There's a germ of a good comedic concept hiding out here. The playwright, David Bell, examines the clash between art and commerce as it might happen in the world of Off-Off-Broadway. Oddly, this is a realm not much examined under a satirist's microscope and, initially, Bell does well in presenting the Integrity Players, a tiny, struggling group sworn to principled drama. It consists of Dan (Christopher Yustin); his wife, Amanda (Jessica Calvello); Harold (Wayne Henry); and stage manager Tim (Desmond Dutcher). It's Tim who provides the connection with a trio of gay self-promoters: Eddie Russini (Christopher Borg), T. Scott (Brett Douglas), and Edonis (Michael Silva). Hot from their recent success, "Naked Boys Running Around Naked," and with the help of porn star Kit Swagger (Gregory Marcel), this trio means to goose the Integrity Players into solvency. Add to the mix Amanda's wealthy mother, Samantha (Ellen Reilly), intent on rescuing her daughter, and the farcical elements are in place.
The trouble is that after the early gentle satire of the Integrity Players and their recent production of "15 by Beckett," the flaming entrance of the trio suddenly puts the comedy into overdrive. Indeed, Borg's energetic Eddie is not so much over the top as halfway up the next mountain. One would look for directorial restraint only to discover that, with Jason Bowcutt, Borg is also director of the piece. Such overdrawn, stereotypical characters have become quite hackneyed of late. This bombast often negates the clever comic touches that keep cropping up in playwright Bell's script.
From Janet Jackson and Uta Hagen to "Jockstrap, the Musical," the references are consistently funny. And the most successful characters are those that are played straight, as it were. Thus, Calvello's pregnant Amanda and Henry's earnest Harold convince, and the scene of Harold introducing porn star Kit into the mysteries of acting is the most pleasing.