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\u201cThe Loneliest Girl in the World\u201d has just been extended through July 1 at Diversionary Theatre, where it\u2019s well directed by Diversionary\u2019s Artistic Director Matt M. Morrow.<\/p>\n
Anita Bryant (the formidable Allison Spratt Pearce) isn\u2019t one for small moves. She calls herself \u201cThe Loneliest Girl in the World\u201d and wants to be noticed. She thought the Miss America crown would be her springboard to fame. But when she lost, it was back to the drawing board. Meeting Miami DJ Bob Green (Steve Gouveia) and marrying him in 1960 was her entree to recording fame, illustrated in her song \u201cMake Me a Star.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tommy (Sam Heldt), a young closeted gay with his own identity issues, fell in love with the recording star Anita, but he also identified with her outsider status. \u201cYou didn\u2019t look like you belonged, and that\u2019s why I loved you from the start,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But when Tommy dons an apron and lipstick to watch Anita on TV, his horrified mother (Marci Anne Wuebben) orders him to take them off \u201cbefore your father gets home!\u201d<\/p>\n Tommy continues to follow Anita\u2019s recording career and begins frequenting a record shop, looking for Anita\u2019s latest album. There, he meets future life partner Kyle (Shaun Tuazon), who doesn\u2019t understand Tommy\u2019s interest in Anita. But their \u201cTwin Bed\u201d duet is a charmer.<\/p>\n Anita is spurred on \u2014 \u201chaunted\u201d might be a better word \u2014 by occasional vignettes of Mary Ann Mobley (the delightful Lauren King Thompson), who took the Miss America crown from her. Mobley shows up to rub salt in the wound by announcing the film and TV shows she\u2019s in, while Anita makes Holiday Inn and orange juice commercials.<\/p>\n Anita hits her stride when she goes back to her fundamentalist roots and begins an anti-gay campaign, \u201cSave Our Children,\u201d that would have far-reaching effects \u2026 until it didn\u2019t anymore.<\/p>\n Pearce, one of the finest singers around, shows again \u2014 with a nuanced performance, powerful vocals and mastery of this difficult music \u2014 why she is in such demand on the musical stage.<\/p>\n \u201cLoneliest Girl\u201d takes place on Robin Sanford Roberts\u2019 garish green and orange set reminiscent of \u201cRomper Room,\u201d with six squarish holes for such things as TV screens, faces to appear, an oven door, etc. There are more than 20 small, white light bulbs and two curtained exits.<\/p>\n The four-man band on stage right cranks out plenty of sound \u2014 too much on opening night, in fact, for the unfamiliar songs whose clever lyrics we wanted to hear.<\/p>\n Heldt\u2019s Tommy is an engaging character with a lovely voice, especially on \u201cSing Me the Songs.\u201d He and Shaun Tuazon\u2019s Kyle make a good counterpoint for each other; Tuazon shows his versatility in a variety of other roles as well. Anita Bryant dropped out of the public eye shortly after she campaigned for California\u2019s Briggs amendment in 1978, which would have made pro-gay statements regarding homosexual people or homosexuality by any public school employee cause for dismissal. It went down to massive defeat at the polls.<\/p>\n But give her anti-gay campaign credit for helping to launch the gay rights movement that continues to this day.<\/p>\n![\"Renouncing](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Loneliest-Tech-2-e1529080131373.jpg\")
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