Live play of soap spoof “WeHo” is a hoot!

Yes, there is still a soap opera out there that is gayer than One Life to Live! It’s called WeHo.

I decided to take in the Friday night performance of the latest production of the soap spoof that spawned the new web series of the same name. It began late Friday and Saturday night performances at the Celebration Theatre (in West Hollywood, of course) last week and runs through the month.

I’m damned glad I finally saw it because it was a hoot!

Written and directed by Nic Arnzen (who also has a duel role) this is a spoof of shows like Melrose Place and Dynasty and the actors ham it up in a way that is completely appropriate. There is a murder (I think!), a psychotic break, a lesbian wedding, closet cases, gay love, straight love, hidden agendas, pregnancy, kidnappings, betrayal, revenge, secrets, and a hunky trainer who takes off his shirt at the drop of a hat. Oh yeah, and a massacre kinda like the one on Dynasty when it jumped the shark in Moldavia.

I’m now thoroughly engrossed in the lives of Kiki and her brother Kyle, Gunther, Tammy, Trent, Brandon, Bruce, Dillon, Caron, Stanton, Ruth, Andrew, Beth and especially crazy Mira!

Arnzen is some kind of a genius to have written this, directed it and played TWO roles – one being a pregnant woman! I also loved, love loved Scott Pesley as bitch diva Mira who loses her mind and regresses to childhood. But before she starts asking for a pony, Presley delivers all these bitchy lines in Alexis Carrington fashion. Clay Storseth plays the motherly Ruth and just nails it and also had one of the night’s best adlibs: when some plastic flowers were left behind on the floor from a previous scene, he stayed in character and just casually picked them up and came up with a perfect adlib: “This place is a mess!”

It got a big laugh.

I also really enjoyed the performance of Steve Callahan who has been involved in WeHo since its first incarnation more than 10 years ago. His performance as the often-shirtless Gunther is so damned funny and shows a side of Steve that we didn’t get to see in his dramatic roles in the films East Side Story and Nine Lives.

During a wedding scene, I thought he was gonna sing but instead hilariously lip-synced to Jack Wagner’s All I Need.

The play I saw last night was the season finale and that is what you will see if you go on a Friday night. Tonight is the season premiere  which picks up where the Friday night show left off.

The Celebration Theatre is located at 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. The performances begin at 10:30 p..m. and tickets are $15. Here is a LINK to the theater’s website and a LINK to the play’s Facebook page.

** The larger photos are from the shooting of the WeHo web series, not the play at Celebration but many of the same actors are involved.