{"id":58129,"date":"2017-11-20T22:20:23","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T03:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/in-drew-droeges-bright-colors-and-bold-patterns-a-hilarious-portrait-of-living-out-loud-review\/"},"modified":"2017-11-20T22:20:23","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T03:20:23","slug":"in-drew-droeges-bright-colors-and-bold-patterns-a-hilarious-portrait-of-living-out-loud-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/in-drew-droeges-bright-colors-and-bold-patterns-a-hilarious-portrait-of-living-out-loud-review\/","title":{"rendered":"In Drew Droege\u2019s \u2018Bright Colors And Bold Patterns,\u2019 a Hilarious Portrait of Living Out Loud: REVIEW"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Drew Droege\u2019s \u2018Bright Colors And Bold Patterns,\u2019 a Hilarious Portrait of Living Out Loud: REVIEW<\/b>
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\"Drew<\/p>\n

At various moments during <\/span>Bright Colors And Bold Patterns<\/span><\/i>, Drew Droege\u2019s uproarious solo portrait of a gay<\/a> man<\/a> on the verge, my friend and I nudged each other in the dark. \u201cThat is you!\u201d \u201cOh, this is <\/span>so<\/span><\/i> [name redacted].\u201d \u201cNow <\/span>that\u2026<\/span><\/i> yeah okay, that\u2019s me.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Not that anyone could hear us over the laughs at SoHo Playhouse, where the show\u2019s return off-Broadway engagement opened November 20, following an acclaimed run at Barrow Street Theatre last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Maybe you\u2019ve never attended a gay<\/a> wedding in Palm Springs \u2014 or shared a weekend house with your ex-roommate and lover turned best friend, his new boyfriend, and a sworn frenemy. But an evening with Gerry is like looking into a kitschy mosaic mirror in some corner of these desert digs, whose aesthetic he describes as if \u201cTrina Turk and Betsey Johnson threw up Bacardi Razz and then sold it to Target.\u201d (Scenic design is by Dara Wishingrad.) Chances are that during this 80-minute roller coaster of a poolside bender, you\u2019ll recognize flashes of yourself and pretty much every homo you know.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Not that everyone lives as out loud as Gerry (\u201cI\u2019m a lot, he says, in dramatic understatement). From the moment he steps on stage, after a bitch of a drive up the 10 from L.A., Gerry runs his mouth as though if he slowed down the motor might give out. Nimbly directed by Michael Urie, Droege plays one-sided conversations disguised as a monologue opposite empty chairs. But the unseen characters would be hard pressed to get a word in, anyway \u2014 their presence hardly matters. Gerry\u2019s own life is a one-man<\/a> show, a manic, encyclopedic stream of campy references and repartee. He\u2019s the life of the party with an appetite for escape (\u201cWerrk!\u201d he commands his first afternoon Corona). The question is from what.<\/span><\/p>\n

What begins as an anxious and colorful kind of frenzy descends with the sunset into something more dour. Like the margaritas he swills, there\u2019s a salty bitterness mixed in with Gerry\u2019s sanguine self-assurance. Beyond the indecency of flying solo to a gay<\/a> wedding (Gerry claims he\u2019s in a fight with his boyfriend), he rails against what he calls<\/a> the \u201crace toward normal\u201d that his soon-to-be-wed friend \u2014 and the queer movement writ large \u2014 seem to have embraced. <\/span><\/p>\n

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With <\/span>Bright Colors<\/span><\/i>, Droege, best known for his <\/span>viral YouTube sendups of Chlo\u00eb Sevigny<\/span><\/a>, mines the psyche of a culture that\u2019s gone from celebrating life on the margins to scrambling toward the middle. Having the door open to a conventional life \u2014 one hardly any queer person would agree should\u2019ve remained closed \u2014 comes with a new kind of pressure to step through it. And, worst of all for Gerry, to leave behind some of the hard-won vibrancy and freedom born of reacting against the system to begin with.<\/span><\/p>\n

The wedding invite that brought the crew to Palm Springs tells them to avoid wearing \u201cbright colors and bold patterns\u201d \u2014 a request that strikes Gerry as an affront to everything he\u2019s worked so hard to love about being himself. They may not be your style, but Gerry\u2019s impassioned defense of living in a full range of hues will likely stir something in you, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In New Musical \u2018The Band\u2019s Visit,\u2019 an Exquisite Meditation on Hopes Won and Lost: REVIEW<\/a>
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Transcendent \u2018Torch Song\u2019 Starring Michael Urie and Mercedes Ruehl Is Required Gay Viewing: REVIEW<\/a>
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\u2018A Clockwork Orange\u2019 Shows Plenty of Skin, Skimps on Danger Off-Broadway: REVIEW<\/a>
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Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar<\/a>
\n(photos: russ rowland)<\/em><\/p>\n

The post In Drew Droege\u2019s \u2018Bright Colors And Bold Patterns,\u2019 a Hilarious Portrait of Living Out Loud: REVIEW<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In Drew Droege\u2019s \u2018Bright Colors And Bold Patterns,\u2019 a Hilarious Portrait of Living Out Loud: REVIEW<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n