Featured image: Constantine Rousouli in “The Big Gay Jamboree.” Photo by Matthew Murphy.

Would living in a 1940s musical be your dream come true or worst nightmare? Your answer might inform how much you enjoy The Big Gay Jamboree, a newish musical that transports audiences into the cryptic world of Bareback, Idaho, with homages to some of our favorite theatrical hits and plenty of F-bombs for good measure. 

Co-written by and starring Marla Mindelle as Stacey, The Big Gay Jamboree imagines what happens if a modern woman were to pass out after a night of over-indulgence to wake up in a twisted dreamscape of Rodgers and Hammerstein-esque showtunes, petticoats, productions numbers and — yes — plenty of gays. 

Marla Mindelle, center, and the cast of "The Big Gay Jamboree."
Marla Mindelle, center, and the cast of “The Big Gay Jamboree.”

Imagine an R-rated version of Schmigadoon!, Apple+ TV’s two-season musical satire (which is getting its own reverse-engineered theatrical production this winter at the Kennedy Center), and you’ve got the idea. 

Mindelle co-created and starred in the long-running hit Titaníque, delivering a kooky crazy Céline Dion impersonation framed by the hit James Cameron film and pop star’s song catalog. BGJ’s score (by Mindelle and Jonathan Parks-Ramage) can’t live up to those chart-toppers but is serviceable enough to shepherd along a thin plot in which Stacey teaches the townspeople of Bareback to live as their authentic selves while also discovering her one-sided relationship with boyfriend Keith (Alex Moffat) has run its course. 

BGJ breaks the fourth wall and nearly every other theatrical convention in a meta-spiral of references to the musical theater canon and character archetypes, but none as wildly manifested as Constantine Rousouli’s performance as Bert, a butcher-turned-bottom after Stacey teaches him the “Gay-B-C’s.” Rousouli, who co-starred with Mindelle in Titaníque, shows off a different skill set in a dance tribute to “The Music and the Mirror” from A Chorus Line, replete with grand battements and head pops. 

The Big Gay Jamboree
“The Big Gay Jamboree.” Photo by Matthew Murphy.

Director-choreographer Connor Gallagher makes the most of the Orpheum Theatre, as does the emerging design collective dots and projection designer Aaron Rhyne, who utilize every inch of the Off-Broadway space.

Reeling off last Broadway’s season, which seemed to dim the lights on queer and trans characters, The Big Gay Jamboree lives up to its name. Unapologetic in its camp and queerness, the musical, on the surface, doesn’t take itself too seriously. But we all know being this fabulous doesn’t happen by accident.

The Big Gay Jamboree plays at the Orpheum Theatre, New York City. Open-ended run. Tickets are available here.

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