With Glee, The Gay Ivy, Livin’ On The Real

 
After an unaccountable rave review for John Gregor’s With Glee in the New York Times, the press descended on this whimsical production and we scratched our collective heads in befuddled amazement. First seen at the 2007 New York Musical Festival (NYMF) and well-directed here by Igor Goldin (late of the Yank! team), With Glee, I’m sorry to report, is a dreary, derivative, cloying, unfocused and underwritten waste of time. The five actors (Zach Bandler, Christopher Davis Carlisle, Jason Edward Cook, Dan Lawler and Max Spitulnik) who play thirteen-year-olds sent away to reform school, are fine—as are the two character actors (Greg Horton and Erin Jerozal) who play all the adult men and women in their lives, though Horton chews the scenery a bit as the 90-minute show progresses. But devoid of plot, dramatic build and any basis in reality, With Glee is a grim 90 minutes of relentless disappointment.
 
Dixon Place’s 19th Annual Hot! Festival (HotFestival.org) has offerings for queer people everywhere. I recently saw The Gay Ivy, a pseudo-documentary piece about the fallout from a 2009 Yale Alumni Magazine issue that highlighted the gay and lesbian presence at Yale, past and present, through a series of songs, monologues and readings from the actual letters alumni sent in response to the controversial issue. Well put together with a superb cast that includes original conceivers Thomas Dolan and Megan Stern along with Tim Eliot, Emily Jenda, Kobi Libii and pianist Jonathan Breit, The Gay Ivy is off to a good start but still needs shaping, perspective and more tension to be truly effective. Its songs, by a collective of composers, are especially strong and it will be interesting to see how The Gay Ivy continues to find its voice.
 
Already in full voice is the diva performer, Michael Lynch, who wowed his audience with his autobiographical cabaret show, Livin’ on the Real. A series of reminiscences told with a background of funk, R&B, disco, gospel and soul—all courtesy of the talented (and adorable!) Steve Kaufman—Lynch rocked the house with his ferocious, take-no-prisoners approach to survival in the rough-and-tumble world of growing up a gay African-American child in the South and in the Bronx in the ’60s and ’70s. True, Lynch needs to edit and streamline his stories to make them cleaner and more effective, and he also needs to give more attention to his diction as his words fly fast and furious. But overall, Livin’ on the Real is an entertaining and moving testament to a life fought for, lived and loved. And that’s a message more of us need to take to heart.    N


With Glee plays through August 1 at Kirk (410 W 42nd St, 212-279-4200). Dixon Place Hot! Festival plays through August 7 at Dixon Place (161A Chrystie St, 212-219-0736).