Lighter, dated AIDS drama still powerful

By Mike Pearson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 15, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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When Jeffrey premiered in New York City in 1992, it was playwright Paul Rudnick's seriocomic response to the AIDS crisis.

Unlike the vitriol of writer Larry Kramer, Rudnick explored the crisis in less inflammatory tones. How do you have a relationship with someone who is HIV positive, and does hesitating make you a bad person?

That's just one of the dilemmas faced by Jeffrey (Todd Black), an amiable fellow who spent years sleeping his way through New York. As the play opens, Jeffrey has taken a vow of celibacy. He's tired of one-night stands. Now he wants a one-life stand.

His friends are perplexed. The haughty Sterling (Lonny Brewer) and his dancer boyfriend Darius (Preston Lee Britton) live for the moment. How else can Darius feel, since he, too, has the disease?

The irony is that just as Jeffrey swears off sex, he meets the man of his dreams in Steve (Jeffrey Kwong) who is positive. He takes Jeffrey's rebuff as a reaction to his status, rather than what it truly is: A refusal to love in a world that forces you to watch the one you love die.

Fifteen years ago Jeffrey had much more punch. With AIDS patients now living for decades after their diagnosis, the disease is no longer a death sentence.

In 1992 that wasn't the case, so it's tinted by an air of despair that might strike contemporary viewers as alarmist.

Better to focus on what works with Rudnick's play: The fey, often lacerating, wit.

Jeffrey parodies everything from the title character's job as a cater waiter (spending increasing time catering memorials), to over-the-top pride parades to self-help gurus (here played by Kate Gorski) preaching a formulaic brand of self-empowerment.

We also glimpse Jeffrey's "fantasy" phone conversation with his parents, where pleasantries are punted and mom inquires about some less than genteel sexual situations.

Director Steven Tangedal does a nice job of pacing; the show moves briskly. And he's gifted with a likable cast. Brewer and Britton are delightful as Jeffrey's best friends, Kwong is sweetly persistent and the ensemble essays a multitude of roles, from randy priest to society matron.

It's held together by Black, whose Jeffrey understands what it means to grow up yet refuses to relinquish his insecurities. They are the blankey he wraps himself in.

Jeffrey can be side-splittingly funny and heartbreakingly dark. Rudnick gave us permission to laugh at a plague, while praying for a miracle.

pearsonm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2592

Jeffrey

* Grade: B

* When and where: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturdays, Theater Off Broadway, 1124 Santa Fe, through March 1. Also Feb. 21.

* Information: 303-777-3292

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