Review: Say You Love Satan/About Face Theatre

Take the popcorn movie, blend it with “Queer As Folk” and a playwright who moonlights for Marvel Comics, and what pours out is a comedy that almost but doesn’t quite work, currently staged by About Face Theatre at the old Victory Gardens mainstage. Bookish Andrew (Joshua Rollins) is wooed away from his sweet and committed boyfriend (Benjamin Sprunger) when he is targeted by a lithe and aggressively confident interloper named Jack (Jonathan Pereira), who eventually admits that yes, he is the spawn of Satan. Or Satan himself. Whatever—what’s the diff when the guy with ice running through his veins has a bod that could melt polar ice caps? Or so goes Andrew’s thinking, despite the best advice of his pal, Bernadette (Elizabeth Ledo, stuck playing the harpy). The humor burbles at the surface, but never really erupts, and some of that lies on the shoulders of director Scott Ferguson, who wrote and created “Schoolhouse Rock Live!,” but more importantly (for this discussion) directed the superior “Xena Live” series for About Face in the late nineties. Here, Ferguson can’t overcome material that is just as pop-culture-laden, but not as sure of its purpose. Things move at a good clip, but to where? Playwright Robert Aguirre Sacasa doesn’t seem any clearer on this question than the audience. The whole thing feels like a rehash of “Queer as Folk’s” puppy-dog-meets-the-devil routine as enacted by the characters Michael and Brian. There’s valid entertainment in that, but it only goes so far. (Nina Metz)

This production is now closed.