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Sharing the Place
Two gay couples face different eras together

By Steve Parks
STAFF WRITER

November 2, 2001

REVIEW

108 WAVERLY. World premiere of a musical play.
Book and lyrics by Dan Clancy, music by Lynn Portas. Director, Sam Viverito.
At Queens Theatre in the Park's Studio Theatre, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, through Nov.11. Seen opening night, Oct. 25.

BRIAN AND MATTHEW are lovers. So are Robby and Chris. Although all four hang out in the same Greenwich Village apartment - a one-bedroom, fifth-floor walk-up - the two couples have never met.

How can that be? For the very good reason that the first gay partners came to "108 Waverly" seven decades before the second.

That's the conceit of this new play by Dan Clancy, who has collaborated with Lynn Portas to turn it into a musical. The same- place/different- time juxtaposition creates a warp that folds one couple's relationship into the other's.

Clancy's talking, singing narrative explores love and acceptance in consecutive lifetimes. While the stories of each couple overlap, composer Portas stylistically brackets the songs in time: "Waltz Me Around the Apartment" and an old-fashioned ballad ("Love, You Have Stolen My Heart") for the '20s; an angry folk-rock solo ("Mr.Backlash") and an up-tempo ode to gay adoption ("What a Great Daddy You'll Be") for the present.

Rather than time-splitting the apartment, set designer Michael Hotopp incorporates props from both eras into a somehow coherent, if strangely eclectic decorating style. The 1928 couple, Brian and Matthew, ignore the laptop, while we assume Chris and Robby have a taste for antiques.

Nor does director Sam Viverito feel the need to rush one couple offstage to make way for the other. Brian, a schoolteacher, continues correcting papers as Chris, a novelist- wanna-be, reads aloud a passage from his work-in-progress. The device contributes to an impression that little has changed in attitudes about homosexuality in 70 years. And in some ways, little has - as when Brian and Matthew argue about a gay bashing after Robby completes his "smash, bash, crash" riff in "Mr. Backlash."

But then, in 1928, it would have been fantasy for Brian and Matthew to talk about adopting a child.

Chris Weikel as Brian and Jamie McGonnigal as Matthew make a likably plausible couple. Weikel presents a bold Brian, comfortable with his sexuality and unafraid to display affection, while McGonnigal earns sympathy for Matthew with his need to remain in the closet. "We're safe on this side of the door," he sings sweetly, sadly.

Robby, played as a hyperactive young adult by Daniel Cooney, can't get out enough, while Jason Cicci plays Chris as a domestic wallflower. But this characterization seems too much of a cliche. Just because Chris wants to adopt shouldn't make him reluctant to go out at night.

Both duets handle the conversational give-and-take of the lyrics with flawless timing and modulation, careful not to overproject. But it takes a while to be drawn into the relationships. As a result, the opening songs seem forced. But as the frank dialogue and sexual tension begin to play out - there's more male-on- male kissing than in all six hours of "Angels in America, Parts I and II" - the songs flow with refreshing honesty.

A suggestion: If "108 Waverly" has a future beyond this Equity showcase, producers should consider an intermission. There's a lot to digest for a musical play that runs just over 90 minutes.

Copyright © 2001, Newsday, Inc.

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