by former friends and disowned by parents, and wind up under the wing of Jesus — who dies and is resurrected in a better dress and wig. There are angel choirs and a finale danced to Olivia Newton-John's "Xanadu." It sounds like a joke, but it's hard to tell.
7.27.2006
July 20 2006 SF Bay Times
The Legendary and Fabulous Passion Play
By Linda Ayres-Frederick
El Gato del Diablo Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Shawn Ferreyra’s The Legendary and Fabulous Passion Play at the EXIT Stage Left. Quite a worthy undertaking, that Passion Play.
So what is a Passion Play? A medieval Mystery play representing the agony of Jesus during the Crucifixion or during the period following the Last Supper. And a definition for “Fabulous”? Legendary, imaginary, devised, fictitious, given to the telling of fables or legends, beyond the limits of belief. And exceedingly great — the more commonly used meaning.
“Fabulous” and “legendary” (meaning the same thing) right there in the play’s title is a hint of things to come (i.e., redundancy). And sad to say, the play is painfully redundant. Our main character is Jesus of the “first house of Esperanza” which presumably has something to do with “Hope.” And this Jesus (Norman Munoz) as a holy messenger is a very beautifully dolled-up, bleach-blonde-wigged drag queen with the loveliest made-up eyes and slimmest, lithe, little body all cloaked at the start. And Jesus is very much in need of the TLC she espouses and hopes for as the remedy for the ills of the world.
Accompanying Jesus are four ecclesiastically-robed characters — two of the female gender and two of the male gender. Apostles, perhaps? No. One is Jesuss’ best friend and first follower, Sugarpie Esperanza (also very cute, played by Alex Hsu). The others that get named later by Jesus are Dakota DiSantos (Christina Lowery), Alessandra De La Croix (Nancy Dobbs Owen), and the very hunky Bang Bang Concepcion (Matt Socha).
This Passion Play begins with the four characters speaking as a chorus responsively to Jesus. Scene shift (the first of many): Jesus, getting ready to go out on a date with Sugarpie, tells us the story of her life — how she was rejected by her family early on for cross-dressing and suffered the sorrow of family strife and poverty — but all this gets interrupted by Jesus having a severe headache. Jesus’ headache includes hearing voices and talking to someone called Fiona. Exactly who Fiona is was never made quite clear, but Jesus does talk to her a lot throughout the play. Perhaps Fiona is the Drag Queen who left Jesus the wig. (Remember the wig, it comes back later.) And the headache comes back every time anything wonderful happens, such as disco dancing on the date; disco dancing contests when girl one (Nancy Dobbs Owen) gets attracted to a boy (Alex Hsu) other than her original date (Matt Socha); disco dancing when each boy dances to prove how much better he is than the other; lots and lots of disco dancing. Everybody gets to dance.
What is most tragic about this piece is that it fails to communicate its very important message that one of the basic human rights is to be free to love and be loved and marry whomever one wants, regardless of genders. Rather than showing us through the characters’ onstage experiences, the play lectures about past offstage events. Locations and times change without clear definition. It especially bogs down in the scenes depicting Jesus as a self-absorbed drag queen with a constantly recurring migraine who goes through the dying process (without crucifixion at least), talks to angels and Fiona (whoever she is), poses a la pieta, and gets resurrected. She returns in a fabulous (there’s that word again) sparkly, gold ball gown with shimmering scarf and new darker wig repeating all too many quasi-familiar lines of reinterpreted scripture.
With some serious cutting, clarifying, and sticking to the clever heartfelt voice that appears in so many wonderful one-liners, The Legendary and Fabulous Passion Play will be a worthwhile adventure. The talented cast is certainly committed fully to the endeavor, and they prove that even a bleached-blonde wig can be wept over.
By Linda Ayres-Frederick
El Gato del Diablo Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Shawn Ferreyra’s The Legendary and Fabulous Passion Play at the EXIT Stage Left. Quite a worthy undertaking, that Passion Play.
So what is a Passion Play? A medieval Mystery play representing the agony of Jesus during the Crucifixion or during the period following the Last Supper. And a definition for “Fabulous”? Legendary, imaginary, devised, fictitious, given to the telling of fables or legends, beyond the limits of belief. And exceedingly great — the more commonly used meaning.
“Fabulous” and “legendary” (meaning the same thing) right there in the play’s title is a hint of things to come (i.e., redundancy). And sad to say, the play is painfully redundant. Our main character is Jesus of the “first house of Esperanza” which presumably has something to do with “Hope.” And this Jesus (Norman Munoz) as a holy messenger is a very beautifully dolled-up, bleach-blonde-wigged drag queen with the loveliest made-up eyes and slimmest, lithe, little body all cloaked at the start. And Jesus is very much in need of the TLC she espouses and hopes for as the remedy for the ills of the world.
Accompanying Jesus are four ecclesiastically-robed characters — two of the female gender and two of the male gender. Apostles, perhaps? No. One is Jesuss’ best friend and first follower, Sugarpie Esperanza (also very cute, played by Alex Hsu). The others that get named later by Jesus are Dakota DiSantos (Christina Lowery), Alessandra De La Croix (Nancy Dobbs Owen), and the very hunky Bang Bang Concepcion (Matt Socha).
This Passion Play begins with the four characters speaking as a chorus responsively to Jesus. Scene shift (the first of many): Jesus, getting ready to go out on a date with Sugarpie, tells us the story of her life — how she was rejected by her family early on for cross-dressing and suffered the sorrow of family strife and poverty — but all this gets interrupted by Jesus having a severe headache. Jesus’ headache includes hearing voices and talking to someone called Fiona. Exactly who Fiona is was never made quite clear, but Jesus does talk to her a lot throughout the play. Perhaps Fiona is the Drag Queen who left Jesus the wig. (Remember the wig, it comes back later.) And the headache comes back every time anything wonderful happens, such as disco dancing on the date; disco dancing contests when girl one (Nancy Dobbs Owen) gets attracted to a boy (Alex Hsu) other than her original date (Matt Socha); disco dancing when each boy dances to prove how much better he is than the other; lots and lots of disco dancing. Everybody gets to dance.
What is most tragic about this piece is that it fails to communicate its very important message that one of the basic human rights is to be free to love and be loved and marry whomever one wants, regardless of genders. Rather than showing us through the characters’ onstage experiences, the play lectures about past offstage events. Locations and times change without clear definition. It especially bogs down in the scenes depicting Jesus as a self-absorbed drag queen with a constantly recurring migraine who goes through the dying process (without crucifixion at least), talks to angels and Fiona (whoever she is), poses a la pieta, and gets resurrected. She returns in a fabulous (there’s that word again) sparkly, gold ball gown with shimmering scarf and new darker wig repeating all too many quasi-familiar lines of reinterpreted scripture.
With some serious cutting, clarifying, and sticking to the clever heartfelt voice that appears in so many wonderful one-liners, The Legendary and Fabulous Passion Play will be a worthwhile adventure. The talented cast is certainly committed fully to the endeavor, and they prove that even a bleached-blonde wig can be wept over.
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