10:54:54 am 
Catch 'Em Before They Disappear - ¡Gaytino! & Jester of Tonga
Categories: UncategorizedIt's been and is a weekend of heavy theatergoing to shows with shortish runs. I've caught two that really will disappear if you blink, and I think they're both worth mentioning, so herewith mini-reviews….
At the Zipper, Dan Guerrero will offer one more performance of his solo show ¡Gaytino! tonight – Sunday, January 11 – at 7pm. This is a sort of Chicano version of Billy Crystal's one-man play. In it, Guerrero charmingly pays tribute to his father, singer/songwriter Lalo Guerrero and boyhood friend Charles (better known today by his birth name Carlos) Almarez, who, like the younger Guerrero, re-embraced his heritage in adulthood, and became a world-class painter.
Guerrero's play charts his boyhood in East Los Angeles, his forays into the theater world of New York in the late 1960s and mid-1970s, and his later success as a producer back in California. Along the way, he shares his love of musical theater (his rendition of "Spanish Rose" from Bye Bye Birdie) is priceless, some fascinating tales about gay life in the days before Stonewall, and some juicy show biz gossip.
Although there were some rough spots in the show during its first performance, and though the piece would benefit from a sure-handed dramaturg who might help shape the material beyond a mere chronological biography, Guerrero is so winning and the stories so fresh and touching, that it's worth a look and hopefully will return to New York stages in a longer run.
You also have just one more chance to catch Jester of Tonga at P.S. 122 (tomorrow, Monday January 12 at 9:30p.m.). This piece, written and performed by Joseph Silovsky, is something of a multimedia shaggy dog story based on the exceedingly timely tale of Jesse Dean Bogdonoff, a banker charged with investing millions of dollars for the government of Tonga; money that eventually was lost, sending the country into chaos. (The SEC complaint against Bogdonoff can be found here.
Silovsky's play is notable on a number of levels. First there's the presence of the robot Stanley, who plays the financier. There's also Silovsky's use of shadow puppets, video and incorporation of tangential stories that make "Jester" not only a tale for today,but also an exceptionally amusing one.
---- Andy Propst
Permalink
