A frequently mad, mystical, LGBTQIA+ fantasia, The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions is a new music-theater work drawn from a same-named 1977 book of queer fables by author Larry Mitchell and artist Ned Asta. This extremely theatrical adaptation of the book by composer Philip Venables and director Ted Huffman, who staged it in England in 2023, arrived on Tuesday at the Park Avenue Armory, where the work proves more whimsical than powerful.
Swiftly and surely performed by an impressive ensemble of 15 actors-musicians-storytellers, whose improvisations helped to develop the complex piece, The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions more or less relates how a once-idyllic world of peace and harmony was blighted by “a mysterious infection of the mind” among some of its people who transmogrified into “the men.” This dominant, repressive, patriarchy—satirized as being good only for churning out paper—later will be challenged and toppled by faggots and their women allies.
Such a straightforward description does not convey the production’s densely and wildly eclectic melange of delightful, fragmentary, mostly neo-baroque music; much seemingly spontaneous dance; words spoken, sung, or chanted (helpfully appearing as supertitles above the action); physical combat; and abstract, ritual, and random movement. There’s even an audience sing-along about what constitutes madness. Plus, fleeting moments are given to lovely individual performances on instruments such as harp, piano, organ, accordion, flutes, violins, and harpsichord.
Much of the time, viewers are guided through these doings by Kit Green, a lanky, blond-tressed comedian whose martini-dry delivery alleviates the somewhat twee repetitions of a not always terribly significant text. Perhaps most notably among a nicely meshed ensemble, a little dynamo named Yandass buzzes brightly through the action, while countertenor Collin Shay impressively bulks up into the loud, symbolic leader of the nasty Ramrod nation. Individual performances generally lend color to the multiple scenes fluently staged by Huffman with choreographer Theo Clinkard. The latter also provides a rummage sale haul of kitschy-cute items for the company to discard for other vintage clothes as the show progresses.
Everything happens upon a wide and open space stocked by set designer Rosie Elnile with wardrobe racks and assorted chairs in rehearsal room-style environs. The stark circumstances glimmer under often twilight atmospherics delivered by lighting designer Bertrand Couderc.
Heavily underscoring the original author’s desire to reclaim an epithet honorably, the word “faggot” proudly resounds hundreds of times throughout the episodic text of this sometimes charming, somewhat obvious, occasionally mystifying 100-minute event. The show seems likely to variously beguile, bewilder, and/or bore viewers, possibly depending upon their sympathies with the people of the title.
The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions opened Dec. 2, 2025, at the Park Avenue Armory and runs through Dec. 14. Tickets and information: armoryonpark.org
