Are you Ethel? ...or are you Judy?

I saw an off-Broadway musical last night. It’s called The Big Voice: God or Merman and I thought it was great. That should be enough to say, right? Why can’t I stop there? Yeah, right, like that’s genetically possible.

When I saw the NY Times review of The Big Voice in early December I thought, hey, that’s for me! And it was, and is, and maybe that’s part of the problem. I would like to say the theme of this play is universal, being a paean to love and commitment and overcoming setbacks and illness to emerge triumphant. It is universal in that way but in execution it is the story of two middle to late-middle-aged gay men and, more than that, it is written and the music is composed and the play is enacted by the two men who lived it.

Basically it’s a gay love story with theater-queen frills that is somewhat of a throwback to the days when such behavior was camp and fun. Along with its heavier themes, it’s still fun but I don’t think today’s young gay man can relate to it, although I might be selling them short. Frankly, and probably unfortunately for its livelihood, The Big Voice is targeted to an audience of contemporaries of the creators which includes, namely, me.

The only thing I couldn’t identify with was the stultifying religious upbringing of both men; one New York Catholic and one small town Arkansas Baptist (the latter, to me, almost horrifying). This will sound odd but thank God for my godless upbringing, or rather the total lack of any sort of religious instruction in my own small town in rural California. I like to say I was raised in the Blessed Church of Benign Neglect and to this day it has served me well. I somehow avoided the possible horrendous damage that an oppressive religion can bring upon an “artistic” child. I may be misspeaking a bit here because the childhoods of these two men no doubt continue to be repeated ad infinitum and, for good measure, ad nauseum in the backwaters of southern Baptist towns and the parsonages of Bayridge, Brooklyn to the detriment of young creative types.

I’m so glad I finally got it together to buy tickets for The Big Voice. However, although a Saturday night, the audience was sparse and this cannot be explained entirely by the bitchin’ cold weather. It’s always confusing to me how this happens in New York. Good theater is good theater and every performance should be packed with all kinds of t-goers. It’s a lovely, personal show and laughing through one’s tears doesn’t happen all that much in this age and time in NY (or anywhere) theater. It should have a lucrative run and I hope it will but, hey, what do I know, it’s an age of the ipod and Tivo, whatever the hell those are. Anyway, The Big Voice was way nice…and now I feel better about supporting something worthwhile instead of rotting my brain and plundering my wallet for “Evil Dead; Dreck on a Stick” nearby.