Theatre in Review: Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays (Minetta Lane Theatre)

	Beth Leavel and Polly Draper. Photo: Joan Marcus

As advertised, Standing on Ceremony is a collection of sketches and playlets on the topic of same-sex marriage, but its greatest glory involves a matchup between a man and a woman. I'm talking about the playwright Paul Rudnick and his frequent interpreter, Harriet Harris, who gift the production with several minutes of tumultuous hilarity. In "The Gay Agenda," Harris is a Midwestern housewife and mother, a leading member of a dozen "pro-family" organizations ("But I don't hate anyone") who is visibly unraveling over the fact that gays are everywhere -- even in the house next door. She defends the sanctity of her home ("This is where Betty Crocker shot herself," a skeptical inner voice comments), her husband (who believes "Satan created gay people as a crafts project"), and the media. (Fulminating that the heroine of every film and TV show now has a sassy gay friend, she screams, "They are taking jobs away from black women!") Having slain 90% of the audience, Harris comes back for the rest in "My Husband," another Rudnick monologue, this one cunningly devised to show how marriage equality gives Jewish mothers new ways to torment those sons who have yet to produce a fiancé. I will simply point out that, at this late date, Rudnick is just about the only person who (with Harris' connivance) can get a room-shaking laugh out of a Julie Taymor gag; he manages to top it with a priceless comment about The Help.

There's a lot more to like in Standing on Ceremony; working from the model of Love, Loss, and What I Wore and Motherhood Out Loud, Brian Shipper has assembled a distinguished lineup of writers who mine what is hilarious -- and, sometimes, heartbreaking -- about the marriage equality issue. The plan is to have a revolving cast, but the genial group put together for the opening couldn't be more up to the task.

In Jordan Harrison's "The Revision," Craig Bierko and Richard Thomas are an affianced couple wittily dissecting the traditional marriage vows in light of current legal realities. In Wendy McLeod's "This Flight Tonight," Polly Draper and Beth Leavel charm as a California-based couple forced to have their wedding in Iowa. ("The church in West Hollywood has a gay choir," says Leavel, whining slightly. "Every church has a gay choir," deadpans Draper.) Neil LaBute's "Strange Fruit," about a honeymoon that ends tragically, will be predictable to anyone who has ever seen more than one of his plays, but the author skillfully delays the inevitable, and the offhand dialogue is beautifully delivered by Bierko and Mark Consuelos. (Interestingly, the piece portrays its characters with a warmth that I rarely associate with LaBute.)

"Strange Fruit" is followed by a pair of more serious offerings. Mo Gaffney's "Traditional Wedding" brings back Draper and Leavel as another couple, who relive the details of their ceremony and the hard-won happiness it represents. (It does include an amusing look at the incestuous nature of some lesbian social circles.) It makes a solid companion to the most gripping piece, Moisés Kaufman's "London Mosquitoes," featuring Thomas as the speaker at his partner's funeral, recalling a relationship that lasted so long that, in the end, legal marriage finally seemed irrelevant. Jose Riveras "Pablo & Andrew at the Altar of Words" brings it all home with a marriage ceremony filled with wit and poetry.

The latter is one of two pieces that requires the participation of the entire company. The other is Doug Wright's dazzling "On Facebook." Allegedly the transcription of a real thread on the social network, it begins with Leavel as a cheerful bigot who, announcing her opposition to marriage equality, is stunned to encounter an army of gay friends, and friends of friends, weighing in with their unvarnished opinions. Wright puts the language of social networking to especially hilarious uses; the smiley face emoticon may never be the same again.

It's never easy to design one of these omnibus evenings, but the team assembled here does just fine. Sarah Zeitler's set design, which features an enormous swath of bunting threaded through a large pair of gold wedding rings and a collection of translucent wedding-reception chairs, strikes the right matrimonial note. Josh Starr's lighting includes an amusing rainbow effect on the upstage wall. I regret that the actors are all on mics -- is this really necessary in the Minetta Lane Theatre? -- but the system by Sound Associates keeps the reinforcement to a fairly acceptable level.

Of course, Standing on Ceremony will be of interest mostly to those for whom marriage equality is particularly relevant, but, for any audience (except the most hard-line conservative) it offers the pleasures of real pros at work. Everyone on stage appears to be having a ball, and the feeling spreads throughout the theatre. Credit the director, Stuart Ross, for striking such an informal, festive tone. And credit everyone else for lending their personal best to such an important issue. --David Barbour