Let’s Put on A Show
Delightful musical’s streaming debut
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
When the coronavirus,
quarantine,
and politics
are getting you
down, there’s one sure-fi re
antidote: a great big, splashy
musical. Trust me, it worked
during the Great Depression,
and it can work now. The only
requirement is a desire for a
couple of hours of innocent
entertainment — at least if
that’s your thing.
If it is, you’ll likely be delighted
by the new movie
musical “Still Waiting in the
Wings.” Originally released
in 2018 and having made the
rounds of various LGBTQ festivals
where it garnered several
top awards, it’s now available
to stream on Amazon, Google,
and iTunes platforms. Written
by Jeffrey A. Johns and Arie
Gonzalez with original songs
from a variety of artists, it’s a
backstage musical of the classic
variety. The backstage,
though, is not quite as elegant
as in most archetypes of the
genre. Instead, Café Broadway
is a tacky Times Square restaurant
where all the characters
are singing waiters and all
the patrons are tourists.
The story begins as Anthony,
the irrepressibly cheerful
young man from Montana,
lands a job there and is convinced
that serving and singing
represent the fi rst of his
sure-to-come big breaks in the
Big Apple. The other waiters,
however — particularly his
best girlfriend Rita — consider
singing and dancing while
slinging salad a comedown.
After all, just the month before
Rita was in an Off-Broadway
musical. When not in
the spotlight, the characters
bicker about solos and group
numbers. Among the most
entertaining parts of the entire
movie are the songs they
do — each of which is a pastiche/
homage of classic musical
(Rear row) Harrison White, Blake Peyrot, Lee Meriwether, Adam Huss, (front row) Jeffrey.
A. Johns, Joe Abraham, and Rena Strober in “Still Waiting in the Wings,” directed by of Q.
Allan Brocka.
theater numbers, staged
with tongue-in-cheek charm
by choreographer Cassie Nordgren.
The plot thickens when newcomer
Bradley joins the servers’
chorus line, and trouble
ensues. Ambitious and wily,
Bradley tries all kinds of tricks
to derail Anthony’s dreams of
acting on a bigger stage and
even causes trouble with Anthony’s
boyfriend Lee, a stripper
in a Chippendale’s-like
club. Anthony’s roommate, a
straight actor named Tony,
gets a gig on a soap opera (sorry,
“an outstanding daytime
drama” — a running gag),
Bradley scuttles Anthony’s
one-line debut on a soap, and
there are plenty more competitive
shenanigans.
Still, no matter how much
Bradley tries to undermine
Anthony — which the writers
never waste time trying
to explain — in the best, suncoming
out-tomorrow tradition
of these time-honored
tales, where the answer to
any dilemma is a production
number, Anthony remains relentlessly
upbeat. His undimmable
brightness and relentless
exuberance, in fact, might
be alarming if it weren’t so
damned endearing.
The cast is obviously having
STREAMING CINEMA
JJ SPOTLIGHT PRODUCTIONS
a blast doing this under
the savvy direction of Q. Allan
Brocka, who captures just the
right tone and spirit for the story.
Jeffrey A. Johns is terrifi c
as the seriously sunny Anthony,
as is Joe Abraham as the
conniving Bradley. Blake Peyrot
is sweet and sexy as stripper
Lee. Rena Strober is a lovely
mix of diva and ingenue as
Rita, and Adam Huss is great
as the hunky straight man —
in both meanings of the word.
Complementing these bright
performances is a series of
funny celebrity cameos — another
stape of the genre — from
Chita Rivera, Sally Struthers,
Ed Asner, Seth Rudetsky, and
Bruce Vilanch.
At fi rst, it felt like this was
going to be a satire, but “Still
Waiting in the Wings” is something
much more entertaining
and satisfying — a clever
mash-up of “All About Eve,”
“Billy’s Hollywood Screen
Kiss,” and Mickey and Judy’s
“backyard musicals,” that delivers
a happy ending… for
anyone who deserves one, of
course.
STILL WAITING IN THE
WINGS| Directed by Q. Allan
Brocka | JJ Spotlight Productions
| jjspotlightproductions.
com/where-to-watch
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