The cast of "Hit the Wall." (photo: Matt Murphy)

The producers of Hit the Wall, a new play by Ike Holter, would like you to believe that that there is a revolution happening at the Barrow Street Theatre. Unfortunately, this mosaic of fictional characters that portrays the famous Stonewall Riots of 1969 lands with a thud more than a punch.

The play originated as part of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Garage Rep, an initiative created to mentor smaller theater companies. But what this play desperately needs is a dramaturg. Holter’s script presents a handful of generic archetypes: The snappy Latino, the Drag Queen and the Newbie, among others. The fact that he gives some of them names feels almost incidental. The dialogue jarringly moves from conversational to beatnik poetry to past tense narrative, never quite sitting in one milieu long enough to gain any momentum.

The cast of "Hit the Wall." (photo: Matt Murphy)

The audience waits patiently as they each stroll in and set up their roles in what is about to unfold. The blistering summer of 1969 was one of the noted contributing factors to the gay community’s revolt against the ongoing police raids. The cast manages to capture this sense of heat, but director Eric Hoff misses the mark with glaring anachronisms. The catwalking and finger snapping are decades beyond the era as are the free form dance sequences inside The Stonewall Inn, which harken back to voguing of 1980s Harlem.

Hit the Wall does manage to capture some interesting perspectives with a few standout performances. Holter’s script portrays the gay community as a fragmented one, where racial and social stratas hold a firm grip until the bottles and garbage cans start flying.

Rania Salem Manganaro as Peg, a down-on-her-luck lesbian trying to find her way on the streets of New York, delivers an emotionally rich performance, as does Sean Allan Krill who portrays A-Gay. A local West Village resident, his character seems disgusted by the influx of minorities yet desperate for some kind of intimate connection as he leads a secret life of homosexuality.

Fight Director J. David Brimmer is tasked with taking 10 actors and creating a riot that feels like thousands. In spite of the Barrow Street Theatre’s confining space, the movement is swift and aggressive. With the aid of a fog machine and some creative lighting by Keith Parham, it is in these sequences where the play finds its rhythm and drive.

While not a knock-out, Hit the Wall manages to pull a few emotional punches. With gay rights still at the forefront of our national agenda, it also reminds how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go.

Hit the Wall
by Ike Holter
directed by Eric Hoff
Barrow Street Theatre through July 7

Here’s what the other critics are saying…

“When Stonewall is depicted as a clash of personal beefs and psychopathologies, its momentousness is reduced to kitchen-sink drama. And while it’s obviously a difficult playwriting challenge to dramatize an all-pervasive system of repression, hey, Arthur Miller did it.” Vulture

“Hit the Wall ends up a sentimental and misleading theatricalization of myth, not history. Worse, it wallows in its characters’ victimization rather than celebrating the fact that for the first time gay people stood up, fought back, and seized power.” Backstage

“Given the remarkable rapidity of the change in the level of support for gay marriage and gay rights in general in America, this impassioned piece is still a potent reminder of just how bad things were as recently as 1969.” Chicago Tribune

Matt Leonard & Olivia Simas ushering "Through the Yellow Hour". Photo by Tom Mizer.

A crowded staircase leads to a dark hallway. Graffiti mars the walls. A sickly plastic film lines entrances as if sealing in some contagion. And a tall, expressionless man wearing a hazmat suit approaches, telling you to join the line and prepare to be stamped.

Is this some kind of nightmare (or a return to 1980′s NYC clubbing)? No, it’s just the usher welcoming you to Rattlestick Theater’s production of Through the Yellow Hour, a post-apocalyptic Off-Broadway thriller by Adam Rapp, currently extended through November 10.

As my neck was stamped and my boundaries unsettled, I started to wonder about these ushers and their non-traditional duties — invading patrons’ personal space and setting up the world of the play with a gleeful intensity. The theater was counting on them to do a lot more than hand out playbills; in fact, they were the first act of the play.

On a recent sunny afternoon with not an invading biological weapon in sight, I met two people who’ve ushered at The Yellow Hour – Mat Leonard, a handsome and thoughtful young actor currently appearing in The Austerity of Hope at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex, and Olivia Simas, an energetic and articulate local high school student with a passion for theater — and we chatted about unflattering gear, Big Brother and some very testy audience members.

How did you first get involved in doing this very unusual job?

Mat:  I’d seen The Hallway Trilogy at Rattlestick and I’d sort of had been checking up on them while I was on tour last year. My friend Allison who lives in the city was ushering and said, “So there’s another play by Adam Rapp opening and you wouldn’t shut up about Nursing [one of the parts of the trilogy]. Would you be interested in ushering?” She sent me the link and I signed up. And all of sudden you show up and they’re like, “You want to put on this costume?”

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Lea DeLaria in "Out of Iceland". Photo by Richard Termine.

In a world of cookie cutter show biz types, Lea DeLaria is a true one-of-a-kind. From her boundary-busting stand-up to her Broadway barnstorming (and Drama Desk nominated) debut in On the Town, she has blazed a career that includes acting, writing and singing while remaining true to her  outspoken, “Bulldyke in a China Shop” attitude. And we wouldn’t want her any other way. [Which should be fair warning that the following interview includes more than just a little salty language; Victorian maidens beware.]

Now, she’s back on the New York stage in the romantic comedy Out of Iceland, as a mythical imp (don’t call it a “Troll”!) who adds a twist to the proceedings. Just before the show opened, she shared her thoughts on her swinging London life, her dream roles and the joy of kissing Brooke Shields.

You hear a character described as a “flamboyant Icelandic troll who crawled out of a television” and I’m not sure you think, “Lea DeLaria, of course!” Seriously, what was your response to hearing about this unusual role and what convinced you to play the part?

OK the “TROLL” thing is really starting to annoy me; I DO NOT PLAY A TROLL!!!! I play a ”HIDDEN PERSON”. Hidden People in Iceland are like Leprechauns in Ireland. Hidden People HATE trolls, we hate them. So to be clear that description is incorrect and both the author and I are losing our minds over it. Once I read the script I could see an unusual quality to this play. It is a romantic comedy with a twist and I play that twist. What’s not to like? The character I have created is a combination of Bugs Bunny, Beetlejuice and Grouch Marx…so, the comedy is broad and old school and I get to ad lib.

There’s a mystical, modern fairy tale quality to Out of Iceland. What were your favorite fairy tales as a kid?

My favorite fairy tale was The Bible.

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