Playwrights: The Ensemble At: Annoyance Theatre, 4830 N. Broadway. Tickets: 773-561-4665 or www.theannoyance.com; $15-$20. Runs through: Aug. 31
You can't blame the notorious Chicago male bathhouse Steamworks for not officially sponsoring or lending its name to the Annoyance Theatre's world-premiere comedy Steamwerkz the Musical.
That's because so many of the musical's creators and cast (featuring many troupe members of GayCo) have had a hand in concocting hilariously outrageous and ewww-evoking gross-out scenarios in Steamwerkz that would not always be flattering to the real Steamworks.
Take, for instance, the party scene involving a game of illegal drug charades. Better yet, there's the song set in the Jacuzzi featuring the costumed characters of Cum Blob and Bloody Band-Aid, among other unsavory creatures that pop up in the form of puppets.
However, it isn't just Steamworks that gets lampooned in Steamwerkz. The musical, dreamed up and directed by Clay Goodpasture of GayCo with a cleverly satiric eye, also takes comic potshots at a plethora of Halsted-strip gay bars and the types of crowds who frequent them.
Then there's the literary structure that inspired Steamwerkz, which is strangely and appropriately Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It's fun to draw the parallels between the topsy-turvy Carroll characters and those roaming the halls looking for sex and love in Steamwerkz.
John Loos plays the hunky hayseed Al from Needlepoint, Neb., who follows super-hot Stephen Stephan (Rob Anderson) White-Rabbit style into the wacky world of gay bathhouse culture that is Steamwerkz. There, he encounters the self-centered employees Twinkie Dee and Twinkie Dum (Zach Zimmerman and Chris Kervick), Andy Eninger as veteran habitué Chester (or is it "Chest Hair?") and the manipulative "King of Steam" (Jason Geis), who rules over the bathhouse like a dictator and ultimately challenges Al to a "fuck-off" to win the status of being Stephen Stephan's boyfriend. Ben Kramer also adds to the absurd mix with the old-time smoker Dewayne (think the Caterpillar) and the drug-addled Mad Max (a Mad Hatter stand-in).
Although deliberately low-budget and seat-of-its-pants in its production style, Steamwerkz the Musical ultimately succeeds by giving late-night Annoyance Theatre audiences what they want in terms of fast and furious laughs and plenty of male flesh on display. Now it would be nice if the Steamwerkz actors didn't always have to shout out their lyrics in finding pitches at the start of so many songs (led by music director Tara Trudel), but it's a small price to pay for so many copious laughs.
Strangely enough, official goodie bags from Steamworks were handed out to the opening-night audience of Steamwerkz. At least that gesture shows that the folks at Steamworks can take a laugh or two at its expensebut only if a couple of letters are swapped out of its name.
(Note: See the interview with Steamwerkz' John Loos on page 16 of this issue.)