Gold Dust Orphans' Wizzin'

Go see it. It is hilarious. Check your homophobia and go to The Machine, a gay bar over by Fenway Park, and laugh your ass off.

It's great when all of your expectations are met in the theater. So much is crap, or it's just not right up there and you find yourself sitting in the audience making concessions for the actors or the production. And theater isn't getting any cheaper.

First, go. And when you go, check to see if the Sox are playing. I dropped Sue off at the door and went to park. There's a little lot around the corner I figured I'd shoot for if I couldn't find any on-street parking. Nothing on the street and parking was $35 because the Sox were in town. Holy Christ. Those guys are going to burn in hell, it's that simple. 

So, after driving around for awhile and it was getting late, I said to hell with it and parked at the Beth Israel Hospital. (Here's a tip: when you bail your car out, tell the attendant that you were there for a doctor's visit and you get a discount. I can't believe they bought that I had a doctor's visit at 11:00 last night, but they did. Sue was busting a gut laughing.)

I got there about a half hour late, and they let me in. The woman at the door (yes, see: it's a gay bar but women work there...sheesh) showed me where my "wife" was sitting (that's so cute, they think all heterosexuals are married) and in seconds I was laughing.

It's an original script, original music, with social commentary, the usual Orphans' sight gags like little things flying around on a wire, and some of the funniest jokes on the planet. C'mon, instead of ruby slippers Dorothy is wearing ruby panties. Glinda is a coke addict (helps when the poppers put them to sleep: Hey, it's snowing!) The scarecrow doesn't have a brain but that doesn't mean he can't keep talking on his cell phone. Lots of people do . The Tin Man doesn't have a heart and the hard drive on his laptop froze. The Cowardly Lion has gender issues. "C'mon, I'll fight you with my hair tied back." (Now that's funny.) They're all going to see the Wizard of Id and they get around in a giant vagina. I know that' sounds weird, but you just gotta see it and you'll be dying. 

It's campy and it's serious (well, seriously funny) commentary about our lives today, and you just don't see that in so much "serious" theater. I just wonder sometimes just how relevant any of the theater is nowadays. I love the theater, but I have to question why it's so hard to fill seats, at least in the smaller theaters. More and more, small theater companies play to their friends. You hear that the theater is dying and sometimes I wonder if maybe we should just let a lot of it die off and see what grows back, because we're just sort of keeping it on life support.