'Corpus Christi' more pageant than play

ST. PETERSBURG - The gospel according to Terrence McNally is not much different from the stories in the Bible, except that Jesus Christ is gay and so are his disciples.

That's the concept behind McNally's Corpus Christi, being performed by Gypsy Productions in the Suncoast Resort's theater. But it represents more than just an urge to be outrageous - though there is plenty of outrageousness - because the playwright is arguably the Noel Coward of his generation.

Anything by McNally, author of Master Class, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and other hit plays, as well as the books for musicals such as Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, deserves the attention of theatergoers. In Corpus Christi, premiered in 1998, he clearly was courting controversy, and the play would no doubt rile a lot of people with the idea of Jesus and Judas being lovers. But for the audience at the gay resort, it is preaching to the choir.

And that's probably just as well for McNally's sake, because for the most part, Corpus Christi lacks the wit and cleverness of his best work.

McNally, born in St. Petersburg in 1939 and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, has merged the Passion of Christ with the all-American coming-of-age and coming-out story of Joshua, the play's messiah. The nativity takes place in a cheap motel. The 13-year-old Joshua's way of throwing a ball is mocked by a sadistic priest. Pontius Pilate High is a homophobic hotbed where Joshua and Judas have their first clandestine kiss at the prom. The leper healed by Joshua is a truck driver. Satan is James Dean in a red jacket.

Carlos Milan seems to have been chosen to play Joshua mainly for his resemblance to the Sunday school version of Jesus, a sweet, lank-haired, barefoot hippie type. Milan is not a strong actor, nor are others in the cast, but that doesn't really matter because Corpus Christi is more pageant than drama. Joshua's disciples tend to run toward stock characters from a disco: Andrew (Roger A. Miller) is a masseur, Thaddeus (Javier Capella) is a hairdresser and Philip (Daniel J. Harris) is a hustler.

Topical references abound. The villains are Roman Catholic priests, one of whom hands over a bag of coins to Judas. AIDS is a theme, with Philip being HIV positive and the physician Bartholomew (Donald Dupree) having lost his faith in medicine.

All 13 cast members remain onstage throughout the show, observing and sometimes commenting on the action. The production, directed by Nic Arnzen, departs from McNally's script, which calls for an all-male cast, by having women play Thomas (Kelly Burnette), Simon (Joleen Wilkinson) and Matthew (Tracy Rosten).

The gay man as martyr is the message of the finale, as Joshua is hoisted up on the cross. But for all his provocation, McNally also has John (Slake Counts) deliver a benediction that wouldn't be out of place in the most conventional of Easter sermons:

"All these things you have seen and heard are the first birth pangs of the new age."

Entertainment headlines