Review by Steve Desroches
It’s a hard-knock life for Candice, in more ways than one. All this drag queen wants to do is get on RuPaul’s Drag Race, but those lace front wigs and sequin gowns cost a lot of coin. So to make ends meet she has to, well, make ends meet the men of their dreams as she works the help desk at Grindr, the popular gay hook up app. She’s working hard for the money in Grindr Help Desk: The Musical, the fun new show at the Post Office Cabaret that lampoons the phenomenon of online gay sex culture in a way that is honest, frank, playful, and at times surprisingly poignant.
The one-person show stars Welsh actor Owain Rhys Davies as the bubbly yet beleaguered drag queen/Grindr customer service representative with a heart of gold, Candice, who is trying to manage her own personal life as she’s inundated with frustrated power bottoms, unaware monster-dong tops, and those just dipping their toes into a world where arranging for sex is as easy as ordering a pizza delivery…or so it seems.
From beginning to end Grindr Help Desk: The Musical is an easy, breezy rollick with Davies providing a top-notch performance in a sweet satire of this ubiquitous aspect of gay male sexuality. Even if one is not familiar with the app itself, or of the lingo and cultural aspects its produced, the foibles of two people, or more, trying to arrange a sexual encounter is a tale as old as time. And this musical confection updates it and packages in such a way that it feels as if it was written for Provincetown.
In the hour-long musical romp Davies delivers cute and clever songs, which are as well-written as they are performed. Grindr Help Desk: The Musical is at its soul a professional endeavor with an exuberant heart that doesn’t peddle in raunch for the sake of it nor drown in sappiness when making a point. And there is a wonderful balance of sex, sass, and sentimentality. It uses the overly simplistic function of the actual app as a counterbalance to the actual complexity of human relations—in this case gay men and sex—no matter how fleeting the encounter or digital the initial part of the process of what will always end up being an analog experience. Written by David Stillman, directed by Kate Pazakis, with musical direction by Gregor Nabors, Grindr Help Desk: The Musical premiered at the Minnesota Fringe Festival last summer where it won the “Audience Pick” of the Minneapolis arts event. And it only seems natural that Provincetown would be its next stop.
So, put down your phones and make a point to go to the Post Office Cabaret. Who knows? You might actually meet someone there the old fashioned way.
Grindr Help Desk: The Musical is at the Post Office Cabaret, 303 Commercial St., Thursdays at 10 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., and Mondays at 8:30 p.m. now through September 5. Tickets ($35/$40) are available at the box office and online at postofficecafe.net. For more information call 508.487.0006.
