SHOOTING STAR – THE REVIEW
Shooting Star is a sexy new gay porn musical written by a real-life gay porn star. Marc Andrews attended the premiere of this critically acclaimed and crowd-pleasing show in LA and, yes, there is plenty of nudity on stage!
It was the Land Of The Brave that first gave the world commercial gay porn so it’s no surprise that the USA now gives us the world’s first gay porn musical. It’s written by a German-American, Florian Klein, better known as his porn star alter ego, Hans Berlin.
What that means is that we have somebody writing about this muchmaligned, misunderstood and misjudged world who knows it backwards, sideways and legs upwards, and who has made his living from it for many years. Who better to come up with a revealing new musical about gay porn called, Shooting Star.
Aside from its great title, Shooting Star features some extremely sexy actors, as you’d expect from a play about gay porn. Also unsurprising is that fact that most of them spend a lot of time topless, bottomless and happily popping out of their jockstraps. There’s not just a few brief and discreet cock shots and dick flops, but plenty of glorious, full-frontal nudity and delectable swinging phalluses.
What’s not to get excited about here? Premiering in May in Los Angeles at the Hudson Theatre and running initially for a month with an extension, the show has already garnered rave reviews and sold-out houses. While it’s not exactly Hamilton in terms of being a Broadway sensation (yet!), the fact that a musical about the gay porn industry is being put on in a mainstream theatre space, and winning raves in both the gay press and the wider media, proves that there is still an appetite and appreciation of alternative narratives amid the creeping conservatism of the US.
The plot is familiar. Handsome young stud, Taylor (taut and terrific Taubert Nadalini) dreams of moving to Hollywood to follow his dreams of becoming a movie star. After arriving in Los Angeles, getting knock backs at audition after audition and finding it hard to pay his rent, Taylor reluctantly takes up a job as a go-go boy. Given his amazing body, smile and willingness to please, this inevitably turns to a career in gay porn.
The beating heart of Shooting Star, however, is actually a love story between Taylor and fellow porn star/pop star wannabe Jesse (Nathan Mohebbi). After filming a scene together, Taylor ignores all the advice of everyone in the industry, and falls in love with his very first on-screen partner.
While Taylor and Jesse navigate having real feelings for each other in a gay porn world that thrives on cum shots, multiple partners and faking attraction, there’s another more complex sub-plot going on.
Aging porn legend/daddy James Grant (Michael Scott Harris) has managed to beat his crystal meth addiction. He has one of the best lines in the show: “I’m allergic to crystal meth. Every time I use crystal it makes me break out in handcuffs!” But James can’t seem to beat the ageism in the porn industry.
His best friend and longtime confidante is porn director, Mr Sue (Karole Foreman). As a raucous-but-focused straight woman working in a gay man’s industry, she’s one of the most fascinating characters in the show.
There’s also a sleazy, gay porn magnate, Martin Lords (Christopher Robert Smith), baring more than a passing resemblance to a real-life gay porn magnate. He’s played with a German accent, allowing writer Florian Klein ample opportunity to make some wunderbar insider jokes at his own Germanic expense.
Another standout performance comes from Ryan Kanfer, who not only gets to play a lusty porn actor, but proves to also be an extremely dexterous go-go dancer. That he’s handsomely well-endowed does not go unnoticed by the audience – that’s if you can take your eyes off his washboard abs and his curvy butt, which is so voluptuous you could serve drinks from it.
Act I of Shooting Star is clever, moving and sexy. The 15 songs by German awardwinning composers Thomas Zaufke and Erik Ransom (the man behind GRINDR The Opera) sit mostly in the light rock category and could do with a little more imagination at times, especially in such a genre-busting musical.
A couple of scenes in the ballad-heavy act II seem in need of some musical variation. Some clubby house beats would amp things up a little, though the lyrics are smart, sassy and succinct. Shooting Star director Michael Bello worked most recently on the Broadway smash Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and a little of Donna’s throbbing disco pulsations wouldn’t go astray here. Yet that’s perhaps the only minor grumble.
This is a creative, inventive, thoughtprovoking work, with knowing references to sex and drugs, plus detours into how addiction and HIV/AIDS have adversely affected the gay porn world.
Ultimately, Shooting Star is a sexy gay love story. Cum and see it soon.