For those trying to find the most LGBTQ show at Orlando Fringe this year look no further because we found it. “Keep It Gay” does just as its title promises, from start to finish they have the gay dialed up to 11 and we couldn’t be more happy.
The show begins with Billy Mick and Gonzalo Mendaz asking the show’s director, Wade Hair, to take on their latest Fringe endeavor. At first Hair doesn’t seem interested in their small, dramatic Fringe show but changes his tune at the possibility on becoming a — <gasp> — Patron’s Pick winner! But doing a drama? Never! If you want Wade Hair to do your show you need to keep it light, keep it bright, keep it gay!
“Keep It Gay” becomes a musical review of the biggest LGBTQ anthems ranging from musical theater to disco to Top 40 hits. A cast of more than a dozen performers —all as beautiful as they are talented — hit all the standards starting with the titular song from Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” and entertaining the audience to a big finale of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.”
The show plays like a Stefon club review from “Saturday Night Live” come to life. This show has everything… drag queens, fishnets, rainbow flags, full-frontal male nudity, electric tape-covered nipples, a sexy dancer in a head-to-toe purple Tinky-Winky costume handing out beads and streamers!
The show has some fantastic choreography by Angela Cotto and Iris Johnson, and the cast performs it beautifully making the small stage at the Breakthrough Theatre feel like a big budget Broadway theater extravaganza. All the performances are on point but a few standouts include the boys’ rendition of “Cell Block Tango” from the musical “Chicago,” as well as the diva and naughty medleys that lets some of the cast show off their big voices and range, and the cast’s performance of “It’s Raining Men” for reasons you will recognize once you see it.
“Keep It Gay” is a fun, sexy show that has you come for the eye candy and stay for the songs.
“Keep It Gay” is a BYOV and plays at the Breakthrough Theatre of Winter Park through May 27. For more information visit OrlandoFringe.org.
