If you’re a real man and aren’t afraid of real naked women then you can see the real Debbie Does Dallas which is available from Arrow Productions, www.xxxdeepthroat.com. However if you’re a little light in the cowboy boots…
Denver- Once upon a time, the Theatre Group took theater seriously.
The company, which operates Theatre On Broadway, produced challenging work such as Never the Sinner and Stop Kiss and Gross Indecency and Shakespeare’s R&J. Even when playful, as in Bat Boy, the productions were polished and destination-worthy.
Those days have faded, at best. When the work is serious, as in last spring’s The Exonerated and Sand Storm, it’s done on the cheap, and with inexperienced actors. More often, the Theatre Group, which has long been focused toward a gay audience, has equated gay with camp, leading to the arrival of Debbie Does Dallas, a musical R-rated production of the X-rated movie with which director Steve Tangedal has taken all kinds of liberties. Hot on the heels of this summer’s Pageant, starring a lineup of men as beauty queens, Debbie is a drag.
In the lead role, as a virginal cheerleader who’ll do anything to make it to the NFL, R.A. Clark plays Debbie. Clark does a terrific drag – in Pageant, he actually made a pretty girl. But the role was not written for a man. Off Broadway, it was played by Sherie Rene Scott, a powerhouse performer. Clark is cute, but not particularly funny here. More important, this is a musical comedy, and the part of Debbie is so far north of his vocal range that many of the lyrics can’t even be heard.
Tangedal recasts the role of Tammy, one of the cheerleaders, as Tommy, played by Preston Lee Britton as the not-yet-out gay boy of the crew who minces his way through every scene. And a scene between a husband and wife taking advantage of the cheerleaders’ services is now between two men.
It’s not the presence of so many gay characters that’s offensive; it’s the complete disregard for both the original piece by Erica Schmidt, Andrew Sherman and Susan L. Schwartz, and the assumption that this sort of drag-kitsch is either entertaining or theatrically interesting nowadays.
For your $25 ticket, you get not musicians, but prerecorded tracks, making this possibly the first karaoke musical, and a set so bare bones no one is credited with it.
Debbie does bare a few assets. As her scheming friend Lisa, Shelly Bordas is quirky, funny and appealingly strange. Adam L. Brodner’s quarterback Rick may be somewhat petite, but he’s convincing and he can sing. In this 10-person show, they are the only actors who actually act, rather than playing in a college skit.
Comedy, someone should have pointed out, is funnier when you don’t wink. And audiences looking for some enlightening gay-themed theater should be able to find it at Theatre On Broadway.