Gil Hates Everything

This 1996 revue might be difficult to fully review for this reason: apparently it was very heavy on the costumes. Its conceiver and costume designer, Howard Crabtree, died shortly after the show was finished, which is rough luck (Jonathan Larsen would sympathise) and may explain why it doesn’t seem to have a large online presence; I found a couple of reviews but very little YouTube activity, which suggests that the songs aren’t considered hits. This is a pity, because actually the soundtrack is very good and mostly compensates for any costume-related impact which I’m denied.

Not being gay, the issue with a “gay show” is always: is it going to exclude me? If it actively does, that’s okay: no-one has a duty to write for me. It’s more of a shame if it passively excludes me, by simply not being very good (this happens sometimes, with screamingly poor material getting gales of laughter from the target audience on a “thank god this is actually by one of us” basis). I don’t mind being on the outside looking away; it’s not like there aren’t plenty of white hetero musicals. But I always wonder whether an opportunity is being missed when a “gay show” doesn’t consider (if not make allowances for) the straight audience, just as “straight” shows should remember and respect everyone’s differences. Fortunately, a fair few shows get that. One effective approach is to ignore the differences completely and just tell your story: “A New Brain” is the prime example here, where there are no strong “gay issues”, there are simply two men in love, and straight audiences are encouraged to see that there is no difference between this and a hetero story, save the genders. I’m convinced this does more to promote tolerance than a militant approach; this isn’t sex insurrection (… it’s a six-inch erection… sorry…) – anyway, the other effective approach is to find alternative metaphors for the issue of sexuality, and encourage the audience to laugh their way through to the realization that the song is actually about something else, and that’s what “When Pigs Fly” does, and it does it rather well.

The standout songs from this show are “A Patriotic Finale”, which thoroughly explores state and city names of America in order to crack its jokes about plurality and sexuality; “Not All Man”, which you might need to know is about a rather stupid centaur who doesn’t understand why the other guys won’t hang out with him; “Shaft Of Love”, a very funny Cupid song; and “Sam And Me”, which has the best twist ending for a song in ages, and had me rewinding to admire its skill. The rest of the material gets the job done, especially three very silly torch songs for leading hate-spewing figures of the time (“Newt”, “Strom”, and “Rush”) – although there are some weak spots, such as the “Coming Attractions” sequence. The show comes to a serious head near the end with “Laughing Matters”, which is one of those bluntly factual songs which should encourage some people to shut the fuck up but probably won’t. The whole show is framed as a feisty and costume-festooned response to a gnarly school career counsellor, which is kinda funny, but like I say there’s clearly so much of this show invested in the costumes that all I can do is recommend the soundtrack. It’s entirely possible that the show was so much Howard Crabtree’s personal vision that revivals or licenses of it would be embarrassing letdowns; fortunately, the songs are well worth listening to.

Random Panda awards “When Pigs Fly” seven out of ten pieces of bamboo, and you should particularly share “A Patriotic Finale”.

(originally posted 2009)