Empire Stage: Making Porn (2 reviews)

Empire Stage makes its debut on the South Florida Theatre Scene with its production of Making Porn, which opened on January 14, 2010.

THE HILARIOUS HIT COMEDY ABOUT THE GAY PORN INDUSTRY IN THE 1980s.

Michael Lopez directed a cast that included himself, Keith Dougherty, Ryan McFadden, Angel Perez, and David R. Gordon.

Steve Rothaus reviewed for the Miami Herald's Gay South Florida column:

The current Empire Stage production is well acted, and well directed.

... David R. Gordon stars as Jack, a part he first played during Making Porn’s national tour in the late ‘90s. Gordon – a legitimate actor, the show’s producer and also new owner of Empire Stage theater – knows the material well and appears quite comfortable with the adult situations that arise onstage.

Actors Keith Dougherty and Michael Lopez (also the production’s director) are Making Porn veterans. Both appeared in the show’s 1998 South Beach production with Ryan Idol. They play their parts as boyfriends/porn filmmakers with energy and conviction; neither walks through his role.

Perez has the hardest job of all, not having his acting talents obscured by performing the most explicit scenes in the play. Let’s just say it’s a close shave, but Perez manages to pull it off.

Some will find it too explicit, others not explicit enough. But for the sold-out audience on Saturday night, Ronnie Larsen’s play was just right.

J. W. Arnold reviewed for the South Florida Gay News:

Lopez, Dougherty and Gordon are all veterans of previous productions of the show, including the off-Broadway stint, and intimately know their characters, delivering perfect, sometimes emotionally moving performances. Perez is absolutely steamy as Ray and McFadden lends an innocent, almost naïve charm to his Ricky. And Clearwood steals the show later as she eagerly embraces her husband’s new career.

For audiences who are more interested in a cheap thrill than a sophisticated night at the theater—not that Making Porn is overly serious theater despite a nod to the AIDS crisis—there will no disappointments as the boys shed their clothes for what turn out to be outrageously funny sex scenes that play on every stereotype in the porn world.

Making Porn romps at Empire Stage through February 7, 2010.