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A CurtainUp
Review
Boys Don't Wear Lipstick
 Brian Belovitch (Photo: Joan Marcus ) |
As a rule I don't like to give too many plot details. However, the show's promotional materials make no secret that this is a journey from boyhood to womanhood to man, from self-hate to self-acceptance. Boys Don't Wear Lipstick is less about what happens as it is about how it happened.
Ultimately, the test of any one-person biodrama rests on two questions: first, the acting; secondly, whether the subject is likeable and interesting. To answer the first question, the forty-six-year-old Mr. Belovitch acts well but it takes tour de force acting for a middle-aged man to play himself from ages fifteen to thirty-one. His extensive collection of personal photos, effectively projected throughout by Elaine J. McCarthy, helps the audience to make the leap between then and now. Ideally we would, as in the soon to be reprised play about Ty Cobb (Cobb), have at least one other actor to play Belovitch in his younger incarnation. As for the second question, while Belovitch is likeable, he is an ordinary man with an extraordinary sexual history. It took courage to revisit the often painful chapters of his life, but then again, without the boy-girl-man switch, his story wouldn't be worth dramatizing.
What makes Boys Don't Wear Lipstick rise above the usual one-person play is director Keith Greer's imaginative direction, abetted by standout design work. Scott Pask's set of curved doors, besides serving as background for the already praised projections, also open and close to reveal a variety of closets and little sets within the set. James Vermeulen's lighting and David C. Woolard's costumes further enhance the production's visual richness.
Whether or not you find Boys Don't Wear Lipstick interesting enough to merit this loving staging, you'll find that Belovich and Greer have succeeded in conveying the story's authenticity. The parenthetical "and lived by" in the credits beneath the title is never in doubt.
| BOYS DON'T WEAR LIPSTICK
Written, performed (and lived) by Brian Belovitch Directed by Keith Greer Set Design: Scott Pask Lighting Design: James Vermeulen Costume Design: David Woolard Sound Design: Robert Murphy Projections: Elaine J. McCarthy Running time: 90 minutes without intermission Player's Theater, 115 Macdougal St. (off Bleeker Street in the West Village) 239-6200 Perfomances from 10/06/2000; opening 10/22/2000 Tue - Sat at 8pm; Sat at 5pm; Sun at 3pm, 7pm; tkts: $20-$45 Reviewed by Elyse Sommer based on 10/21 performance |