By Bart Greenberg*** The self-described queer musical, HOMOS! A Solo Disaster Musical, bitch is a solo show (with much assistance by the audience)—and a disaster. That is, it’s about a disaster: wildfires are destroying California (the author/performer Dan Kitrosser admits he wrote the material six years ago before the current crisis) and a comet is heading toward the Earth that will result in mass destruction. And yes, it is a musical. It’s also 
about Kitrosser’s own romantic life and gay dating and … well, a lot of other things. All at once. Most of it delivered at supersonic speed and maximum volume. And yes, it was both too early and too late.
Too early because the performance was scheduled to begin at 5:00 PM in the upstairs bar/theater at the Stonewall Bar, which is the perfect setting for a show best scheduled for midnight when the audience is well lubricated and ready for silly fun (to be fair, a good part of the audience did seem to be enjoying the nonsense—and some evidently had prepared themselves for it). Too late because the show began 15 minutes late before Kitrosser came barging onto the stage as it he was fired from the proverbial cannon—but taking some time in clarifying the reason the audience is there: he has written a four-act musical that requires at least six actors, but because he is alone and running late they will only see the first act and he will be playing all the roles. He even pleads with the audience to time him so he knows when he has to end the performance (he doesn’t).
The musical within the show is a hodgepodge of end-of-the-world tropes, family dysfunction, 
Sunset Boulevard, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, closeted action heroes and unlikely gay and lesbian romances. Kitrosser played all the roles, flinging costume pieces and wigs here and there, until he had to resort to drafting people from the audience to join in, lip synching as he sang and on occasion delivering lines. (At this performance, the very handsome Raul Castillo from the cable series “Looking” was drafted and showed good humor, as did all of the “volunteers”.) It was all very chaotic and more silly than funny with no emotional impact at all.
Every so often, things calmed down and the star sat down at the piano and offered a quiet ballad, revealing both a talent for both songwriting and honest acting. Perhaps director Kyle Metzger might have helped find more such moments to balance the chaos. As it is HOMOS! is part entertaining and part exhausting, with the balance toward the latter.
HOMOS! A Solo Disaster Musical, bitch will return to The Stonewall Inn, 53 Christopher Street, NYC, on March 23 at 5:00 pm. Tickets range from $24 – $35, plus a two drink minimum and can be purchased in advance via SpinCycleNYC.com.
