Flipping through the playbill I got when attending last week's showing of Macbeth at the Orlando Shakes, I noticed an ad for the renowned play Deathtrap currently running at the Garden Theater in Winter Garden. My interest had immediately been peaked. Though I'd never seen the play before, I had seen the movie several times. I loved the plot twists and the off-beat campy handling of the murder mystery genre. Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve were awesome and played their parts wonderfully. But I especially liked the kiss. Yes, the Kiss heard 'round the Gay World.
Back in the day, it was practically impossible to spot gay romance in theater or film. And certainly nothing as radical as a full mouth-to-mouth un-obscured male-male romantic kiss. I'm not entirely sure, but I really do think I attended a showing of the theatrical release of the film in the early eighties. I, like the rest of the audience, was shocked at the plot twist regarding the contrived faux murder and the revealed relationship of the two male leads. While the rest of my small hometown audience audibly moaned and booed the gay kiss, my teenaged mind reeled and, likely, my pee-pee did too. Wink, wink. (Last night I watched the kiss on a YouTube clip and it was indeed hot. Especially from my current point of view as a now older gentleman who would very much indeed like a peck from a young, virile Superman. Swoon!)
I bought my ticket online thinking the theater was one I'd visited many years ago during a Broadway roadshow production of Damn Yankees a friend/co-worker of mine was in. But that venue was in Winter Haven not Winter Garden. I'd gotten them mixed up. While Winter Haven is a convenient 50 miles from Sebring, Winter Garden is sandwiched between Clermont and Orlando some 100 miles away! Oops. Well, I'd already bought the non-refundable ticket so I made the best of it treating it as part of a mini-vacation, booking a hotel stay in Kissimmee and visiting Disney as well.
The theater was about the size of Sebring's Highlands Little Theater but as I sat in my tiny, cramped seat squeezed between two ladies not loving the idea of relinquishing their armrests (yet they had no choice, did they?) I noticed the stage setting looked very well done. The look of a converted stable fitting in with the Colonial farmhouse adorned with theatrical posters and ancient weapons on display. It was a good setting for a murder.
But when the actors playing Sydney and Myra came on stage and opened their mouths, it was my hope for a good performance that was killed instead. "Nervous opening minutes jitters?" I wondered. Nope. They just plain sucked. The Playbill's Who's Who indicates this was Christine Gervais' (Myra) rookie performance so I give her a pass but Stephen Lima's (Sydney) bio rattled off a fair-sized resume so I don't know what the fuck his excuse was. Maybe he felt this small town theater was beneath him? 'Cause damned if he wasn't just ambling through his memorized lines with nary a thought to their meaning. There was even a small wardrobe malfunction regarding him helping another character donning his coat which he seemed flummoxed at having to improvise through though the other, obviously better actor handled effortlessly. If the final applause is any meter of judgement, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who noticed.
The veteran actor, Bob Brandenburg (playing the small role of the lawyer Porter Milgrim) rightfully got the most vigorous applause of the cast in the end. Kudos to him, and for only a mere ten lines or so.
IMHO the most visually impressive was the actor playing Clifford, Andrew Romano. Oh yes, Honey, I'd kill a bitch for his ass too! Damn! Oh how I was hoping for a post-shower shirtless appearance as was the case in the film. And the kiss, oh I wanted the kiss.
But there was no kiss. Turns out, the Ira Levin penned play has no mouth-to-mouth kiss in its script. That was only in the movie.
But if I were directing this, in a Yuppie upscale "Winter Park wannabe" town like Winter Garden where I'm sure all the westside Orlando gays gather, I'd go bold and jazz up this thing with that change up. Why not? It sure would have made this less-than-stellar show at least a little less of a snoozefest. And maybe some of the Trump-lovin' blue-hairs in the audience would have had a few heart attacks themselves.