ADAM BAILEY IS ON FIRE by Adam Bailey. St. Vladimir Theatre. July 1 at 5 pm, July 2 at 1:45 pm, July 4 at 10:45 pm, July 5 at 2:45 pm, July 7 at 8 pm, July 9 at 11 pm. Buy tickets. Rating: NNN
Adam Bailey’s solo comedy is a coming-out story with a twist.
Bailey’s father’s was an evangelical Christian preacher. With much ebullient humour Bailey tells of his first inklings of gay desire, his belated loss of virginity and his failed first relationships.
Prefaced with all of Bailey’s father’s talk of homosexuality as a sin and hellfire as punishment, the story’s conclusion, we assume, will be Bailey’s long-delayed coming out to his father and his father’s reaction. But surprisingly, Bailey leaves this out. Instead, the writer/performer shifts the focus away from himself to the more general idea of the theatre itself as a kind of secular church where people gather to hear stories.
It’s a lovely idea but no substitute for finishing a story with such a strong beginning.