‘Sordid Lives’ lives on

‘Sordid Wedding’ a smash sequel at Gateway

The film comedy “A Very Sordid Wedding” recently got a sold-out Florida premiere at the Classic Gateway Theatre in Fort Lauderdale.

The sequel to “Sordid Lives” was written, directed and produced by Del Shores, who in 2008 turned the franchise into a television series for the Logo cable network. The new film’s cast includes Leslie Jordan, Caroline Rhea and many stars from the stage. Whoopi Goldberg and Alec Mapa have cameo roles.

“It was fun to take the characters from 1998 all the way into 2015,” says Shores, who wrote for “Dharma and Greg,” “Queer as Folk” and “Southern Baptist Sissies.” “Where are they now? The fans were asking what happened to Brother Boy [a character played by Leslie Jordan who was institutionalized for performing Tammy Wynette songs in drag]? What happened after he left the mental institution?”

While the movie follows the bigoted reaction in the small town of Winters, Texas, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality, South Florida is integral to the marketing, says Emerson Collins, one of the movie’s producers and co-stars.

“It really is an incredibly important place in all our work,” he says. “The original film ran here for over a year. We came in 2006 and did the play of ‘Sordid Lives’ and ‘Southern Baptist Sissies’ and sold out the Parker Playhouse for a full weekend. And we came here with [the movie version of ] ‘Southern Baptist Sissies’ and sold out three screens here at the Classic Gateway as part of the film festival when that film premiered.

STEVEN K. JOHNSON/COURTESY “A Very Sordid Wedding,” a gay-themed comedy movie, had it’s Florida premiere at the Classic Gateway Theatre in Fort Lauderdale.