My 9/10 'Joy' Review

[LesMizazz]

Posted: 9/11/05 at 12:52am

I saw the matinee of 'Joy' at the Actor's Playhouse downtown...
Even though this was a play, I enjoyed it a lot! It actually had some singing in it, but it wasn't like a libretto or anything, it was just random songs like 'Dancing Queen' and 'I'll Be Seeing You' thrown in. And the guy that was playing the piano was actually an actor who played Corey.
My favorite character was Gabriel, played by Christopher Sloan, who looked like a younger, taller version of John Tartaglia. I even heard someone else thinking the same thing. But he was adorably cute and he played the younger part in one of the relationships.
My least favorite character was Paul, played by Paul Whitthorne, and I really didn't like this character at all. I thought he was a jerk who was way too full of himself, and basically only cared about himself. He had constant monologues that were just basically about him and his feelings and they really annoyed me. Not to say I didn't like the actor that played him...because he obviously did a convincing job at making me hate the character.
This is a spoiler, but I was really happy when Gabriel ended up cheating on Paul and later dumping him for Darryl, played by Michael Busillo (who looks like Doug Kreeger). I think Darryl and Gabriel were a much more fitting pair, because of their youth and they just seemed to have more in common.
Another relationship with minor characters, was between Corey and Christian played respectively by Ken Barnett and Ben Curtis. For some reason, the character of Corey (and I guess the look of Ken Barnett) reminded me of Ted from Queer as Folk. Christian seemed to be way out of Corey's league as far as a relationship, because Corey seemed much more intellectual than Christian. Christian was also clearly a pothead and a stereotypical dazed and confused college student who didn't say much except for random catchphrases (which were quite funny!).
And lastly, was the relationship between the two women, Kegan and Elsa, played respectively by Julia Krohn (understudy) and Ryan Kelly. I didn't pay much attention to their relationship as a whole, but they were great characters to have in it. I enjoyed how Elsa and Gabriel worked together and talked about their future girlfriend and boyfriend. It was cute.
I also enjoyed Michael Busillo as Darryl, who didn't appear until later. He became the one that Gabriel fell in love with and left Paul for. He had a lot of youth and spunk to him, which was the kind of person I thought Gabriel should go for.
I think my favorite part of the show was the Indian dance with Elsa and Darryl, showing off the dance talents of Ryan Kelly and Michael Busillo.
So overall, I thought it was a great show and reminded me a lot of the relationships seen within Queer As Folk.