Weak Satire Hurts Highways’ ‘Taboo’

“The Last Queer Taboo,” a satirical examination of gay relationships and same-sex marriage, closes the Highways’ annual Ecce Lesbo/Ecce Homo festival with a fizzle, not a bang.

Created and directed by Tom Keegan and Davidson Lloyd, the piece features four actual gay couples, including Keegan and Lloyd, who have been partners in life as well as in theater for the past 18 years.

Dubbed “America’s most talented gay couple,” Keegan and Lloyd fail to live up to their advance billing in this slice-of-life, frequently confessional montage, which relies upon autobiographical snippets from the performers’ lives for its ironic thrust.

Some sound political points are made, and a few moments are genuinely moving, as when two HIV-positive life partners (Franc Baliton and Michael Morrissey) affirm that they have not only made a life commitment but a commitment to life as well.

For the most part, however, the evening is only mildly amusing, and Keegan and Lloyd’s retro staging seems right out of an old “Laugh In” show, complete with blackouts meant to punctuate laughs that seldom come.

* “The Last Queer Taboo,” Highways, 1651 18th St . , Santa Monica. Friday-Sunday only, 8:30 p.m. $12. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.