Campy Musical Set in Bathhouse is Fun Escape
By MICHAEL W. FREEMAN June 29, 2006 TimeOut
Throughout history, musicals have been created in a diverse number of settings. It seems that just about anyplace you can imagine, songwriters have found a way to stick characters in there and then get them to sing their hearts out, no matter how bizarre the location.
Remember the nun in the Austrian Alps -- "The Sound Of Music"? That's a far cry from the Anglo and Puerto Rican youth gangs fighting it out on the mean streets of New York City -- "West Side Story." And that's an equally great distance from the barber shop where a sadistic barber slashes his customers throats -- "Sweeney Todd" -- or the castle in the middle of nowhere inhabited by aliens from Transsexual, Transylvania -- "The Rocky Horror Show." As long as the songwriters have wide imaginations, they can get their characters to belt 'em out in even the weirdest settings. So perhaps it was inevitable that eventually a songwriting team would put their characters in a bathhouse.
"Bathhouse: The Musical" puts its focus on four gay men who arrive to hit the steam rooms, check out who's available for a date, and, of course, belt out plenty of songs, cabaret-style. The ( now 90min .) 60-minute-long "Bathhouse: The Musical" had its debut in May at the Orlando Fringe Festival in 2006 before finding a home at the Footlight Theater in Orlando this month. The result is a show that, while skimpy on plot, provides a very generous amount of hilariously campy humor and catchy, foot-tapping tunes to be well worth taking in.
In one sense, a musical in a gay bathhouse is probably long overdue, considering that bathhouses in big cities like New York have been popular spots for cabaret-style performers for decades. There was even a popular '70s stage show -- and in 1976 movie version -- called "The Ritz," set in a gay bathhouse. The movie featured Rita Moreno playing Googie Gomez, the talentless singer who performs for the guys. In fact, it was another popular gay icon, Bette Midler, who in 1970 got her start singing at the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in New York. Her piano accompanist there, Barry Manilow, went on to produce her first major album, "The Divine Miss M," in 1973.
"Bathhouse: The Musical" is very much in that tradition. It has few aspirations beyond being an enjoyably silly diversion, and on those terms, it is a lot of fun. There's rich camp humor to spare because the performers demonstrate a great deal of talent in singing, dancing and being goofy. Being goofy on stage sounds easy, but doing it well is probably a lot harder than it sounds.
"Bathhouse" is written by Esther Daack and Tim Evanicki, and for the Footlight Theater show, some additional material has been provided by Ryan Beck and Jason Wetzel. A special note of thanks also needs to go to the original choreography by Carl Anderson, which is pretty snappy. But a show like this only works with good performers, and the producers chose wisely. The characters have no names -- they're more like archetypes. Karl Anderson is the hunk who obviously spends a lot of spare time in the gym lifting weights, while the show's co-writer, Evanicki, also plays the chub, the somewhat weight-challenged guy who doesn't have the Abercrombie model look to bring to the table. It's Evanicki job to catch the eye of the beauty boys, which leaves him singing a few soulful ballads about going home empty. Kane Prestenback and Jerry Jobe Jr. round out the cast, and all four of them are terrific singers and dancers. The fact that they also have a great sense of comedic timing makes "Bathhouse" a treat. Jobe and Evanicki, in particular, steal so many laughs that the show is as much a really good comedy as it is a musical.
Orlando Sentinel
Review by Roger Moore
Start with a gay cliche. Ok, EVERY gay cliche. The male ones, anyway. Beginning with the title and setting--Bathhouse, where bathing is optional. Put your cast in towels. Whip up a few songs, with an ear for the funny and the familiar. And you've got one of the can't-miss shows at this year's Fringe.
Bathhouse: The Musical is a raunchy revue about that long-endangered species of gay cruising the bathhouse, "a place to unwind," one average Joe sings, "all over someone's face." If that offends you, this ain't the show for you, honey. It's a real towel-snapper, with simulated oral sex, bumps and grinds and songs that are tributes to show tunes (shockingly), parodies of religious revival (take THAT!) and the like.
It is freaking hilarious!
Advice on how to cruise the bathhouse, how to accept rejection, how to try to transition from tawdry pick-up to dating, all advice passed on to newly-out Billy (Tim Evanicki, in fine voice). Oh yes, it's Raining Men, as a trio of Dancing Queens (Karl Anderson, Jerry Jobe Jr., Kane Prestenback, all superb) take Like a Virgin--Billy from the closet to the military (a rewritten "Yankee Doodle Dandy"). By the time they hit the "Les Miz" tribute (a big white towel, NOT the big red flag), if you haven't surrendered, you're just too tacky-camp-resistant to get it. And no, "Bear Chaser" has nothing to do with hunting. Or mixed drinks. Or does it?