36 I Out in the Mountains |September 2000

  Show Tunes and Young Love

REVIEWED BY ROLAND PALMER

If you listen to cast albums and can sing
lyrics from Dreamgirls from memory, then
you’ve got Broadway Damage. Writer, direc-
tor, and editor Victor Mignatti’s first feature
film helps us to recall a time filled with opti-
mism, romance, and dreams. We join friends
Marc, Cynthia, and Robert fresh out of NYU as
they move to Greenwich Village to take their
bites of the Big Apple.
The first order of business is, of course, to
find an apartment. And what’s the best way to
find an apartment in NY? By checking out the

' obituaries, of course. Marc and Robert, follow-

ing leads from the obits, check out apartments
via the fire escape (who needs a realtor?), and
find the perfect place. When the “hunky” over-
all-clad landlord catches them in the apartment,
Marc does some intimate one-on-one negotiat-
ing — the details of which are not shared — and
manages to land the apartment.

Marc (Michael Shawn Lucas) and Robert
(Aaron Williams) are best friends who share a
love of Broadway musicals. Robert dreams of
writing Broadway’s next big musical and set-
tling down with Marc; Marc dreams of a suc-
cessful acting career and finding a perfect
boyfriend who’s a perfect 10 — that is, someone
other than Robert. Cynthia (Mara H_obel)
dreams of shopping and landing ajob with New
Yorker editor Tina Brown. Add to the mix the
handsome pop-star-wannabe-next-door, David
(Hugh Panaro), who catches every eye —
including Marc’s — and you have some interest-
ing dynamics. It is only a matter of time before
everyone’s expectations start to unravel and life
begins. , ,.

Robert cannot seem to get Marc’s romantic
attention, or anyone else’s for that matter,
though he tries. Marc and David, of course,
become a hot item but David’s not-so—pure past
soon reveals itself (beware large keyringsl).
Cynthia works daily to infiltrate the New

Yorker in her quest for ajob with
Tina Brown, and ends up attract-
ing the attention of the FBI.
Through it all, these friends find
solace in each other, and of
course there is a happy ending.

Lucas is a relative newcomer
who almost never stops smiling
throughout the film -— and what a
smile! Williams does a great job
of portraying the geeky gay guy
who just wants his best friend to
see him as more than a friend;
the scenes in which Robert tries
to hit on the clerk in a gift shop.
are wonderfully done. But it is
Hobel who steals her every
scene. She constantly recreates
herself, with the help of Daddy
and Mommy’s credit cards, in
over-the-top outfits, and gives the entire film its
sense of humor and generous doses of “campi-
ness”. You may recognize Hobel from her role
on Roseanne or as young Christina Crawford in
the film Mommie Dearest.

“If you’re 17 and you see this movie, I want
you to beg your parents to let you go to NYU
and live in the Village,” Mignatti told inter-
viewer Dennis Hensley. “If you’re 40 and you
see this movie, I want you to remember what
it’s like to fall in love for the first time — or just
go out and fall in love for the first time. I want
audiences to know that it’s safe to go to the
romance place and to experience that innocent
joy, that silliness. It’s okay to live life from an
optimistic Technicolor sort of perspective.”

I got that, and so will you once you see this
charming and fun movie, winner of the 1997
LA Outfest.

Roland F.‘ Palmer lives in Hinesburg.

V

  

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