|
| |
Directed by Laura-Nicole Musolf
Performances: February 13-14-15 and 20-21-22, 2004
Friday and Saturdays: Dinner, 6:30 p.m.;
show, 8 p.m
Sundays: Dinner 1 p.m.; show 2 p.m.
A woman....pretending to be a man.....pretending to be a
woman?! It's Gay Paree in the 1930s, and the comedy is outrageous in Victor/Victoria!
The hit movie starring Julie Andrews is now a Broadway musical featuring many of
your favorite songs, including Le Jazz Hot!
SYNOPSIS
ACT I
Carroll Todd ("Toddy" to his friends) is
tenuously employed as the resident performer at Henri Labisse's Left Bank gay
club, Chez Lui. A penniless English soprano, Victoria Grant, auditions
unsuccessfully for Labisse. Toddy tries to help, but Labisse rejects her and
fires him. Toddy befriends Victoria, and they become instant buddies and
confidantes.
Toddy's ex-boyfriend, arrives at Toddy's
unexpectedly to collect his things. He mistakenly thinks Victoria is Toddy's new
boyfriend, but she kicks him out. Toddy is impressed. Richard actually thought
Victoria was a man! And at that moment The Inspired Idea strikes Toddy right
between the eyes. Victoria could indeed be a man - Europe's greatest
female impersonator! Toddy dreams up Count Victor Grazinsky - a gay Polish
aristocrat. "Says Victoria, "They'll never accept a woman
pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman! - "They'll know
he's a phony!" "Exactly," says Toddy. "They'll know he's
a phony!"
Le Jazz Hot! introduces Victor to
Paris café society. His show-stopping performance at once makes him the toast
of Gay Paree. The only doubter of Victor's authenticity is a dashing American
business-man - cum gangster figure, King Marchan, visiting Paris with his brassy
girlfriend Norma and his loyal bodyguard Squash. King is convinced Victor is a
woman, and determined to prove it. King is thwarted, and starts to doubt
himself. He finds Victor attractive as a woman...but what if he's a man?
By an unwelcome coincidence, King and Norma and
Squash find themselves in the adjoining hotel suite to the newly successful
Toddy and Victor. Victoria bemoans to Toddy that in King she thinks she has
finally found the man of her dreams, but here she is trying to convince him that
she is a man, too!
ACT II
Victor continues to take Paris audiences by storm.
Norma complains to Victor and Toddy that King is shipping her back to Chicago
because he fancies Victor - a man!
King confronts his doubts about himself and Victor.
Is it possible that he, King, is falling for a man? He invites Victor and Toddy
to dinner to try and find out. King and Victor flee from a major brawl in the
club. King says he doesn't care if Victor is a man, and kisses him.
Victoria admits she's not a man. King says he still doesn't care, and kisses her
again
Back in the hotel, Squash barges into King's
bedroom and finds King and Victor in bed together. Squash admires King for
coming out of the closet, and stuns his boss by revealing that he, too, is gay!
Victor and King examine their potential problems
if they are perceived publicly as two men. It won't work.
Back in Chicago, Norma is performing in a night
club. She informs King's gangster partner, Sal Andretti, that King has
dumped her for another man - and is living with "a gay Polish fairy."
Sal is aghast, and says they're all going to Europe.
Two weeks later, Toddy and Squash have become
happy partners. Not so for King and Victoria, unable to be seen together in
public.. Victoria tells Toddy she doesn't want to be a man anymore. Toddy
understands. Neither does he.
Sal and the spurned Norma arrive in Paris. King
admits he loves "Victor," keeping the secret. Sal, disgusted, ends
their business relationship. Victoria reveals herself to Norma as a woman.
At Victor's farewell appearance, Labisse tries to expose him/her as a
fraud. Toddy, thrilled to be back in drag, replaces Victoria in a blink, to
thwart Labisse and leave the way clear for a happy ending for our two loving
couples -King and Victoria, and Toddy and Squash.
- Edited synopsis
courtesy Musical Heaven, www.musicalheaven.com.
|
