Logan Donahoo, the creator as well as performer in Trash Cinema 101, paean to trashy films, is a Pride parade unto himself. He's done tons of stuff for the local gay community, supportive as well as voluntary, and his energy is boundless.
His sensibility and energy translate easily into his no-holds-barred stage production at Fringe, a wild romp through some of the worst movies you wish you'd never seen. His premise, that watching bad cinema has evolved into its own cultstream of devotion, is portrayed vividly by himself during a breathless and breathtaking presentation of clips from some of the most horrid movies ever produced: Nightmare on Elm Street 2 with its homoerotic set pieces; Tura Satana and gal pals emoting in Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!; Reese Witherspoon sent up the river in Freeway; and the cutting edge (for 1977) Japanese film House are among the films brought out and dissected by Donahoo and his witty observations (ably abetted by the Misogynist Manatee).
Admittedly, being young, his points of reference come from the late 1960s through the 1990s; when he asked us to call out the names of bad films that WE loved, I almost hollered â┚¬Å”anything by Lana Turner,â┚¬Â but was pleased that he mentioned the films of the late, great Divine.
What fun we had! Here it was, a sweltering Sunday afternoon in Orlando, but we were all packed inside a tiny theatre jumping and doing the choreography to â┚¬Å”YMCAâ┚¬Â when he showed (and eviscerated) the appropriate clip from Can't Stop the Music. (I'd just seen that film, in fact, during Watermark's recent screening, and was unable to believe my luck: I got to see Bruce Jenner in cut off jeans TWICE in one year!)
Logan Donahoo is a one-man movie hit parade who obviously loves his topic. The audience interacted with him as if we were all in his paneled basement watching stupid movies instead of at Fringe, which is the mark of a true thespian: he brought us within the walls of his madcap production and then brought us beyond them with love, sweat, and interpretative dance.
Show: Trash Cinema 101
Theatre Group: Logan Donahoo Presents
Venue: Blue
Remaining Performances:
5/24 Tue. 8:50 PM
5/26 Thu. 5:15 PM
5/27 Fri. 11:50 PM
5/28 Sat. 4:30 PM
