Posted: 10/05/2007

Naked Boys Singing!

(2007)

by Sawyer J. Lahr

A popular Off-Broadway musical revue is filmed on stage during its performance in a small, intimate theater that brightly showcases nine flaccid and flopping cocks a doodle doing joyous and serious interpretations of the ups and downs of being gay men.

We hear from a gay Jew; follow three pubescent teens in a sweaty steamy high school locker room; a confession from the tantalizing life of a gay porn star from Skokie, IL; and what lust feels like at a window’s distance.

Before the show goes on, all of the actors unabashedly strip down and toss aside, one article at a time, all that keeps them decent, before going onstage. One of the brave boys rides in on a motorcycle, wearing a jock strap.

Among two memorably tender scenes and 16 original songs, a man sings a sweet ballad for his passed lover, reassuring him that he has moved on in remembrance, wishing he were there to see.

Though the boys are nude most of the time, they use clothing and props by communicating the emergence into or out of their clothes to unveil themselves in the form of short musical and narrated vignettes. Each musical number portrays a common story or theme of desire, repression, embarrassment, or shame within the context of the gay experience.

These very personal but commonly shared stories are appropriately exaggerated for the purposes of this art form, but there is a general impression from the theater audience we see intercut between the performances that many have been there and felt that.

Since its debut at the Celebration Theater in L.A., Naked Boys Singing! has toured internationally in more than 40 cities in six languages. In its seventh year running, the musical is now performed at the Dodger Stages in Manhattan.

Sawyer J. Lahr is a film critic residing in Chicago. Visit Sawyer’s blog here.

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