I saw
this back when it first came out – loved it then, love it now. Like Prop 8: The Musical before it, it’s a
short, lovingly-assembled, cameo-laden protest musical. In this case, it was written around the time
of the Sochi Olympics to protest Russia’s homophobic practices/policies.
After
their straight-washing efforts are deemed insufficient for the squeamish
government, Russia’s theatres are shut down.
The Russian theatre community, however, is determined not to go down
without a fight, and they pull out all the stops for a one-night-only performance
of pure musical-theatre dissent.
This
short is both funny and biting, with the fake musical’s songs winking to the
audience while still speaking the truth that LGBTQ folks can’t be erased from
Russia’s past or present (as the kids point out in the Matilda-esque “from the mouths of babes” number near the end of the
show, “Tchaikovsky was gay!”) The songs range from a little silly to
surprisingly good – I especially love all the lesbians standing up to the
police – and there are all the Russia jokes, furry hats, and fake accents of
varying dubiousness you could want.
The whole
thing is packed to the gills with Broadway cameos. Harvey Fierstein, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy
Jordan, Patti LuPone, Stephen Schwartz, Stephanie J. Block, Laura Benanti, Jeff
McCarthy, and Santino Fontana are just a few of the many, many Broiadway peeps
playing LGBTQ Russian thespians. A lot
of them just fill in wherever needed, while others are present for some very
intentional Broadway in-jokes. I
particularly like Victoria Clark singing, “We’re on vacation… permanently,” and
the perfectly-timed cut to Michael Cerveris after another character wonders
what musical-theatre actor could capture the raw masculinity of Vladimir Putin.
Andrew
Rannells’s character is credited as Protagonist. He’s not actually in the show-within-a-short
but instead seems to be the one who spearheaded the musical. He serves as our narrator for the short,
popping up now and then with his furry hat and iffy accent to deliver
exposition to the audience. So, no
singing (unfortunately!), but a decent number of lines.
Like most
of the performers here, Rannells doesn’t have a ton to do, but it’s definitely
more than the blink-and-you’ll-missed-it parts that some of his colleagues
have. I have no doubt that pretty much
everyone appearing in the short is doing it out of personal conviction (along
with the fun collaboration,) and I’m sure that holds true for Rannells as
well. And he has a few good bits – I
like his delivery on, “Still too
gay: so we get closing notice!”, and
he’s amusing calling his American “university lover” Dan Savage for advice.
Recommend?
In
General
– Definitely. It’s a great little “eff
you” to the Russian government’s homophobia, and it’s clear that everyone
involved really wanted to make it.
Andrew
Rannells
– Strictly speaking, I wouldn’t say anyone’s part is big enough to recommend
seeing it just for them. Still, even
though he doesn’t sing, Rannells’s part is bigger than most here, and a
12-minute short isn’t too much of an investment to make on his behalf.
Warnings
Thematic
elements.
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