Ovation Present’s Jeffrey
Michael Monks and
Adam Hildebrand
Ovation Theatre Company follows its sell-out production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with something a little different: Jeffrey, the rollicking comedy by Paul Rudnick, the author of the film In and Out.
Laughter, romance, and pathos collide in New York City in 1992, the height of the AIDS crisis. Jeffrey, a gay actor/waiter, can’t face safe sex and decides to give up sex altogether. No sooner does he swear off sex than he meets Mr. Right, who also happens to be HIV positive. Jeffrey attempts to deal with this new relationship while negotiating hoe-down fundraisers for AIDS, pride parades, Sexual Compulsives Anonymous, and encounters with Mother Teresa.
Joe Stollenwerk, Ovation’s Artistic Director, directs the production, which he says is one he’s wanted to stage for a long time. “I think there’s a prevalent perception that AIDS is a thing of the past, that people don’t need to worry about it as much as they did ten or fifteen years ago. And sadly, that’s just not true. Aside from presenting some serious issues, the play is a riot, and Rudnick is a master of blending comedy and pathos.
Joe Hornbaker and
Anthony Marquez
Portraying the title role is Michael Monks, who starred as Brian in Ovation’s production of Avow last summer. Although that was a gay role as well, Michael doesn’t see himself as being typecast because, “There are different types of gay people and characters. Comparing Brian from Avow to Jeffrey in Jeffrey is like comparing Kim Catrall in Mannequin to Kim Catrall in Sex and the City.” Monks won’t have to worry too much about being typecast, since in August he will portray the dashing—and heterosexual—Frenchman Maurice DuClos in Ovation’s Noel Coward comedy Fallen Angels, opposite Corinne Mohlenhoff and Sunshine Cappelletti. He does admit, however, “My parents will probably feel the weirdest about this. It will be the second time in six months they will have seen me stripped down to my underwear kissing men.”
Heading the ensemble of colorful characters who buzz around Jeffrey are Joe Hornbaker and recent Cincinnati Entertainment Award winner Christine Dye. Hornbaker, who received much critical acclaim in Ovation’s productions of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow, plays Sterling, Jeffrey’s supportive best friend with a razor-sharp wit. Dye joins Ovation for the first time, coming off her highly successful one-woman turn in Shirley Valentine, and will essay eight different roles in Jeffrey. “I’m very pleased to be working with you and Ovation for the first time. I am also very excited from an artistic standpoint to be playing eight VERY different characters. A wonderful challenge! I can say with confidence that I’m glad to be part of any production that enlightens an audience to the vast and diverse gay community.”
Christine Dye
Playing Steve, the HIV-positive hottie Jeffrey falls for, is a relative newcomer to the Cincinnati theatre scene, Adam Hildebrand, a junior at the University of Cincinnati. JJ Tiemeyer, portraying multiple roles, and Anthony Marquez, playing Sterling’s HIV-positive lover and Cats chorus boy Darius, are reunited in Jeffrey, recently co-starred as Jesus and Judas in The Rising Phoenix’s production of Godspell. Benjamin Kroger, another alumni of TRP’s Godspell, also takes on multiple roles, along with the director Joe Stollenwerk, who stepped into the role when another cast member had to withdraw.
Even though many of the play’s characters are gay, Jeffrey isn’t just for a gay audience. As Paul Rudnick said in a recent interview, “It’s lunacy to imagine that a play can only speak to your personal experience. In that case, every play would have to be set in your living room.” Whether you’re gay or straight, you won’t want to miss this riotous yet touching comedy The New York Times called “Wildly funny...Just the sort of play Oscar Wilde might have written had he lived in 1990s Manhattan.”
Adam Hildebrand, JJ Tiemeyer,
Anthony Marquez and Joe Hornbaker
Performances are March 26 and 27 at 8:00 p.m., March 28 at 2:00 p.m., and April 1, 2, and 3 at 8:00 p.m. All performances are held at the Fifth Third Bank Theater at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, located at the corner of Main and Seventh Streets in Downtown Cincinnati.
Tickets are $16 general admission, $14 seniors, and $12 students/children. Tickets can be purchased at the Aronoff or Music Hall box offices, or by calling 241-SHOW. Tickets are also available at all Ticketmaster outlets. Ovation also offers a Pay What You Can Preview on Thursday, March 25 at 8:00 p.m.
