by Maria Staiano-Daniels
Daily Lobo
"The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told" opens with a warning read by an announcer.
"This play contains sex, nudity and mature themes," she said. "Tell your friends."
The audience cheered loudly.
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The play is definitely not for children, religious conservatives or people who don't like sex jokes - if such people exist.
The story follows two homosexual couples. The women are Jane and Mabel; the men are Adam and Steve. Their relationships unfold over thousands of years, from the creation of the world to a time close to the present.
The first half would be the most problematic for the religiously sensitive. It parodies several of the most well-known Bible stories: the creation of the world, Noah's ark and the story of Moses, among others.
Also appearing in this act are full male nudity and homosexual sex - the latter cleverly concealed behind a papier-mÉchÇ rock. Jeff Andersen, who plays Adam, and Charlie Dearing, who plays Steve, must be comfortable with their bodies. It's not easy to be buck-naked on stage in front of that many people.
The actors leapt enthusiastically into their campy roles. Anderson gave Adam the frenetic energy and wide-eyed, innocent wonder of a 10-year-old, and Meghan Bode's ditzy, hippie-chick Mabel was wonderful.
Some of the supporting roles were also well done. Kathryn Olguin and Heather Anne Yeo played a lesbian cat-and-pig couple perfectly. You'll have to see the play to understand that sentence.
The humor of Act 1 is based mainly on snappy one-liners. They were all funny, but, in such massive quantities, slightly overwhelming. Every few minutes I reached humor saturation point and my brain had to reboot before I could laugh at any more jokes.
The dialogue was a little stiff in this act, and the acting, while generally good, was a bit underdeveloped. The actors were always on the same high-energy level, which contributed to my emotional overload.
The second half of the play, set in modern New York on Christmas Eve, corrected all the errors of the first. Occurring over the course of only a few hours, compared to the 2,000 years covered in the first half, it details the story of Jane and Mabel's wedding.
By the second act, actors had settled into their roles, and performances were more nuanced and real. Merritt Glover's Jane and Dearing's Steve come into their own in Act 2. Both were extremely moving.
Other notable performances in Act 2 were Justin Young's Trey, a catty department-store Santa, and Lisa Fenstermacher's Rabbi Sharon, who was just a treat.
Overall, I was amazed by how much "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told" did not offend me. The play never attacks Judeo-Christian beliefs - it only gently makes jokes about them.
This play isn't about gay people, as such. It deals with the large questions that everybody asks about faith, love, family and commitment, only the characters who happen to be asking these questions are gay. The play draws attention not to the opposition and conflict between gay and straight culture, but to our common humanity and our common love of dirty jokes.
