Thanks to an undergraduate minor in Theater and an unfortunate seven year association with a lover of "bad" musicals, I have a pretty good background in musical theater. SO I feel marginally qualified to comment on the show we saw Saturday night at the Victoria Theater.
We are regular attendees at the DGMC & supporters too. We know the guys work very hard toward every performance. This was one of their best. All of the performances: the chorus, the guest artists, the musical accompaniment--um the band--uhh the orchestra? Anyway, it was a great evening of music. Charlie Clark was amazing...I'd go so far as to say A-mah-zing. Mary Elizabeth Southworth and Darrin McKormick were great too. And the Chorus...did I say, they did a fab job! They really did.
Andrew Lippa was commissioned to create this piece (it's not a musical...it's not even a musical review--but we'll get there in a minute, or two) by a couple of big Gay Men's Choruses across the country including San Francisco's. After those choruses premiered it, they allowed other choruses to perform it (that's how DGMC got the rights). Lippa is a Tony nominee who wrote "The Addams Family" and "Big Fish" among other musicals. He has the pedigree...but I have to say that I hope the choruses who paid for this didn't shell out a lot--because it is only half formed (if that). (Kinda like "The Addams Family" so I'm not surprised that's his too).
There are a couple of stand out songs "You are Here" "Was I Wong" maybe "Friday Night in the Castro" and "Lavender Pen" but there are problems too.
And the worst song...unfortunately the second song of the piece, "I Am the Bullet" is possibly the single worst song I have ever heard performed. Yes, the bullet that killed Harvey Milk is personified. No, I am not kidding. It tells the audience that Harvey was thinking about music and love as it hit the pink of his brain...No I AM NOT MAKING THAT UP! Nothing in "Carrie" nothing in "Jeeves" nothing in "Children of Eden" nothing in "Superman: the musical" nothing in "Eating Raoul: the musical" (and yes, I have heard those all, those "bad musicals") nothing in ANY MUSICAL you can name is as awful, as out of place, as disturbing in a bad way as this song. I read a book of verse about the Titanic that personified the iceberg in several poems...and gave it sentience...malevolence, it was heading for the Titanic and expecting to sink it...this song was worse than those iceberg poems. This was an embarrassment. This was unseemly, wrong, stupid and totally out of place in this musical piece.
Do I think Harvey Milk was a pioneer and someone to be admired? You BETcha! He was a great man...and totally humble (He was also totally adorable!) Was this the homage he deserved? No. emphatically. No. I want to see a REAL musical--as operatic as you wanna be about Harvey Milk. After watching a Tony Awards broadcast (Sunday night) awarding musicals in a season so slow they had to drag in previews of the upcoming season...I guess I get how this is considered finished enough to perform.
All that said...I want to reiterate that the DGMC did a great job with the material they were given. And, as I said, the guest artists were also delightful.
Mr Tim's first Theater review. I give this show "A" for performances and "C-" for material.