MOST WANTED

A musical about gay party-boy serial killer Andrew Cunanan told by a big black drag queen named Stormy Leather backed up by the Daddyo’s, a trio of singing sugar daddies, that’s what kicks off The La Jolla Playhouse’s new process called The Edge - cutting edge shows that push the boundaries of theatricality, but as cutting edge as it sounds, MOST WANTED isn’t treacherous mainly because of the middle-of-the-road music.

Still a work in progress, the show is awkward, skipping back and forth in time and place. Directed by Michael Grief (Rent Grey Gardens), it works hard not to offend. Think HEDWIG minus the glam rock, it’s afraid of itself. Though it has some balls, especially when a half naked sugar daddy kisses his young rent boy, the straight men in the audience were audibly disturbed.

Ken Page’s (Cats Children Of Eden) luminescent stage presence makes Stormy Leather the anchor of the show unfortunately he gets no knock down drag out (pun intended) torch song or an uproarious camp song though he makes full use of the bitchy one-liners the script offers.

As the Andrew Cunanan based character, Daniel Torres (The Pirate Queen The Woman In White) lacks the charm, charisma or good looks to pull off such a complex shyster, he fares better when he begins his evil rampage.

A brave undertaking, it just needs a jolt of eroticism from the score. CABARET-ish in it’s tone, the score needs to be electric and contemporary and menacing, again HEDWIG comes to mind, brazenness on parade, MOST WANTED is brazen it just needs to parade it