{"id":110632,"date":"2025-11-16T10:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T18:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=110632"},"modified":"2025-11-16T11:09:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T19:09:49","slug":"belly-shakingly-funny-bootycandy-explores-growing-up-black-and-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/belly-shakingly-funny-bootycandy-explores-growing-up-black-and-gay\/","title":{"rendered":"Belly-shakingly funny \u2018Bootycandy\u2019 explores growing up black and gay"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dana Hunt (center) discusses with Tajai Britten (left) and Jonathen Blue his possibility of gay sex. Photo by David Minard.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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By WOODY WEINGARTEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps unexpectedly, since the play\u2019s about growing up black and gay, whites in the audience of Bootycandy <\/em>made up a plurality. But it made no difference. Boisterous laughter frequently erupted from every seat during the opening weekend matinee at the California Theatre of Santa Rosa.<\/p>\n

The comedy, which details homosexual intimacy, employs f-bombs and nearly every other curse word you\u2019ve ever heard. It\u2019s belly-shakingly funny.<\/p>\n

The top-notch, five-member cast, four of whom are dark-skinned, delivers about 1,738 laughs in less than two hours on the Left Edge Theatre stage (don\u2019t count; you\u2019d probably miss a bunch of gags that way). But, in addition to multiple over-the-top slapstick segments, the audience gets to see black culture through some serious lenses based on a dozen autobiographical sketches playwright Robert O\u2019Hara theatrically threaded.<\/p>\n

It takes some time, though, for the Big Reveal to tie the sketches together and transform what initially seems disjointed into something complex but a good deal more linear. In keeping with the offbeatness of the show, no backdrop exists for the actors to play off \u00ad\u00ad(or is necessary for the bawdy coming-of-age story) but scene changes are brought to life by substituting chairs, costumes, and props.<\/p>\n

Tajal Britten skillfully portrays Sutter, O\u2019Hara\u2019s alter ego, who grows from an awkward kid obsessed with Michael Jackson into a semi-mature playwright. Jonathen Blue, meanwhile, stops the show with an exaggerated, hysterical portrait of a minister who passionately preaches about supposedly wayward choirboys.<\/p>\n

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Jonathan Blue (right ) provides big laughs in ‘Bootycandy.’ Photo by \u00a0David Minard.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Dana Hunt, Lexus Fletcher and Shanay Howell, who each deserve an award for superlative clowning, fill out the ensemble cast in multiple roles that range from a pudgy male rape victim to a lesbian named Genitalia who goes through a \u201cnon-commitment ceremony\u201d that spotlights such smart lines as \u201cwherever you go, I will not follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Director Serena Elize Flores makes sure the sometimes subversive and provocative two-act play zips along so fast that audience members leave with the sensation that it\u2019s much shorter than it actually is.<\/p>\n

Because the plotline is thin, the vignettes risk being labeled stereotypical and racist. That viewpoint, however, discounts the text also containing more than a few wonderfully crafted, expository lines like \u201cAll chocolate cakes ain\u2019t the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the playwright has adeptly fleshed out his male characters, he was somewhat stingy with the women\u2019s personalities.<\/p>\n

Bootycandy<\/em> begins with a dude clad only in white briefs and white socks. It ends with a touching moment with an Alzheimer\u2019s-afflicted octogenarian grandma craving baby back ribs, a poignancy that\u2019s diluted because it\u2019s followed too closely by a wonderfully comic dance performed by the actors after their bows.<\/p>\n

Bluenoses and children should stay home. Most everybody else should see this show.<\/p>\n

Bootycandy<\/em> will play at the Left Edge Theatre stage in The California, 528 7th St., Santa Rosa, through Nov. 23. Tickets: $22 to $44. Info: (707) 664-7529 or info@leftedgetheatre.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Sherwood \u201cWoody\u201d Weingarten, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and the author of four books, can be contacted by email at\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or on his websites, <\/em>https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0https:\/\/vitalitypress.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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        By WOODY WEINGARTEN Perhaps unexpectedly, since the play\u2019s about growing up black and gay, whites in the audience of Bootycandy made up a plurality. But it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-110632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"