LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! is Terrence McNally’s valentine to old
friends, their pleasant company and above all, their resilience. Director David
Miller’s jaunty production for Zeitgeist (playing through May 19th)
makes the Tony Award winner seem as fresh as it did in 1995. The bitchy banter
is still amusing, the quirky characters are still fascinating and the presence
of AIDS is still … always …. heart wrenching.
The friends spend holidays together reminiscing, skinny
dipping and occasionally wandering. Miller has a lovely cast with engaging
performances from Brooks Reeves (as a know-it-all troublemaker AND his
polar-opposite twin); From Jeremy Johnson as the wisecracking but always
considerate “mother hen;” from David Anderson as the melancholy host whose
dancing days are numbered and from Cody Sloan as the dancer’s blind young
lover; From Joey C. Pelletier and Keith Foster, totally charming as the loving,
stable married couple; with Michael J. Blunt as the brash interloper, happy to
be the catnip in the garden of Eden.
