Review: Kyle Dean Massey Will Make You Feel Like a "Lucky Guy"

Going to see shows in New York is a lot like drinking. Sometimes it’s like a fine wine, the taste and scent of which linger pleasantly in your memory for days, even weeks. Sometimes it’s a hearty beer had at a downtown dive, whose rough, unsophisticated flavor is a large part of its charm. Sometimes it’s an awful concoction, so syrupy sweet or amateurishly made you wish you had stayed in and had a cup of coffee instead.

And sometimes a handsome stranger hands you a drink, and you’re not exactly sure what’s in it, but the guy is so gorgeous you happily accept. Then several hours later you have this conversation with your friend.

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I … I think so.”

“What did you drink?”

“I don’t … I’m not sure.”

“Can you make it home okay by yourself?”

“I think so. Wait … where do I live again?”

And that’s sort of the experience of seeing Lucky Guy, now playing at the Little Shubert Theater in Manhattan. But I mean that in a good way.

For a musical whose plot seems so cut-and-dry on paper, it’s actually quite a chimera of a show, at times earnest, farcical, surreal, and the kind of heart-on-your-sleeve, aw-shucks sappy that hearkens back to such shows as Oklahoma! or Bye, Bye Birdie. And more than once, I asked myself if I really saw what I thought I just saw.

Kyle Dean Massey and Savannah Wise

The plot, as I said, seems simple enough. Aspiring country singer Billy Ray (the insanely handsome Kyle Dean Massey, who not surprisingly ended up on our upcoming Hottest Guys of Theater article) wins a songwriting competition held by G.C. Wright, a low-rung country music producer. G.C.’s brother is Big Al, and is played by the pint-sized Emmy award winning phenom Leslie Jordan, who most folks will remember as Beverly Leslie from Will & Grace.

Big Al is a used car salesman who specializes in reselling cars once driven by country music celebrities, and he’s in cahoots with fading star Jeannie Jeannine, played by the towering drag queen Varla Jean Merman. Big Al’s secretary, Wanda (Leanne Rhymes lookalike Savannah Wise) is the perfunctory ingénue/love interest, and the cast is rounded out by Chicky Lay, played by the fantastic Jenn Colella, who gets many of the show’s laughs, not an easy task when you’re sharing the stage with the sublime Leslie Jordan.

But that’s where all the easy answers end. From what I understand, a huge percentage of the population of the U.S. are fans of country music, so a musical set in the world of Nashville seems logical, and yet I find it hard to imagine Lucky Guy playing anywhere but the bluest of blue states. This is due to several factors, not the least of which is that (in this incarnation, at least) Jeannie Jeannine is, as stated, played by a drag queen.

But unlike the characters in La Cage aux Folles or Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Jeannie is meant to be a woman in the world of this show, and that’s where the confusion sets in. Not the confusion as to how the characters perceive her: a female character played by a man is nothing new to theater. But it seems to me that were the character portrayed by an actual woman, very little of the comedy would be lost, but an enormous amount of emotional honesty would be gained, and the songs that she sings – some of them quite catchy and fun – would get the brassy, full-voiced treatment they seem to be begging for, instead of a man’s less formidable falsetto.

What's more, casting the part as a man immediately pushes the show irretrievably into the world of camp and farce, and a moment in the second act that could have been touching, when Jeannie renounces her villainous ways and becomes a sympathetic character, feels unsure of itself. Are we supposed to be moved? Should we be, on some level, emotionally invested?

It would seem not. So then, I suppose, we should take Lucky Guy at face value: a silly comedy about show business. In that, it certainly succeeds. The cast is uniformly spot-on, and a recurring sight gag where Leslie Jordan pops out of the most unlikely of hiding places consistently brought a ton of laughter, even after the umpteenth time they pulled it off. Undoubtedly this will surprise no one, but Leslie Jordan steals the show.

As the young lovers, Kyle Dean Massey and Savannah Wise make a pleasing couple, even if their journey into true love, as so often in musical theater, seemingly happens overnight. Wise is full of yee-haw, sassy charm, and makes you wish she was given a couple more numbers. Massey, who's so damn gorgeous it just doesn't seem fair, is a true triple threat, and is at his best when he's belting out the high notes of a show-stopping gospel number that closes the first act.

The cast is periodically supported by the Buckaroos, a four-man ensemble, who pop up in a variety of increasingly bizarre costumes, beginning with rhinestone cowboys and ending with winged angels (in the aforementioned gospel number), and break up the action in amusing intervals.

Speaking of which, clearly a lot of effort was put into the look of the show, as the costumes, particularly Jeannie Jeannine’s, are incredible. And boy, when those wings popped out of the angels’ backs, it brought the house down. The sets are often pleasing and occasionally striking, such as a pretty hilarious sight gag involving Jeannie's mansion, which is really just a gigantic trailer.

So the final verdict? Lucky Guy isn't for everyone, but if you enjoy the goofy, family-friendly elements of more classical musical theater, you'll love it. If, given the fact that it stars a drag queen and two out gay actors, you're expecting a show with more of a gay sensibility, you'd probably be happier seeing Priscilla or La Cage. But I'll say this: Lucky Guy really is a show with a lot of heart, and I'm glad I saw it.

Now if only I could stop humming that damn title song everywhere I go ...