Review "The Kid": How One Sex Advice Columnist Tried to Become a Dad — Set to Music

When I read Dan Savage's The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant, the last thing I ever thought would come of it was a musical. Told in Savage’s hilariously raunchy style, it’s a great read, and astonishingly moving in certain scenes. It’s one of those books that stays with you for months after you read it.

But a musical?

My fears were assuaged when I saw The New Group’s production of The Kid, currently running at Theatre Row. Book writer Michael Zam wisely has Dan, played by a lovable Christopher Sieber, breaking the fourth wall constantly, keeping the tone similar to the memoir on which it's based, and allowing the characters to jump around in time and space without grandiose set changes.

The plot is quite simple – Dan and his boyfriend Terry (Lucas Steele), who have been together for two years, wish to adopt a baby. Dan tells us his reason for wanting a child: the men in his family, upon reaching middle age, become hideously fat, but if he has a kid no one will judge him for his weight.

We can tell there’s a deeper yearning there, but Dan always goes for the joke before the emotional honesty, and that’s part of what makes his character so charming.

Lucas Steele is a delight as Terry, Dan’s boyfriend, who’s much younger than Dan but equally game to go the parenting route. Steele so accurately nails down the image of Terry set down in Savage’s memoir that you almost feel they just opened the book and gave it a good shake, and Steele fell out, long blond hair and all.

Steele and Sieber have fantastic chemistry on stage, and their relationship is, not surprisingly, the rock of the show. As with any couple, they fight, they make up, they fight some more, they hold grudges, they get over them. Unlike shows where the characters burst out of a writer’s imagination, these two are based on real people, and guess what? They feel like real people. And that, if you’ll forgive the horrible pun, really makes the show sing.

Our two heroes are surrounded by a terrific supporting cast, many of whom play multiple roles. The real stand-out is the sublime Susan Blackwell, who among others roles plays Ann, their adoption counselor, who is at turns business-like and nurturing.

The birth mother is a homeless teenager named Melissa, and we learn the possibly deal-breaking circumstances around this adoption: Melissa is a gutter punk, part of a group of kids who choose to be homeless. As Melissa, Jeannine Frumess has a shield around her that’s so strong it’s almost visible, and in the chilling song “Spare Changin,” we get a glimpse into the desolate life she leads.