REVIEW: Diversionary's 'Corpus Christi' an upbeat gay 'Godspell'

By ANNE MARIE WELSH - For the North County Times | Wednesday, May 14, 2008 9:11 AM PDT ∞

A lively ensemble featuring many newcomers to the theater make Diversionary's upbeat production of Terrence McNally's "Corpus Christi" seem a gay-and-gifted "Godspell."

So sweet and heck, so Christian is director Nic Arnzen's staging of this 13-character passion play that it's tough to believe the show was controversial before its New York premiere in 1998.

But it was, from the moment right-wing Catholic groups heard that the play would feature a "gay Jesus." In any event, after death threats, bomb scares and outraged defenses of freedom of expression, the show did open at Manhattan Theatre Club where it proved innocuous to some, award-worthy to many others.

McNally is best known in San Diego for the musical books for "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "The Full Monty," both of which originated at the Old Globe, and for his brave and funny dealing-with-AIDS play "Love! Valour! Compassion!" which was twice staged by Diversionary.

"Corpus Christi" comes from another mindset, one that jettisons irony in favor of old-time religious belief, 1950s style. There's a comical bit of nun-bashing, a few parodic one-liners about the Virgin Birth, but basically, like "Godspell," the play sets New Testament highlights in an American world that includes gay people. Catholics in the audience might feel, as I did, that they are revisiting their pious religious childhoods, including such liturgical events as Holy Week services and the Stations of the Cross.

McNally frames the play as story theater, with the actors milling about chatting with one another and the audience before launching their drama.

The action runs on sometimes parallel, sometimes intersecting tracks. Actor Rachael VanWormer plays herself, a '50s high school kid in Texas, and John the Baptist, too. In one of the play's loveliest passages, she affectionately renames each of the actors as one of Christ's apostles, splashing each with holy water while saying "I baptize you and I recognize your divinity as a human being."

When the ritual is complete, all the actors including young (talented and effective) Trevor Bowles as Joshua/Jesus have changed into khakis and white shirts.

Joshua, born in a Texas motel, is a good kid, ostracized and occasionally bashed by his macho peers in Corpus Christi, because he's different ---- and eventually revealed to be gay. Cute and comic scenes at the Pontius Pilate High prom show him struggling to pretend to like his fellow outsider date, played with comic relish by Jessica Parsell. But the guy who really turns him on is sexy Judas (Rich Carillo).

Josh moves to a city, begins gathering disciples with his message of peace and tolerance, and increasingly behaves like Jesus, unaccountably working miracles and eventually succumbing to the seduction of his cynical, but attractive old friend, Judas ---– a moody, self-destructive Scorpio.

Several in the cast create their many characters in bold strokes, with Brian Mackey's Andrew, Zachary Bryant's Bartholomew, John Whitley's Peter and Jesse Allen Moore's James particularly vivid. As Simon and several others, Anna Rebek makes a fine local debut here, her full-blooded yet understated acting as confident as her smooth singing voice, here heard a cappella.

McNally's script is scattershot, seldom following his dramatic premises through to their logical conclusions. Why, for instance, is the betrayer also Joshua/Jesus' gay partner? And why does Joshua return to the scene of his earlier unhappiness, where he suffers and is crucified by a consortium of Romans and Jewish rabbis who are here reconfigured as "fag haters"? The story doesn't hold together thematically.

Though Act 2 makes little sense theologically or emotionally, the cast remains attractive and committed throughout. It's not their fault the play's message feels bland and unconvincing.

Director Arnzen clearly has found the key to creating a relaxed, spontaneous-seeming ensemble that moves fluidly through the space with minimal props and maximum focus. Here's hoping Diversionary brings him back to direct a more interesting and coherent play.

"Corpus Christi"

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; through June 1

Where: Diversionary Theatre, 4545 Park Blvd., San Diego

Tickets: $29-$33

Phone: (619) 220-0097

Web: www.diversionary.org

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