I was never a huge fan of health class (yes, I faint at the sight of blood) and I was raised hard core Catholic where I was never even aloud to swear let alone talk about STD’s. I had rebelled during my college years and performed in The Vagina Monologues, so how shocking would be a show called Herpes Tonight be?
I knew nothing about the show and asked a friend to come along with me because how humorous does the title sound? As I sat awaiting the show to start I was entertained by a projection slide show of movie posters edited with herpes humor and I even learned fun facts like how Mr. Robin Williams was sued for millions by an ex-girlfriend for giving her herpes (it ended up being settled out of court).
As the show begun, the audience was packed. Were all of these people interested in Herpes? No more than 3 minutes into the show I was exposed to two shocking photographs (side by side) of the opposite sex genitalia with an out break of, of course, herpes. Mr. Corey Moosa (who looked a lot like Seth Green) explained that this was not his penis but this is what herpes looks like with an outbreak.
For the next 80 minutes of my life I learned everything and anything about herpes and traveled on the journey of how Mr. Corey Moosa contracted the so called STD. I’m still unsure if this was true to life or more like a Saturday Night Live skit turned into a one man show, but he did change the names of his ex-girlfriends (one an innocent victim and the other with the Scarlet Letter) to humorous “Kathie Lee Gifford” and “Kelly Ripa.” To not confuse the audience, the different parts of the disease were renamed as different characters like the “Hulk” and “Oscar the Grouch” with entertaining pictures displayed on the big screen behind Mr. Moosa. However, the horrible uncomfortable nightmares came back to life of sitting in health class being lectured on what to do, what not do to, and what this disease can do to you.
All in all Mr. Moosa should receive some credit for this “breakout” piece. He carried the show pretty well and made me laugh out loud a couple times, however, his character work was what kept my attention. There were over a dozen different characters that he formed into and were extremely creative and true to life. Each character had their own “outbreak” story and he didn’t just change his voice and wear mini props to create them, but he transformed his body language made me believe these characters really exist. A+ for character work!
Herpes Tonight! was co-written by Corey Moosa and Brian Shoaf and performed solely by Mr. Moosa. If you couldn’t tell by the title, it’s not a children’s show, nor would I take a first date to it, but all an all it was an interesting night.
Tickets are $20 and you can purchase them online here or call (323) 960-7776.
The show runs Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm until June 28th.
The Lounge Theatre
6201 Santa Monica Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90038 (Map)
Street Parking
For more information visit the Herpes Tonight website.
Review Written by Guest Writer “An Actor”
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