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| Gordon Ramsey, Ann Hodapp, Robert Tananis. |
IN GAY COMPANY
[Musical Revue/Homosexuality] M/LY: Fred Silver; D: Sue Lawless; DS: Michael J.
Hottopp, Paul dePass; P: MCB Company; T: Upstairs at Jimmy’s (OB);
4/4/75-4/13/75 (13)
A promising Off-Off Broadway show (at the Little Hippodrome,
October 29, 1974) prompted an Off-Broadway move for this “try-sexual musical
revue,” but, despite decent notices, it was gone before two weeks passed.
Called simply Gay Company in its
first appearance, the show had a definite appeal even though its subject matter
limited its audiences to what Howard Thompson described as “intelligent adults
with a sophisticated sense of humor who are fed up with sex exploitation and
somewhat shabby counterparts to this show.”
Reviewing the Off-Off version, Thompson said the four-man,
one-woman entertainment, which commented on male same-sex relationships within
a program of 16 songs, was “tasteful and stylish,” and “lances social taboos
with deadly irony.” The cast consisted of Rick Gardner, Bob Gorman, Ann Hodapp,
Gordon Ramsey, and Robert Tananis.
The numbers each had a dramatic/comical core, as in the
effective song that showed how aghast a quartet of macho Irish fire fighters
would be if the fire department hired gay men. In another routine, two aging
gays encounter each other after many years and fondly reminisce about their
first meeting “At the Matachine Society Masquerade.”
Fred Silver’s two-piano score was “brilliantly conceived,”
thought Thompson. John Simon also liked it, but found the sentimental ballads
wanting. He commended the show, however, for handling its subject “without
attitudinizing or special pleading.”