There's a reason certain shameful activities are banished to dark corners of sleazy bars, never to see the light of day. Cary From the Cock, downtown party girl Cary Curran's sloppy solo show about "fag hagging" in Manhattan's gay watering holes, may have been better off staying in the back room.
The show is named after the Cock — at one time New York's most infamous gay bar — and writer-performer Curran slaps together Pussycat Dolls-style dances, embarrassing memoirs, and vulgar bons mots in a tribute to her favorite downtown hangout. Constantly interrupted by her rhinestone-encrusted cell phone (with a Madonna ring tone, of course), the self-proclaimed fag-hag diva recounts everything from her conservative Christian upbringing to an abysmal stint in a wet bikini contest. And though Curran briefly touches on more-serious subjects, such as the suburbanization of New York and misogyny within the gay community, Cary From the Cock amounts to little more than a clumsy barrage of inside jokes, high kicks, and full frontal nudity.
The real problem is that Curran's shtick may work in East Village bars, but it's hardly substantive enough to sustain a full-length theatrical event. In fact, Curran seems ill at ease with her audience — at times stumbling through her autobiographical stories — and really only approaches full diva potential while pole dancing to an Air Supply power ballad or performing the title song (an explicit parody of Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny From the Block"). Ironically, she's at her most genuine and charming as the subject of a short documentary film — awkwardly shown as a break in the stage action — suggesting that her real-life role as a downtown celebutante may be Curran's strongest performance.
But what's most heartbreaking is that Cary From the Cock lacks the vitality and fun one would expect from its barroom aesthetic. Sadly, a drunken night of East Village barhopping would yield a more dramatic evening.
Presented by Producer Paul
at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond St., NYC.
May 10-26. Thu.-Sat., 8 p.m.
(212) 868-4444 or www.smarttix.com.