For a good idea of Wood, part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, run down the song list: "You Blew It," "Keep it Down," "Glory," "The Wood Is Gonna Stand," "Wet Dream," "I'm Out," and the show-stopping "The Fag Hag Drag." With more double entendres than the Jersey shore has flies, Wood is anything but subtle.
This gay version of A Midsummer Night's Dream is lightly amusing and heavily puerile. It would do very nicely as a cute college show. It also seems out of date, pedantic, insular, and not a little condescending. With music by Julianne Wick Davis and book and lyrics by Dan Collins, Wood wants to be daring and contemporary. That it turns out to be neither doesn't mean it's without talent. The tunes are snappy, the lyrics clever, and the characters inventive. But it soon wears thin.
The setting is "Normal, Anywhere," in particular a house on the edge of a wood and the wood itself, which, conveniently, contains a three-stall men's bathroom. The protagonist is Herman, an openly gay high school student with a cheerful, accepting mom and a closeted dad. He's attracted to Luke, Diana is attracted to him, Chad is attracted to Diana, Dad is having an affair with a cop, and Mom wants to chop down the trees to make way for the Herman Clifton Community Center for Tolerance and Acceptance. If she succeeds, where will people go for their assignations?
Under lively direction by Thomas Caruso, the appealing cast is headed by Cady Huffman as Mom and Jason Michael Snow as Herman. The exuberant Kate Wetherhead tears into the above-mentioned showstopping song, but all deserve notice: Ben Thompson, Stanley Bahorek, Joe Cassidy, Patrick Ryan Sullivan, and, as fairies in both the real and imaginary sense, Ryan J. Ratliff, Maurice Murphy, and Roland Rusinek.
Presented by New York Theatre Barn and Emily Miller as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival at TBG Theater, 312 W. 36th St., NYC. Sept. 17-28. Remaining performances: Fri, Sept. 19, 8 p.m.; Sat., Sept. 20, 1 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 21, 4:30 p.m.; Thu., Sept. 25, 1 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 28, 1 p.m. (212) 352-3101 or (866) 811-4111 or www.theatermania.com or www.nymf.org. Casting by Kerry Watterson, Michael Cassara.