Straight Shooter

Pre-play proclamation:

Ryan and Tom, this show's not for -- or about -- you. Even if TMZ.com, People magazine and the National Enquirer might insist otherwise.

"There have been several times in rehearsal when I would say, 'It's like Ryan Seacrest' and they get it because people sort of assume he's gay, but he's not out," says Susanna Brent, director of Good Medicine Theatre Company's production of "The Little Dog Laughed" at the Onyx Theatre.

"In interviews (playwright) Douglas Carter Beane had people ask him, 'Oh, this was about Tom Cruise, wasn't it?' It's not about anyone, but it's interesting that people find the parallels."

And reasonable. In "The Little Dog Laughed," Beane, author of the drag-tastic "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar," lampoons sexual identity hang-ups and Hollywood hypocrisy with crisp wit. Driving the doings is Diane (Tressa Bern), a predatory-bordering-on-evil uber-agent hellbent to ensure that the "slight recurring case of homosexuality" of her actor-client Mitchell (John Beane, no relation to the playwright) doesn't send his promising career plummeting down a tabloid rabbit hole. Mitchell has taken up with Alex (Alex Bayless), a bisexual street hustler also dealing with his girlfriend, Ellen (Zoey D'Arienzo).

"Mitchell's fine pretending not to be gay and sleeping with this male prostitute, but the conflict comes when he actually falls in love," Brent says. "They decide to have a real relationship and he has to choose between being an out homosexual and being a movie star."

Originally produced off-Broadway in 2006, "The Little Dog Laughed" segued to the Big Street later that year, lasting three months -- or about five minutes in Broadway time. Among the actors rotating in and out of the cast were Tom Everett Scott ("That Thing You Do!") as Mitchell and Johnny Galecki ("Roseanne") as Alex.

"This is going to rattle around in the heads of the romantics and hurt a little bit," Brent says. "It's set in New York, but it's got a West Coast mentality. The playwright is making a statement about how we put ourselves through tragedy over how we label ourselves. It's about when what you want gets in the way of who you are."

But the tragedy finds its rhythm in the comedy.

"It's definitely got that dark, sitcom fun to it," John Beane says. "It's a little self-aware, but just enough to be interesting. It's got that New York, Woody Allen, 'Entourage,' 'Will and Grace' thing."

The sexual identity follies get increasingly freakier. Diane insists Mitchell be perceived as straight to play gay in a movie -- echoes of "Brokeback Mountain's" straight actors/gay lovers scenario, the sort of "daring" actor risk rewarded in awards season.

"She says she wants it to play to multiplexes, and she thinks if you're not gay, it's like the pretty lady putting on the fake nose and winning the Oscar," Brent says, referencing Nicole Kidman's supersized honker in "The Hours" that helped net her the little golden dude. "She thinks if you're already gay, it's just bragging."

Take a deep breath here: When hustler Alex asks boyfriend Mitchell for money to pay for girlfriend Ellen's abortion, agent Diane wants to buy Alex's silence while bribing Ellen to keep the baby and marry Mitchell to give a gay actor an instant family to appear straight so he can play a gay role.

Fret not. There won't be a quiz.

"There's so much weight on people to uphold a certain image, it's as if they have to be superior just to be human," says Bayless. "That's the tragedy, that it just can't be what it is because of the expectations of society."

Oh, and there's full frontal male nudity.

"My parents are going to be so thrilled," Bayless says in a joking tone tinged with apprehension. "I come from a very Christian background and I knew I could never have this conversation with them. At about 2 in the morning, I wrote a text message: 'Mom and Dad, I'm in a play, I make out with a guy, I get naked, I'm a prostitute, I know you're proud.' "

Only the third production of this fledgling theater troupe, "The Little Dog Laughed" tucks trenchant cultural commentary into a play that snaps snugly into Brent's mission. "It's wildly funny and we're a company that does only comedies," she says.

"We want to be the company that is the gateway to the arts and the best way to reach people who are not familiar with the arts is to make them laugh. Since laughter is good medicine, we're the Good Medicine Theatre Company."

In "The Little Dog Laughed," it's a spoonful of sex that makes the medicine go down.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.