Photo Flash: Opening Night at GAY CAMP at FringeNYC

Fun club music and scantily-clad, dancing go-go boys greeted audiences upon their entrance to the Mainstage Theatre. Press, industry, excited audience members, and drag queens (including drag performer Shanea DeDranke) packed the sold-out house. Gay Camp has since sold out its second performance – Tuesday August 14th – and appears to be on track to selling out most (if not all) of their five-performance-FringeNYC stint.

Comedic actors Christian Mansfield (Broadway Bares, National Tour of 42nd Street), Ken Urso, and Philip Mutz (also co-author) star in Gay Camp, which is part of this year's New York International Fringe Festival, running now through August 22, 2012. The production is directed by Arizona-native Phillip Fazio, best known for his regional work in Phoenix, Boston, and L.A.

With Mansfield, Urso, and Mutz playing more than a dozen different zany characters, Gay Camp is a quick-change farce that follows the stories of several young campers at a gay reform camp. They have been sent away by their parents to be 'fixed'. Instead, they learn how to love – themselves and one another.

Director Fazio, along with co-authors Mutz and Susan-Kate Heaney, leave no (comedy) stone unturned. While successfully dissecting stereotypes and sending a powerful message about tolerance and acceptance, Mutz and Heaney still find a way to inject every moment with humor.

Start with a deliciously evil headmaster and a closeted lesbian guidance counselor, throw in a few electrified fences, disco balls, boy-boy love, girl-girl love, gay Twister, Rick Santorum surprises, slow-motion fantasies, whips, handcuffs, flannel, and more innuendos than you can shake a dildo at, and you've got Gay Camp. Gay Camp is fast, funny, and not pulling its punches as it takes on the anti-gay morons in America. It's gay. It's camp. It's Gay Camp.

Gay Camp will perform at HERE Mainstage Theater, 145 Sixth Avenue, NYC. For tickets and more information on Gay Camp, visit the show's website at www.gaycamptheplay.com.

Photo credit: Nick Coleman

A line down the block waiting for Gay Camp’s opening night

Sold-out audience entering in the lobby of HERE Mainstage Theatre

Gay Camp’s sold-out audience at opening night

Two go-go boys dancing at opening night of Gay Camp

Drag performer Shanea DeDranke at opening night of Gay Camp

Gay Camp director Phillip Fazio