Posted: 8/21/15 at 11:21pm
I saw the second preview tonight.
I think the best way to describe this play would be to call it uneven. There are times when it's flat-out hilarious, and the audience was cackling - mostly thanks to Michael McGrath's brilliant performance - and then times where we were uninterested and disengaged.
The problem lies in the plot. Straight boy goes drag. That's the premise. But his actual drag persona is never more than average. She's never over the top hilarious, and the songs they chose for her - all modern country songs - didn't really deliver any jokes. And out of drag, the character of Casey is so insanely boring. The actor didn't add much in way of characterization, and so the whole story/character are just "eh." At least Lopez assembled a hilarious group around him.
The writing was hit or miss as well. At times hilarious and at times very Lifetime movie. The story wraps up in the way you think it would - essentially: Drag saved my life - and the "domestic" scenes are all rather boring. You're suppose to root for the couple, but he's so bland that we just don't care. We want more silly drag queens. Lopez would write things like "Happy July 4th, everyone!" - which just hit my ear wrong. No one really speaks like that? You'd say "the 4th" or happy 4th of July." Just weird nit-picky things that just struck me as false. Or he has one dumb, Southern character say "kerfuffle." Which I don't think anyone would say anyway.
The staging is clunky. Stage hands come out and move various props around or disassemble moments. It kind of works, and it kind of distracts. You see someone throw a bunch of clothes to then witness a stand hand come out and clean it all up while some pop song plays.
Overall I think it's worth it to see for McGrath's performance. He's just stupid hilarious. I can't say enough about his performance. I kind of wish he had been the main focus as his character just had more of an interesting story.
