Kurt's Dad: My son's a homosexual, and I love him. I love my dead gay son.
J.D.: Wonder how he'd react if his son had a limp wrist with a pulse.
Apparently that little outburst spawned a musical???
Theater: That blast of fresh theatrical air rushing from the Off Center is “I Love My Dead Gay Son,” a musical riff on the ’80s teen angst movie, “Heathers,” from Yellow Tape Construction, a new company with truckloads of creativity.
Director Jonathon Morgan and his crew of writers and composers realized that a reverential musical adapation of the line-perfect teener would bore, so they mashed together dialogue from the screenplay, including the howler in the title, along with new, raucus scenes and snippets of ’80s culture.
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COURTESY OF YELLOW TAPE CONSTRUCTION
The music echoes bits of punk, New Wave, pop, dance and Broadway from that era, without ever settling into something recognizable or memorable, and the large cast massacres the songs gleefully with shouts, warbles and grunts. The raw, crazed dancing looks like it was slingshot from “Footloose” by way of “Hairspray” and the residue of “Grease.”
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COURTESY OF YELLOW TAPE CONSTRUCTION
The performers, and therefore the audience, ate it up like candy. Not content to leave well enough alone, the creative team borrowed hints from the movie and turned them into extended fantasies — such as making explicit the homoerotic undertones in the dude-isms of jocks Kurt and Ram, played here with naughty gusto by Errich Petersen and Douglas Rutherford.
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COURTESY OF YELLOW TAPE CONSTRUCTION
Tim Doyle, who contributed words and music, plays the keyboards in the band and also portrays sociopath JD, dropping Christian Slater’s Jack Nicholson impersonation and instead throwing his body, voice and energy into the over-the-top-of-the-top frenzy fest. But of all the actors, the one who exemplifies everything “Dead Gay” is Breanna Stogner as the biggest, baddest “Heather.” She flips some kind of switch in her head in order to channel a gush of teen-ness that chokes the audience with laughter.
There is little in the way of character development, and the movie’s clean narrative is sliced and diced into a million pieces. Yet if you catch the “Dead Gay” fever in the first few moments, the next two hours provide limitless diversion. Strong recommendation: If you’ve never seen “Heathers” — and shame on you! — rent the DVD first.
(I didn't include the Kurt & Ram Make out photos)...my stomach couldn't handle it