Review: 'Fabulous Story' a real hoot

BY BOB FISCHBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Mostly silly, sometimes outrageous, occasionally touching and often funny - that's the essence of SNAP's "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told."

The SNAP production is filled with one-line zingers.

In other words, it's vintage Paul Rudnick, who goes for the one-line zinger every time.

"Fabulous" follows in the gay spirit of Rudnick's stage hit "Jeffrey" and his movie hit "In and Out," which starred Tom Selleck, Kevin Kline and Joan Cusack.

Rudnick likes broad jokes based on stereotype, and he's not above raunch or preaching.

But he knows how to make people laugh, as does a talented cast led by Brian Margritz and Michal Simpson.

The two play Adam and Steve in a biblical Garden of Eden, who soon discover they aren't alone. Jane and Mabel live there, too. After the great flood, all four learn the planet has - horrors - opposite-sex couples.

The four are inexplicably ageless, passing through Egypt as the pyramids are built before ending up in present-day New York City for Act II. A Christmas-Hanukkah party set in Adam and Steve's apartment almost morphs into a lesbian wedding led by a woman rabbi in a wheelchair, until Jane goes into labor.

Don't try to make sense of it, just approach in a spirit of fun. Director Roxanne Wach has wisely moved the script's sex scenes from center stage to offstage, keeping things light and crisply paced. Wach also has designed some swell scenery - notably, canvas backdrop panels that are flipped like flash cards - and Mallory Prucha's costumes are equally delightful.

But language and sexuality make this a distinctly adult show. Adam and Steve spend a good bit of time clad only in flesh-colored briefs, and Jane lets the profanity fly while in labor (also when not).

The spotlight often falls on four supporting players in multiple roles. Sassy Mary Kelly, as the rabbi, and Morgan Solomon, as a fresh-faced Mormon at the holiday party, are outstanding. Jason Jokerst makes a hilarious rhino and rabbit on the ark, and rubber-faced Todd Brooks has his best moments as the pharaoh. Christine Lafinhan, as a God-like stage manager barking cues, could be Lily Tomlin's sister.

Among the principals, Elayne Station, as natural, self-assured Jane, is one of the best things about this show, along with Simpson as a sly-eyed, skeptical Steve.

Margritz, depending on your point of view, is a refreshing free spirit or over-the-top camp. Either way, he's a ball of energy. Angie Heim is solid in the least flashy lead role of Mabel.

While Rudnick's talent for laugh lines is undeniable, they sometimes come at the expense of a coherent message - or of respect for points of view he clearly rejects. Playing Jew off Christian, straight vs. gay or free thinker against traditionalist, the most profound he gets here is Steve's closing statement of a belief in believing.

In what is less the point, as polemics are trumped by zany antics. And with a skilled director and cast, plus talent and ingenuity in costumes and set done on a budget, "Fabulous" does no shame to its overreaching name.

Biblical Proportions
by Nora Spencer

Imagine God as a stage manager, cueing things like the creation of the world and the flood with a simple "go." In The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told (which just might actually be), the world begins in such fashion, and in the gayest of ways: Adam and Steve are nearly nude and in love in the Garden of Eden. Joined later by Jane and Mabel, a lesbian couple, the foursome traipses through Noah’s Ark, ancient Egypt, the birth of Christ, and finally, modern Manhattan, in search of higher meaning. With a fierce script written by Paul Rudnick (In and Out, Jeffrey), and a cast who seems ready for anything, this Fabulous production would be unforgivable to miss.

Men kiss in this play — a lot — which is partly why it’s so beautiful. Adam’s (Brian Margritz) wide-eyed excitement about each new discovery is balanced by Steve’s (Michal Simpson) skepticism. Steve keeps Adam’s first-act, Pollyanna-ish musings sweet instead of grating, such as when Steve tells Adam he loves him, Adam, with the earnestness of a child, says he can no longer move his body for fear he will burst into a million pieces of happiness. Their happiness is more subdued in the second, more realistic, act, as Adam and Steve invite friends to Christmas Eve in their loft, and we learn that Steve has AIDS.

Jane and Mabel, on the other hand, are a solid (for the most part) couple who change less throughout the show, but share the same relationship balance as their male counterparts — Jane (Elayne Station), the gorgeously butch realist to Mabel (Angie Heim), the free-spirited spiritualist. After the flood, when the couples meet some breeders who explain how their gaggle of kids were conceived, Mabel becomes obsessed with having a baby (though all four are repulsed by the absurd idea of men and women having sex together). But it’s Jane who ends up in labor in the second act, and who made me cry with her life-is-fucking-beautiful rant while she delivers the baby in Adam and Steve’s living room.

In genre, the play is a romantic comedy, zinging and irreverent. But as I dissect each character to write this review, I think Fabulous is more about truth than anything else. Rabbi Sharon (Mary Kelly), a feminist lesbian paraplegic televangelist, is brought to Christmas Eve to perform a wedding, but ends up summing up the show by asking why wouldn’t God exist?

As director Roxanne Wach notes in the program, Rudnick said, "When I wrote Most Fabulous, I knew that people would ask me if I believed in God. My answer is the play, but that’s a little easy. I think I believe in the transcendence of art, in that perishable moment when an audience and a performer and a play work together, when laughter and technique and emotion create a conspiracy of pleasure." Wach herself wrote, "I’ve definitely decided that God has a sense of humor. I’ve decided that we all really want the same things out of life — man, woman, gay, straight, pharaoh, rhino — a point I think the play makes beautifully." She goes on to say she’s grateful to the cast and crew, and "most of all to God/Goddess/Allah/Buddha/Shiva/Great Spirit who brought us together. Amen!"

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