 | |||
| FEATURES | BLOGS | DAILY DIG | GEAR |
ALL ABOUT CHRISTMAS EVE
Holidays can be such a drag
By Jenna Scherer
del.ico.us
reddit!
The only thing better than old Hollywood bitchfights? Old Hollywood bitchfights in drag. The only thing better than that? Old Hollywood bitchfights in drag with antlers.
Yes, gay-theater lovers and gay theater lover hangers-on, Ryan Landry and The Gold Dust Orphans have once again revved up their adaptation machine—whose most recent targets have included The Wizard of Oz, Euripides and Tennessee Williams—and aimed it at classic showbiz drama All About Eve.
The original 1950 film starred Bette Davis as formidable stage actress Margo Channing, who finds a fearsome rival in a starstruck young nobody named Eve. Aside from a worship-worthy performance by Davis, the flick boasts one of the funniest, smartest, sharp-toothed scripts ever written.
Landry always treats his source material with deep respect, even as he repopulates it with dirty jokes, New England squalor and cocks & balls. In All About Christmas Eve, he retains much of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s clever-as-hell screenplay, retrofitted with much ado about drag and Christmastime.
Here, Margo’s BFF Karen (Afrodite, looking totally stunning in a series of retro gowns) finds Eve (Penny Champagne) camped out in a Dumpster behind a Boston theater. Eve is obsessed with Margo, having watched her every night in her starring role as a slutty teenage reindeer in a play called “Party on the Pole.” Karen brings Eve to meet Margo (Landry, natch) in her dressing room, and before long, Eve has insinuated herself into her idol’s life. From trying to seduce Margo’s boyfriend, Bill (Chris Loftus), to jumping in as her fur-bikinied understudy, there’s nothing Eve won’t do to claw her way to the top.
All About Christmas Eve includes all the great moments from the movie, including the infamous party scene. Gold Dust’s version includes a random Liza Minnelli cameo, a little full frontal and some deeply hilarious dress-swishing from Landry as he delivers Margo’s signature line, “Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!”
Few shoes are more fun to fill than Bette Davis’, and Landry does it with all the hair-tossing, cigarette-ash-flinging flourish he can muster. And, looking like a young Tony Curtis (who also once donned a dress in Some Like It Hot), Penny Champagne plays Eve with genuine old-movie élan. Olive Another rocks the one-liners as Margo’s wisecracking maid and Foster Grant is hysterical as an ambitious young queen.
The original movie made generous use of voiceovers and so does James P. Byrne’s stage production—with a little help from old-timey spotlights. At one point, Karen even has a skirmish with her own internal monologue.
Gold Dust Orphans’ play wouldn’t be complete without a big sparkly production number, and we get one in a fabulous Baby Jesus song-and-dance called “No, No, Nativity!”
If you want goopy moralizing and penny-thin sentiment this holiday season, go see How the Grinch Stole Christmas! or A Christmas Carol. Otherwise, All About Christmas Eve’s your (wo)man—for a piece of Yule log that won't leave you gagging.
ALL ABOUT CHRISTMAS EVE
UNTIL 1.3.09
AT MACHINE
1254 BOYLSTON ST., BOSTON
617.265.6222
FRI-SAT 8PM; SUN 12.21 AND 12.28 AT 4PM/$28
THEATERMANIA.COM
GOLDDUSTORPHANS.COM
