Not all holiday plays are meant to be…um, family-friendly. The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told would work for some families, certainly, but not for those with smaller, curious children or who are offended by nudity or sexuality or even sexual orientation.
Written by Paul Rudnick, who Ben Brantley, reviewing this play for The New York Times, said “might be the funniest writer for the stage in the United States today”, it’s rapid-fire laughs take no prisoners, starting, quite literally with the Garden of Eden. Rudnick gives us Adam and Steve, those legendary guys that first appeared in the mind of some conservative evangelical Christian. He then throws in Jane and Mabel, and the argument over who came first.
We cover the Flood – no, not the 1995 one, that one with the Ark? – a run-in with a pharoah, and the nativity, and then jump to New York City in the 1990’s. For a twenty-year-old play, it’s held up remarkably well and, as director Justin Been says in his program notes, “it’s surprising (and maybe a little sad) how little we’ve learned”.
Luke Steingruby and William Humphrey are Adam and Steve, warm together, Humphrey having a good time with the occasional side-eye at the exuberant Steingruby. Maria Bartolotta and Angela Bubash play Jane and Mabel, Bartolotta strong and pretty serious and Bubash sometimes wafting along merrily, as when she, too, rollicks through their various incarnations. Because it’s the four of them hanging out in that New York apartment. Someone at their Christmas open house asks, “How long have you two been together?” and the reply is an airy, “Oh, forever.” That eternity isn’t really a focus of the play, but it goes right along with most of it.
The supporting cast all play multiple roles except Patrice Foster, who gives theatre-goers an extra bonus. She’s cast as the stage manager, working onstage, and it’s a good way to see what a stage manager really does. (The actual stage manager is Josh Littrell.) I particularly enjoyed Jeremy Goldmeier’s rhinoceros, Steven Henley’s Christmas elf and Dawn Schmidt’s Cheryl Mindle, who’s part of the play’s nod to Angels in America. Stray Dog does its usual swell job with the music, and the opening videos are a real pleasure, all this presumably courtesy of Josh Smith and Justin Been, the latter doing double duty with his directing.
Not for everyone, true. But those who are up for rowdiness will have a splendid time.
The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told
through December 22
Stray Dog Theatre
2336 Tennessee Ave.
314-865-1995