- Ty Chance
- A snap from a Homomentum preview at the 2012 JAW festival.
Pants-Off Productions staged their first full performance of “Homomentum: The Musical” last weekend. The premise: a band of intergalactic performers land on an imaginary, conformist world (Metopia), full-fledged with unicorns, falsettos, and stilettos. In it, the three intergalactic performers—Sam Kazaam (Leigh Richards), Sprocket (Caley Murray), and Captain Magic (Anthony Hudson) encounter a young girl, who’s frustrated with the rules and caste system of Metopia; the performers help her find herself, particularly in the song “Self Made Man,” where she is transformed into Eli.
It was all pretty fabulous, and full of glitter and camp, as expected. Staged at the Coho Theater, “Homomentum” was inspired by their cabaret series of the same name (now in its third season), also conceived by Max Voltage. Pants-Off Productions received a RACC grant to help fund this performance. Tickets were sold out for all performances, so hopefully you got wind of the show early.
The weekends’ performances of “Homomentum” were billed as a staged reading. Although the piece isn’t fully produced (yet) it wasn’t really a stage reading either. There were rarely scripts on stage. It was a lot more interesting than your typical staged reading. Anthony Hudson (who had a great installation at the Portland building earlier this year) played Captain Magic, and he lived up to his namesake, garbed in gold, with a personality larger than life—a highlight of the show was his song “Narcisexual;” Captain Magic meets an attractive antlered individual with a similar, sensational style, which spurs the cheerily sung chorus line, “You look like me // What luck // You remind me of me // Wanna fuck?” Meanwhile, backup singers held mirrors made of cardboard and aluminum foil, fanning them behind Captain Magic’s toosh, making him look like a peacock.
The show ran a little long, at about two-and-a-half hours; the second act was a little more sentimental and slow than the first, but all-in-all, this show was absolutely delightful. That being said, we’ll keep you posted regarded the fully stage production, which is currently TBA. In the meantime, here’s a clip from Pants-Off Production’s preview at the 2012 JAW Festival.
