Tuxedo Love
Playwrights: Jenna Newman
and Elizabeth Bagby
Theatre 5.2.1 at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont Ave.
Phone: ( 773 ) 327-5252; $5
Through Nov. 12
Theatre 5.2.1's Tuxedo Love could have been a contender. Its premise certainly sounds promising and theatrical.
Why not base a new musical comedy on gay penguins? Their devoted male-male nesting relationships at zoos in New York's Central Park and in Bremerhaven in Germany have made headlines around the world. Also, you can jump on the bandwagon of other hit humans-playing-animals shows like Cats or The Lion King while making an anthropomorphized political statement promoting gay marriage.
Alas, the good intentions of Tuxedo Love are thwarted at nearly every waddling step. In its current state, Tuxedo Love is a mess suffering from an identity crisis, slap-dash writing and even recent headlines that undermine its semi-happy ending.
Writers Jenna Newman and Elizabeth Bagby aim for cute with a dash of political consciousness as they show how P.N. Guin (Jayson DeGeeter) wants to marry his male penguin zoo mate Eddie (David Fisher), much to the chagrin of other animals like the self-righteous Mr. Lyons (Michael Rashid) and a trio of bullying baboons (Cynthia Blakewell, Abigail Misko and David Beck all having a glowering fun time). Unfortunately, Newman and Bagby's work comes off as cloying and annoying.
Tuxedo Love often feels like it wants to be a children's theater parable that could make gay marriage palpable for family audiences. But as a late-night weekend show, Tuxedo Love lacks the smart and edgy late-night satirical bite to really win over a grownup audience. Sure there are a few profanities and gay kisses thrown in, but they don't help Tuxedo Love overcome its juvenilely self-aware writing.
Newman and Babgy's constant device of having Tuxedo Love characters step out of the narrative to point out the show's framework feigns cleverness when it's really just frustrating.
It's also clear that Tuxedo Love's creators don't fully know how to believably dramatize the serious issues at hand. Though they make a keen interracial marriage analogy with a Brown and Polar Bear wedding (a very funny Nick Soper and Gina Lucita Monreal), Newman and Bagby's monologue for Laura Shatkus' stylish Mrs. Lyons barely scratches the inner conflict faced by those trying to compromise unbending religious beliefs against personal gay friendships.
Despite its unmemorable music and ramshackle writing, Tuxedo Love does boast some clever costuming by Lewis Lain and an eager cast who would shine with better material. That potential is certainly seen in Kate Bergeron's funny take on Patricia, the female penguin who unsuccessfully tries to lure P.N. Guin to be her mate.
Patricia's song of seduction fails funnily in Tuxedo Love, but it's recently been reported in the news that the real-life Central Park Zoo gay penguin couple of Silo and Ray has been broken up by a San Diego-transferred female penguin named Scrappy. Though it's beyond the control of the authors, knowing this news tidbit ultimately dooms Tuxedo Love as well.
Theatre 5.2.1 boasts that it destroys all copies of its shows following the run. While that's no great loss for Tuxedo Love in its current state, the show (with a complete overhaul) certainly has the potential to be a contender.