‘Ten Percent Revue’ Offers a Proud, Defiant, Amusing Declaration of Homosexual Identity

The show at the Melrose Theatre in Hollywood may be called “Ten Percent Revue,” but it’s 100% terrific.

Tom Wilson Weinberg’s spirited paean to gay and lesbian existence--the 10% of the population to which the show’s title refers--began as a series of songs, written over several years, featuring such titles as “Homo Haven,” “Flaunting It” and “Gay Name Game.”

Although unabashedly sexual in subject matter, “Ten Percent,” featuring a cast of four, tackles a wide political and emotional agenda, including a proud and defiant declaration of homosexual identity in the title song “We’re Everywhere.”

“When I first saw the show in New York in 1987, I was just coming out of the closet to myself and needed some sort of point of reference for a sense of pride,” said producer John A. Aiello. “This gave me that. In school, they don’t teach you that Gertrude Stein was a lesbian and that E.B. White was gay . . . and some of the world’s most treasured philosophers, poets and scholars, directors, actors, producers. I’d thought I was so alone. But knowing all these people were gay and lesbian made me feel that I didn’t have to be ashamed. I could still be someone, do something.”

With this show, Aiello hopes not only to foster that pride in others, but to throw in a little education. “I couldn’t believe how many gay and lesbian people knew nothing of their past, what previous generations had gone through,” said Aiello, who came to Los Angeles in 1989 as an associate producer for “On Tina Tuna Walk” at the Zephyr. “They didn’t know what Stonewall was, who Harry Hay was. Jewish kids are taught about the Holocaust, about the yellow star Jews had to wear. Well, homosexuals had to wear a pink triangle, and they were also put in concentration camps and tortured and killed.”

In spite of the show’s serious underpinnings, the tone is generally positive, the songs witty, the mood upbeat. And though the show speaks from a gay sensibility, Aiello hopes straight audiences won’t be frightened off. “I would love to have a crossover audience--not just to sell tickets, but for the education,” he said. “We’re the last acceptable prejudice. And till the 90% realizes we’re productive members of society--not something to be feared, not evil, not sick--the discrimination is going to continue.”

In the last quarter of the show, the mood shifts, and the subject turns to AIDS. “We played with the idea of where to put it in the show, because there was no exact order,” said director Randy Brenner. “To place it anywhere else, follow it with some fluffy number, would have been an insult. At the end, it’s like, ‘We’ve had a great time, poked fun at ourselves--but we have to deal with this now.’ We state it and move on. It’s not a downer. Audiences are glad it’s approached, dealt with.”

For the rest of the show, however, he and musical director Susan Draus set about creating a bright, fast-paced ride. “Luckily, the author allowed us the freedom to create a whole new show,” said Brenner, who has staged the parodies “Fiddler on the West Hollywood Roof” and “West Hollywood Story” for the AIDS Health Care Foundation. “So we weren’t married to what was done in the past. There were a lot of new arrangements, a lot of lyrics updated--just a whole different feel.”

Although the intent of each song was preserved, a general face lift was in order. “The show was a bit dated,” said Draus, who is also a consultant for Walt Disney Imagineering and produces revues for resorts. “I wanted stronger vocals, more motion; I wanted to hip it up. ‘The Wedding Song’ was originally a ballad--a lot of the songs were--so we made them more energetic.”

Draus, who also serves as the show’s accompanist and occasional vocalist, is enjoying the novelty of being a performer. “It’s nice to see your stuff coming back at you,” she said, “especially when it’s done really nicely.”

“Ten Percent Revue” plays at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 and 7 p.m. Sundays, at the Melrose Theatre, 733 N. Seward St., Hollywood, through June 30. Tickets: $20. (213) 660-TKTS.