SO IT’S COME TO THIS written
and performed by Emmett Foster, directed
by Rusty Owen. Presented by Bridge
Productions and Michael Kash at
Tallulah’s Cabaret (12 Alexander). Runs
to April 29, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm,
matinee Sunday 3 pm. $15-$20.
416-975-8555. Rating: NN
new york ate up emmett foster’s
So It’s Come To This when it opened in 1996. Its Toronto premiere five years later is far less of an event.
Foster’s autobiographical monologue has its piquant moments: his mother’s multiple marriages, growing up a Mormon and realizing that he’s gay, his symbiotic, codependent relationship with New York theatre producer Joseph Papp, the demanding straight man who had the biggest influence on Foster’s life. There are also some true though hardly revelatory musings, like his realization that meeting Mr. Right won’t happen without self-acceptance.
But Foster performs by rote. Occasionally tripping over his material — which could use some reorganization — he more than once loses his tale’s rhythm, and although he plays several characters, all but one speak in the same voice.
Strangely, given that actor Foster recounts his own life, we’d get as much out of reading the piece as watching him perform it.
