Review: Parodies & Open Relationships! Is Nothing Sacred To THREE MEN & A BABY GRAND at The Green Room 42
And They Got Shirtless, Too!
By: Bobby Patrick May. 03, 2023
Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow Tribe! Bobby Patrick your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Grabbing that silent T in cabareT to bring you all the Tea!
Last Thursday at The Green Room 42 we took in the act of Brandon James Gwinn (he/they), Dylan Hartwell (he/him), and Greg Sullivan (he/him) - also known as THREE MEN & A BABY GRAND. This musical comedy/comedy musical/musical parody musical trio regaled the appreciative house with Broadway songs, Broadway song parodies, and original songs by both Gwinn and Hartwell. To say that the crowd on the night was THERE for it is an understatement, and you all know how Little Bobby hates those. The tone was set with the opening number, a send-up of the overture from Sondheim's COMPANY, and when the first word uttered in a show is "Poppers" - well you know that means you're going to have a gay old time! These three performers don't hold anything back about their rainbow status, or the fact they are all three musical theatre queens. Hartwell & Sullivan are, in fact, an espoused couple who flout the patriarchal definition of "marriage" with their WICKED parody of Schwartz's WHAT IS THIS FEELING re-titled OPEN, where they "openly" sing of their love, one that is not phased by any outside or co-interests in other men... In short, they know how to have fun and stay married. This number was followed by a bouncy, original love song by Gwinn, where love is defined by the kind of devotion that says, "I'm in love with the worst of you."
The Three Men combine puck-ish humor, adorable flirty demeanors, and excellent singing voices (mostly in tight harmonies arranged by musical director Gwinn), into a rousing 70-minute set that kept the room rolling with laughter. Adapting Jonathan Larsen's Sondheim homage SUNDAY (a tribute to all the other waiter/artists of the world) by expertly folding in dialogue that included the famous Miranda Priestly takedown, with all the fashion iconography (what? Bobby knows words!?) replaced with musical terms, the Three showed impeccable timing and mastery over their precise staging and script - a script written by Hartwell himself. In fact, the show was scripted, directed, and rehearsed to within an inch of its life. Each joke, line, movement, and nuance was practiced and re-practiced and not allowed to fail, neither was the audience allowed to "not get it, or to fall behind." So much heavy lifting was done by the boys in an effort to carry the audience along with them, that there was, in fact, very little air between the house and the stage, so carefully packed was the performance. There were one or two moments where quick audience work happened and they deviated from scripted words, and these were breaths of fresh air, but there wasn't enough of these sorts of moments in the humble O of this rainbow writer. But, then, they all stripped to the waist halfway through, so who cares! Trust me, my DAHLINGS, it was worth the view.
The wound tightness of the show notwithstanding, the Three's vocals were excellent, the comedy was en pointe, and the moments of pathos were truly touching, especially when the married boys sang I KNOW HIM SO WELL from CHESS. Their final/encore song, Regina Spektor's FIREWOOD, was also heartfelt and wonderful. In all, the THREE MEN & A BABY GRAND was more than a fine night out, it was essential for all of us musical theatre devotees who love to laugh, sing, and ogle beautiful men. The show was super fast-paced, super gay, and loads of fun so how can we give it any less than...
4 Out Of 5 Rainbows
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