Confessions of a Mormon Boy

So when someone writes their own show, and performs it, and gets it off-Broadway, it's quite commendable. Unfortunately, as commendable as it was, I just didn't dig it all that much. I thought the concept was great. It was the performer's story as a gay man growing up Mormon, being excommunicated from the church, and turning to a life of gay escorting. It definitely had its moments - moments of shock, or sympathy, or surprise - but overall, I just didn't feel it so much. Maybe it's because I was expecting it to incorporate a little more of a comic element to it (like reparative therapy for same sex attraction is just a funny topic). Or maybe it's because it was a tough crowd to play to. There were like 4 rows of people in the house (maybe less than 20), and at one point there was a definite glitch in the dialogue, and it wasn't covered up very smoothly. I felt like there was a chunk missing at some point, and I guess that was a possibility.

I guess I also didn't think it was paced very well. I think it was about half an hour too long. A lot of time was spent in the beginning building up his Mormon time growing up, which I guess provided some needed background, but just seemed to me like it took too long. I felt like the climax would be when he was excommunicated and moved to New York, but it just seemed to take too long to get there. And when it did get there, while the subject matter of his dark gay lifestyle was interesting enough, it just didn't seem to have very much substance. I didn't feel like it brought me up to where he was now. Although it was a very interesting, very compelling story, I think it just lacked some execution that would have really tapped its full potential. I think froma content perspective though, this is a pretty interesting show, and it could really tug at some strings for many. The interested audience is probably limited in scope, but I think it's a good one to just see and hear about this guy's experiences. In trying to do this though, I just felt like it tried a bit too hard, and ultimately didn't reach the point it could have.