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The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions Debuts at Park Avenue Armory to Mixed Reviews

The music-theater adaptation of Larry Mitchell’s 1977 cult fable is running in the Armory’s drill hall through Dec. 14.

Overview

  • Composer Philip Venables and director Ted Huffman unveil a North American premiere that draws heavily on Mitchell’s original text.
  • Critics commend Venables’s genre-hopping score and the robust choral sound led by music director Yshani Perinpanayagam.
  • Reviews fault Huffman’s staging and editorial choices, citing diminished impact in the vast space and the cutting of notable passages from the book.
  • A 15-member ensemble rotates as actors, storytellers, and musicians in a cabaret-like format spanning Baroque to contemporary styles.
  • Coverage highlights a newly added assimilation storyline involving the military and marriage contracts that does not appear in the 1977 source.