Bare Souls and Explicit Talk in the Diverse ‘A Few Gay Men’

Writer and director Ronnie Larsen likes to talk about sex. No shock if you’re familiar with his “All-Male Peep Show” or “Making Porn.” While in New York, he placed an ad in search of men to talk about sex and found 100 eager participants.

These interviews are the basis of Larsen’s new show, “A Few Gay Men: True Stories From Real People About Sex, Love and Life,” at the Zephyr Theatre. If you blush and stammer at the mention of sex, this isn’t the show for you. Don’t go with someone whose sexual secrets you don’t want to hear.

Larsen, who plays himself--the interviewer--opens the show with frank questions for the audience. One sexually adventurous guy admitted he’d had every sexually transmitted disease except HIV. Another revealed that he’d left his wife to find a monogamous relationship with a man. Their stories are echoed within the show.

Michael Kearns, as the conservative man concerned about the “skewed messages” and “vulgar ads” in gay publications that present a distorted view of gay men, and Jonathan Mundale, as his terminally ill life partner, lead a well-rounded cast.

Seth E. Cutler is sympathetic as the religiously conservative Jew with odd fantasies. Gabriel Macen, Colin Martin and Corey Schaffer represent a younger generation that indulges in a bit of hustling and drugs.

Dean Howell is a practical man who faithfully adheres to the safer sex practices. Will Willoughby is a young man whose long-term relationships have left him alone and HIV-positive.

The material is by turns intriguing, erotically charged and poignant, yet it could use some judicious editing. The repetition on sex clubs, anonymous sexual encounters and hustling doesn’t work as a literary refrain within the current framework.

This isn’t a show for the timid or homophobic. And if you’re looking for gratuitous nudity, this isn’t for you either. Sex acts are simulated, and a few shirts are doffed, but the men remained clothed--it’s their sexual souls that are naked.

Jana J. Monji

“A Few Gay Men,” Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. $20-$25. (866) 468-3399. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.

*

‘West Assured’ Pairs Up Oddball Westerns

“Howdy, ma’am. This is the cowpoke who’ll help you mosey to your seat.”

This bit of Old West hokum--courtesy of a straight-faced usher in a cowboy hat--sets the appropriate tone for “West Assured,” the umbrella title for two oddball westerns presented with irreverent glee by the Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood.

The two one-acts--M.Z. Ribalow’s “Sundance,” written in 1981, and George Bernard Shaw’s 1909 “The Shewing Up of Blanco Posnet”--both mosey down the path of reflection on good and evil, morality and immorality, life and death, subjects that, here, are better off not taken too seriously.

That’s an easier job in Ribalow’s rip-roaring “Sundance,” directed by Shelly Kurtz. Ribalow’s fictional meeting between the West’s greatest outlaws--Jesse, the Kid, Hickok and Sundance himself--is baldly satirical, peppered with as many deliberate anachronisms as a Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon as each outlaw goes about arguing his philosophy of murder.

John R. Keller, as the wiry Jesse, is disturbingly, hilariously cheerful as he presents the case for killing folks “because I like to watch ‘em die,” and Jerome Guardino’s barkeep is equally amusing in his desperate attempt to enumerate the reasons he shouldn’t be killed.

The Shaw play was banned in England upon publication in 1909 because of “alleged blasphemous content”--lots of downright shameful talk about God--and, according to the program notes, it led to an uprising among other playwrights of the era, challenging governmental policies on censorship. While this lends the piece historical significance, dramatically, this tale of how small-town hypocrites deal with horse thieves seems pompous and shrill today.

Still, under Chris Windfield’s direction, the company attacks the overwrought proceedings with admirable gusto, and it’s satisfying to see the outlaws of “Sundance” turn up here as members of the jury.

Diane Haithman

“West Assured,” Group Repertory Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends Feb. 16. $16. (818) 769-PLAY.

*

Love Unrequited and Lost in ‘The Day I Stood Still’

Kevin Elyot’s “The Day I Stood Still” is a contemplation about obsessive, unrequited love that benefits greatly from nuanced performances and Milton Justice’s astute direction of the Page 93 production at the Elephant Theatre.

The play spans two decades, and Elyot begins in the middle. Londoner Horace (Timothy McNeil) is surprised when his old friend Judy (Susan Vinciotti) drops in with her boyfriend, Guy (Shaun Baker). Horace is expecting company (Rick Peters), whose arrival sets off an awkward moment. Horace and Judy were linked by the recently deceased Jerry (Chris Carmack), with whom Judy had a son, Jimi (Carmack).

Fast-forward a few years: The emotionally crushed Jimi seeks refuge with Horace, leading Horace to recall his younger self (Matthew Stravitz) and his first meeting with Judy (Meredith Uccello).

McNeil’s emotionally stalled Horace is sympathetically drawn, with nervous tics and ineffectual social skills. Horace wants to please his hero, Jerry, and the shining admiration bordering on adulation is echoed in Stravitz’s younger version.

Carmack’s Jerry has the easy charm of a golden boy, whereas his Jimi is a young man crushed at the ending of his first love affair and unaware of his own physical beauty.

Yet Elyot has to draw too many parallels between the past and the present, including one too many coincidences for a tidy ending.

This seems to contradict the central message--that love isn’t tidy and endings aren’t final unless you allow yourself to stagnate, wishing for what can never be.

J.J.M.

“The Day I Stood Still,” Elephant Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. $20. (310) 289-2999. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.