As I mentioned in a previous post, in my gay opinion, going to see a show in New York City is one of the best things to do there. Unfortunately, the shows I hear the most about are the ones I wouldn’t want to see. I have zero interest in seeing Hamilton. People wonder who you’d have to blow to score those tickets but I’d rather blow Donald Trump than have to sit through that show. However, when I heard there was a parody musical of Beverly Hills 90210, I was all over it. 90210 is one of my favorite tv shows ever.
So this past weekend my sister and I made the trip down to St. Mark’s Place in New York City, through the threat of rain, to see the 7:00 show hosted by none other than Emily Valentine herself, Christine Elise. She was hosting two nights and as luck would have it, the night we had tickets was one of them. Christine did an introduction before the show, a Q&A during intermission, and posed for photos after. I wish I could have stuck around for a photo op but we had a 9:36 train to catch. During the Q&A, I learned that her spirit animal would be a wolf, her favorite memories from the show were scenes with Shannen Doherty (part of the ticket sales go towards cancer research in honor of Shannen’s current battle with breast cancer), and dating Jason Priestley was “fucking awesome.” Which was what all the girls and gays in the audience wanted to hear.
The audience was mostly hard core fans, many decked out in their 90’s gear. Before and after the show as well as at intermission 90’s music was playing, much to the glee of the two guys behind us as an NSYNC song came on. One guy excitedly started to sing along as his friend, who wasn’t familiar with the lyrics, played the instrumental parts using his mouth. It was almost like NSYNC were there…if Lance Bass was at a karaoke bar drunk and Justin Timberlake was lactose intolerant and just ate an entire tub of Ben & Jerry’s.
The show itself is full of sexual innuendos, inappropriate language, hints of same-sex hookups, and jokes about incest and playing with guns…it’s everything I love about off, off, off Broadway productions. It’s definitely for fans of the original tv show who want to relive the most memorable episodes. Remember when Donna almost didn’t graduate? When Brenda lost her virginity to Dylan? When Jim and Cindy ran off to join a bondage club? Wait! What? If you thought Avenue Q was sassy, just wait.
The musical numbers are all original songs and the cast is just as funny as they are talented. Ana Marcu (Brenda), Alexis Kelley (Kelly), and Thaddeus Kolwicz (David) have the character’s mannerisms down so well I almost forget I wasn’t watching Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth and Brian Austin Green. The bromance between Brandon (Landon Zwick) and Dylan (Alan Trinca) is definitely something my wet dreams are now made of. And I’m never going to look at poor Andrea (Seth Blum) and Tori Spelling (Caleb Dehne) the same way again. I don’t know who enjoyed the show more, the audience, or the cast who occasionally got cases of the giggles and had to pause to compose themselves.
I wanted to write this post because it was a fluke that I found out about this show. I would have been bummed if I found out about it after the fact and missed out on it. So if there’s other fans out there who are feeling nostalgic for the original 90210, not that horrible reboot from a few years ago, run out and see this show. You won’t be disappointed. Just remember to bring tissues for the tears you’ll be crying from laughing so hard or from finding Dylan, shirtless in his overalls, as hot as I did.
The show runs until the end of November on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Tickets are super reasonable and I don’t think there’s a bad seat in Theater 80 anywhere. You can find more info at the musical’s website.
