Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays

This glittering theatrical happening from conceiver-director Brian Shnipper elicited an almost rapturous communal experience during its opening performance. Nine distinguished playwrights contribute short but blissfully sweet works exploring the heartbreak, joy, and controversies surrounding the topic of gay marriage. The hugely entertaining show overflows with lyricism, scintillating wit, and profound food for thought. The project admittedly was devised to overturn Proposition 8 via fundraising and the opening of minds. Yet by focusing on the universality of the human condition, the plays transcend sermonizing and politicizing.

Rotating ensembles will appear. The reviewed performance was graced with top-flight actors (Peri Gilpin, Julie Hagerty, Jay Harrington, Rachael Harris, Peter Paige, John Rubinstein), who read from scripts, putting the focus on the literate text, which is sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes screamingly funny, and often gorgeously poetic.

The most hilarious piece is Doug Wright's "On Facebook," featuring the ensemble, adapted from a real-life thread of Web communications. The choicest role went to Harris: a hoot as a homophobic chat-room junkie finding herself communicating amid gays and gay-friendly folks. She attempts to conceal her bigoted attitudes behind token expressions of acceptance, rampant with condescension and rationalizations.

Two additional pieces stand out among the funniest. In Paul Rudnick's "The Gay Agenda," Hagerty spectacularly inhabits the role of a hysterical member of a family-values association who claims she hears weird voices in her head when she is around gays, and who fears they are taking over her world, presumably somewhat like aliens from outer space. Yet she admits to liking them, adding to her confusion. Paige appears briefly at the end. "This Marriage Is Saved," by Joe Keenan, gives Rubinstein his finest comic moments, as an evangelist busted for cavorting with a male hooker. The clergyman and his clueless wife (Harris, once again uproarious) dodge the pointed questions of a media interviewer (the terrific Paige), to sidesplitting effect.

Rubinstein also shines in the deeply moving monologue "London Mosquitoes" by Moisés Kaufman, in which a man delivers a eulogy at the funeral of his longtime partner. Likewise strongly affecting is Neil LaBute's "Strange Fruit," about two men (Paige, Harrington) hoping to take advantage of California's brief legalization of gay marriage, until fate deals a shocking blow.

The other offerings—all excellent—include Jeffrey Hatcher's "White Marriage," a witty commentary on metrosexual husbands (featuring Gilpin and Harrington); Jordan Harrison's ironically funny "The Revision," in which a betrothed couple (Harrington, Rubinstein) replace words in the traditional marriage vows with euphemisms; Wendy MacLeod's "This Flight Tonight," about a lesbian couple (Gilpin, Harris) en route to Iowa so they can get a legal marriage; and José Rivera's "Pablo and Andrew at the Altar of Words," the evening's lovely finale, featuring the whole cast, preceding a reception, complete with wedding cake.

Presented by Joan Stein and Stuart Ross in association with the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center at the Renberg Theatre, the Village at Ed Gould Plaza, 1125 N. McCadden Place, L.A. May 9–June 27. Mon., 8 p.m. (323) 860-7300. www.standingonceremony.net.