The big gay jamboree review
It’s BIG — bright and splashy and loud, appreciate the great musicals of Broadway’s Golden Age. It’s GAY — both in its old meaning of “happy” and in its reclaimed meaning of “bold, out-front homosexual.” And it’s a JAMBOREE — a bigger-than-life musical celebration — of life, though you may not realize it at first. The Giant Gay Jamboree comes at you with all the subtlety of a freight train, never letting up, overwhelming your senses and any preconceptions you might have come in with, leaving you laughing helplessly with an added feel of “oh my God, I can’t believe they went there!”
The Huge Gay Jamboree uses tropes of musicals past to tell the story of Stacey (Marla Mindelle, Titanique), a would-be singer-actress who wakes up after a bender to find herself in a cheery opening number, unsure of where she is. Her four “sisters” announce it is her “big gay wedding day”. They are joined by the townspeople who are celebrating the upcoming wedding — but not telling Stacey who she’s getting married to, or how she got there to begin with. Stacey has flashbacks to the nighttime before, partying with “her gays” and being displeased by her boyfriend Keith (Alex Moff
The Big Gay Jamboree
THE Large GAY JAMBOREE PLAYED ITS FINAL PERFORMANCE ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2024.
From the Oscar-nominated producers of BARBIE and the delulu designer of the Off-Broadway hit TITANIQUE comes THE BIG GAY JAMBOREE, a large new musical comedy that’s pushing the envelope…and the gay agenda.
Help! Stacey’s fallen into a musical and she can’t get out. Last night, she got a little bit blackout drunk. This morning, she woke up in some b*tch ass Music Man world where everybody keeps bursting into song & move, and where gay still just means happy. Maybe it’s a dream. Maybe it’s an allergic reaction to her birth rule. Or maybe it’s Maybelline (don’t sue us! sponsor us? we’ll talk later). But if Stacey’s truly trapped inside a Golden Age musical, there’s only one way out: hum out! Or find the stage door. Whatever gets the most applause.
Starring one of Vanity Fair’s “brightest stars of New York theatre” and the world’s second favorite Celine Dion, MARLA MINDELLE, The Big Gay Jamboree is here to make you cackle, make you cry laughing, and make you laugh crying.
Off-Broadway Review: THE BIG Queer JAMBOREE (Orpheum)
JUST AS PROMISED, IT’S BIG!
IT’S GAY! IT’S JAMBOREEING!
Yes, there is a way to run away the post-election blues for 90 minutes: The Large Gay Jamboree at the Orpheum Theatre is the sublimely ridiculous remedy we require. Marla Mindelle — who co-wrote the book with Jonathan Parks-Ramage and the songs with Philip Drennen — definitely has a knack for musical pastiche. Not to mention she does a superb job starring in this dazzling funfest, which had a packed house roaring with laughter at pop-culture references and satirical jabs — how often can you state that?
Still dressed in a nasty party outfit, Stacey (Mindelle) — a raunchy, disillusioned musical theatre graduate — wakes up with a terrible hangover next to four angelic singing girls who claim to be her sisters, hovering over her and smiling maniacally. She is trapped in a 1940s Golden Age musical like Broadway’s Oklahoma! in a rural town called Bareback. What follows is her preposterous escape from this nightmare of old timey righteousness. There’s a slew of pop-culture references, some of which flew over my h
THE BIG GAY JAMBOREE Is Big Gay Fun — Review
It is with fantastic honor that I divide Marla Mindelle’s deranged Off-Broadway rule has extended. Prolonged live gay stupidity! Distant live Jason Robert Brown references! Long live hilarious, original musicals! Mindelle’s The Big Gay Jamboree, joins her sister Titaniqueas the newest, hottest ticket for that gay guy you know. It’s here. It’s queer. It’s where STOMP used to be.
Unlike Titanique, Mindelle has teamed up with book writer Jonathan Parks-Ramage and composer and lyricist Philip Drennen to create a new musical comedy featuring original songs. Also unlike Titanique (and I say this with love), the budget has seemingly increased, thanks to producers like Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment.
Even though irreverent, queer theatre is thriving (see Oh Mary!’s register breaking run), the Suits would say TheBig Same-sex attracted Jamboree is a “risk.” Titanique was lighting in a bottle, largely credited to Mindelle’s Lucille Lortel Award-winning kooky-crazy performance. Could that be replicated, this time with a bigger budget and original story?
Stuffed to the brim with pop culture references, musical theatre allusions, and absolute, bat-
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