Love in Idleness: A Fun and Clever Mid-Autumn Dream -

Love/Idleness By Adam Smith Jr. — Photo by By Adam Smith Jr.

By Bart Greenberg***In the 1960s and ‘70s, charming, small-scaled musicals thrived off-Broadway. A few broke through to become well-known properties (Dames at Sea, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown), most played a season and dissolved into a lovely memory for those who saw them—as did the genre owing to changing theater economy. But now, Love in Idleness has comes along, reminding us of how much fun such trifles can be. in a few hours of entertainment. It’s easy to imagine this clever show with its mix of humor, romance, sex and political/social issues becoming a standard in college and community theater productions—after a few easy revisions.

Love in Idleness, with a book and lyrics by Jay Baer and music by Andrew David Sotomayor, gets its title from the magical flower in A Midsummer’s Night Dream that causes all the confusion. In this case, it’s a chemical formula designed to reignite the passion in tired relationships, with the same effect of mismatching couples—but this time also involving questions of sexual identity.

A pharmaceutical scientist, a sweet guy named Obie (short for Oberon; played by Stanton Morales) is in a 32-year relationship with a celebrated drag queen Titania (Mikey Loalsamo) a/k/a Tim (enter a suspension of disbelief: the casting makes this time period seem unlikely unless the two met at the age of 10). Tim is working out with, and enamored of, a muscle-bound private trainer named Nick (Liam Searcy) who is decidedly straight. Nick is currently dating Hermione (Josey Miller), the public relations director for the lab where Obie works and is also his best friend. Figuring into the plot is the greedy and arrogant Theo (Brett Bainer), the owner of the lab; and the ultra-macho Colonel Buttess (Michael Hegarty), the head of an anti-LGBT organization, who has his own plans for the formula. Who winds up pursuing whom is the plot of the show, and we wouldn’t want to give that away.

Harking back to Midsummer…, there are also four fairies who serve as narrators, gossips and occasionally plot manipulators, designated as Gummy Bear (Haley Izurieta), Hip Hop (Nico Ochoa), Skim Latte (Jackson Kanawha Perry) and Lester (Duncan Smith). Lester is later promoted to a character within the story and replaced (Sylvie Tamar) via Craigslist. Standing outside the story proper, this quartet provided a major source of energy and campy fun, and Smith deserved his elevation, possessing genuine charisma and a winning stage presence.

The rest of the leads also proved themselves energetic and prodigious talents. Miller has a traditional power belt that is always a blessing in musical comedy, while Morales possesses a fine stage voice linked to a quiet but sincere presence, helping to balance the chaotic nature of those surrounding him. LoBalsamo has fine comic timing, even when saddled with the one flop number in the show, a disappointing drag number entitled “Spin Cycle,” which misfires on all layers. Searcy has a fine sense of humor and his comic vow of devotion to an unlikely object in “Together at Last” was one of the highlights. And the villainous Bainer revealed a surprisingly powerful voice with several satirical numbers.

Baer and Sotomayor created a fun and consistent world with just enough conflict and twists to sustain the slightly under two hour running time. The show did run out of steam toward the end, with two romantic duets where one quartet might have served the same purpose. The score didn’t rise to the level of memorable, but it was pleasant, and the book was clever and often quite funny. Direction and choreography by Kyle Pleasant kept the action moving along with energy and invention. The costumes of Sarah Marshall and the lighting design of Michael Clark Wonson were excellent and Josh Iacovelli’s unit set proved quite flexible. And plaudits to Ray Scilke’s sound design, far superior to a far more expensive current drag extravaganza on a much lower budget.