I support The Gay Agenda.

If you're in the New York City area, you have two more chances -- this Tuesday and Thursday -- to see The Gay Agenda's shows running at Ars Nova on 54th Street. 

I'm going to get a little excited now:

Hie thee to that theater, baby! 

The Gay Agenda duo, Nicholas and Micah, have two shows running in a very limited rep, so Tuesday and Thursday nights' shows will be entirely different.  Though you certainly could see either one as a stand-alone performance, I recommend watching them both.  That's what I did.

Without giving away all of the fun surprises, Tuesday night's show is centered around mini musicals (this review goes into more details) and a Great Big Broadway show. Thursday's has more to do with the superstar pop status for which The Gay Agenda seems inevitably destined.  I liked myriad aspects of both shows, so I can't pick a favorite night, but I do love it when they do piano/trumpet/ukulele mash-ups and arrangements of pop and folk songs (which is more represented Thursday).  Micah does a wicked Lady Gaga.  There was even a nod to the old Smothers Brothers album "Think Ethnic" on Thursday night.  Be still my beating, bleeding liberal heart.

I know I sound like a super-fan (and I think the guys may be concerned I have a little too much enthusiasm for them), but I seriously love watching Micah and Nicholas on stage.  They're both extremely funny and ever-so-talented.  Nicholas plays the piano so easily and well that it makes me curse my younger self for giving up piano lessons in junior high.  Not that i would be that good now, but... I'm getting off track.  Both men sing and harmonize like a dream.  The bulk of the songs in both shows are original, witty, and well composed.  I'm gushing, aren't I?




Did I mention that Nicholas and Micah served cookies before the show on opening night?  They served cookies!  Chocolate chip, to be exact.  This is so an agenda I can get behind.




Watch The Gay Agenda on YouTube here.  The sound's a little low on some of the videos, but maybe you have better speakers than me.

-------

Second Time's the Charm.

[With apologies to composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman (Little Shop of Horrors).]

Drink up your milk,
Wash off your mayonnaise,
Here, take my napkin,
Wipe that chili away.
Floss out your teeth --
Free from their corning.
I know things were bad
But now they're okay.

Finally catfish
Is sitting before you.
They didn't make pulled pork
For you by mistake.
Finally catfish
Is here to provide you
Peppercorn flavor,
Cucumbers, and...


No sandwich ever
Small enough for me,
Always had too much
Bread on the roll
I'd get a bun and
I'd eat it all blindly.
Fat in my fingers,
Still I'd say "sure."

Finally catfish
From Numpang surprised me.
It was the right order;
It wasn't the pork.
Finally catfish
Is here to provide me
Sweet soy sauce flavor.
Catfish -- my friend.


Tell me this sandwich lasts till forever;
Tell me the bad ones are clean washed away.

Please understand that some might
Find it too small.
With appetites these days
It's so hard to say.

Finally catfish!

Finally catfish!
A sandwich that's for me.
A sandwich that's for you.


Finally Numpang showed me it can...

Finally Numpang showed you it can...

(Yes it can!)

Fill the right order,
The one that's inside me (you)
With sweet peppered catfish...

Numpang's your friend.

[etc. ad nauseum -- except for the nausea part.]

I eat you, Miami...

to the tune of Johanna by Stephen Sondheim.



I eat you, Miami,
I eat you,
I was half convinced I'd waken,
satisfied enough to dream you
Happily i was mistaken
Miami...
I'll eat you, Miami
I'll eat you...


I'll eat you, Miami
I'll eat you...
Are there chickens in that kitchen?
'Cause they call it Chicken Kitchen.
I am finding all your rice boss
Buried sweetly in your curry sauce...


I eat you, Miami
your Cuban, I'll eat, too,
all your snapper and your stone crab claws
sweet, sweet plantains in my happy jaws...