By Michael Barbieri***I took a trip back in time at Pangea recently. Gerry Geddes’ Fabulous First Fridays made a…well…fabulous return to the club in the East Village and as expected, the show did not disappoint!
Part variety show and part history lesson, FFF is a recurring cabaret series conceived and directed by 
Geddes. The evening featured his stories of gay life in New York during the 1970s and 80s, paired with illustrative songs, chosen especially for the show. Geddes knows and has worked with some of the best performers in cabaret and this Gay Pride edition boasted the impressive lineup of Aaron Lee Battle, Brian Childers, Matt DiPasquale, singer-songwriter George Winters and the one man orchestra, Musical Director Yasuhiko Fukuoka.
It seemed appropriate to open the evening with a tribute to Stephen Sondheim, an icon to the theater and gay communities alike. First up was Battle, who gave us a nearly perfect rendition of “Broadway Baby.” His vocals, while always terrific, were complemented by his expressive gestures and physical presence. That was f
ollowed by Winters, who nailed all the superb double-entendres in “I Never Do Anything Twice,” a little known gem from the film The Seven Percent Solution. DiPasquale turned “Lovely,” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum into a funny, self-deprecating lament of a slightly over the hill gay man’s search for a “daddy,” and finally Childers’ sweet and sorrowful medley of “Loving You” and “No One Has Ever Loved Me” featured a lovely vocal which, while beautiful, also expressed the anguish underlying the lyrics.
While some might consider them cliché, Childer’s rendition of “Where the Boys Are” (N. Sedaka, H. Greenfield) and Battle’s delivery of Jerry Herman’s “I Am What I Am,” from La Cage aux Folles, proved that those particular songs have lost none of their power over the years—particularly in this Gay Pride context. And George Winters’ “It Gets 
Better,” a moving, emotional letter to his younger self, with lyrics like “…it gets better, so you’d better stick around” and “the life you want to lead begins the day you choose to live,” expressed a powerful message still important to today’s gay youth.
Geddes himself contributed what for me was the “time travel” aspect of the show with two stories of gay life in New York of the 1970s and ‘80s. The first, The City and Sex, described the dark, seedy, often dangerous, but nonetheless thrilling world of gay sex in the post Stonewall days of sexual liberation. There were accounts of “the trucks,” a sexual playground of sorts down in the Meatpacking District, and of the 42nd Street grindhouses, where terrible B-movies would play, as would many of the horny gay men in the audience.
The second tale, Porn Again, told of his involvement in the world of gay pornography. He spoke of the infamous Show Palace Theater, where porn stars would strip and give the men a special “finale!”. We heard of his encounter with one of his favorite African American porn stars as well as his foray into writing porn scripts under the pseudonym Buddy Boothe, who was supposedly a descendant of 
Edwin and John Wilkes Boothe! These stories really took me back, as I had moved to NYC in 1981, when such places still existed. I actually spent quite a bit of time at the Show Palace, myself, having had a friend who managed porn stars. I spoke to Geddes after the show and it turned out we knew many of the same people from that time, including Robin Byrd, whose legendary public access cable show,a few of which I saw taped,featured both male and female porn stars.
There was more musical magic in store. Battle gave us a gorgeous “Lush Life” (B. Strayhorn), which took on a new meaning in the queer milieu, Childers’ rendition of “Mad About the Boy” (N. Coward) was appropriately effete and sung with a 
wonderfully flustered air, and as with the very first Fab First Fridays show, DiPasquale closed with Fred Small’s beautiful lullaby, “Everything Possible.” This last song, with it’s lovely message of “…you can be anybody you want to be, you can love whomever you will,” took on special meaning when dedicated to Axel, the new baby son of Yasuhiko Fukuoka and his husband.
Whether you’re gay or an ally, or whether simply for its entertainment value, or a glimpse back in time to a gay New York that has mostly disappeared, Fabulous First Fridays is definitely worth catching. Geddes not only has a wealth of knowledge and talent from which to mine, but with the performers he chooses and the stories he tells, the show serves as an important history lesson. Sadly, many of today’s LGBTQ youth are letting queer history fade away, but luckily, Fabulous First Fridays will not only entertain, but enlighten as well.
