“The Big Gay Musical” Deserves to Take a Bow

At the beginning of the new movie The Big Gay Musical, the film critic Michael Musto, playing himself, is watching a terrible play. He grows increasingly agitated by the slow pace until someone finally asks him if he needs something.

“Yes!” he declares. “I need a musical! A big gay musical!”

In this movie, now playing in limited release, that’s exactly what he gets.

The structure of the movie is a little unusual. After the prologue, we open, without explanation, on a rather extended musical and dance number from a preview performance of a stage play, Adam & Steve Just the Way God Made Em, which tells the story of the Bible from a decidedly “gay” perspective.

Afterwards, we meet the two gay leads of the play, Paul (Daniel Robinson), who wants nothing more than to settle down (but who is soon dumped by his jerk of a boyfriend), and Eddie (Joey Dudding), an innocent gay virgin who still hasn’t told his religiously conservative parents he’s gay (but who soon learns they’re coming to see his opening night in this very “gay” musical).

Hereafter the movie cuts back and forth between successive scenes from the musical itself and the backstage stories of these main characters. (Fortunately, this little gay musical has what seems to be about two full months of flawless preview performances!)

Don’t get too hung up on the musical numbers informing the real-life storylines – this isn’t Cabaret. But the resulting movie, written and produced by Fred M. Caruso and co-directed by Caruso and Casper Andreas, is a surprisingly pleasant romp.

Daniel Robinson (left) and Joey Dudding