BWW Reviews: MY BIG GAY ITALIAN WEDDING, Above the Stag, November 3 2011

Though not very big (it's staged in a room above a pub transformed into a theatre) nor very Italian (the British cast's Noo Yawk accents wobble a bit), My Big Gay Italian Wedding is irrefutably, indisputably, irrepressibly, GAY! Anthony and Andrew are in love and Anthony wants a traditional wedding with all the trimmings  - Pa's all for it, but Mom only agrees if the priest does the service and Andrew's estranged mother flies in from Florida. Meanwhile, jealous ex-boyf Gregorio is out to stir up trouble, there's a whole phalanx of lipstick lesbians engaged in a permanent bitchfest and as for the wedding co-ordinator, well...

Writer Anthony J Wilkinson has provided the thinnest of plots and an array of cookie-cutter characters, but, really, who cares? This show is all about performance, with Ben Vivian-Jones and Robert Hannouch winningly winsome as the lovers, Matthew Barksby evilly jealous as the slighted ex and Rebecca Hickey, in a demure frock and wig masquerading as Andrew's absent mother, side (and leg) splittingly funny after a bit of bubbly at the reception and... WAIT! STOP THE REVIEW! Oh yes - Andrew Beckett's wedding co-ordinator Maurizio, pitches up half way through the show to steal it unashamedly with a gayness that goes to eleven.

Sure the show is packed with stereotypes, sure it presents gay life as almost entriely free of the prejudices of a straight society and sure it fails to question why gay marriage is illegal in so many soi-disant advanced democracies... but that stuff can wait for another day. For now, LET'S PARTY!!!!!   

My Big Gay Italian Wedding is Above the Stag until November 19.

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