MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!- IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN "OUT TOWN" DO NOT SEE THIS PLAY AS THE ENTIRE PLOT IS REVEALED IN ACT 2. END SPOILER WARNING
Yikes...I really did not care for this one tonight! The second act was soooo long. I felt like it just went one for scene after scene after scene. The character of Brandon could/should be completely cut from the play. He really didn't add anything and was totally underdeveloped.
In general the writing never rose above a Lifetime movie. The conflicts were cliche and you could find all of them in a episode of Queer As Folk or Will & Grace. I know at the beginning when Adam couldn't visit his partner in the ER because it was "family only" (gasp!) that it was going to be a long night.
At least the first act had some campy lines in it. Act 2 just became such a slog to get through.
Slight spoilers follow-
What was with that scene with Adam and Brandon in the park? Would Adam ever have invited this near stranger/estranged friend for a meeting to ask him advice about Luke praying after sex?
Would Adam really have stayed with Luke all those years if these issues of religion, being in the closet, all this apparent praying had been such a big deal? I don't know if I would.
What was with Luke's father asking him if the ni**** in the play with him was a fag? Was this just to shock us? (It didn't.) For a character who always turned a blind eye to his son's homosexuality, would he have really asked his son if someone he knew was gay?
What happened to Holly? She was all over act 1 and then pretty much disappeared in act 2.
Would Adam and Luke really have owned a purple teletubby?
Would Luke's mom really have been arrested for six months for selling pot with a one-armed beautician?!
Ok, you get the point. I felt like the whole thing was a structure to bring up "issues facing the gay community today." Unfortunately it was clumsy and (to quote a friend) ultimately shallow.
Also the set looked cheap and, as noted above, the costumes rarely changed over four years of flashbacks!
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!