Review: Bright Colors and Bold Patterns at Studio Theatre

Well, it’s mid-July, so we’re deep in the thick of it and there’s no turning back now… it’s officially wedding season. It was fitting, then, that I was returning to DC from a lovely weekend out of town at a friend’s wedding and heading directly into Studio Theatre’s production of Drew Droege’s one-man show, Bright Colors and Bold Patterns—a hilarious, witty, and bitingly anti-romantic monolog that perfectly cuts the sweetness of the season.

Droege, who’s probably best known for impersonating the actress Chloë Sevigny in a series of Internet videos and live stage performances, starred in the Off-Broadway premiere for Bright Colors and Bold Patterns in 2016. But for this production—the second installment of Studio’s SHOWROOM series—he’s handed the reins over to the very capable Jeff Hiller.

Serving as the director for each production has been Michael Urie, who many know from the TV series Ugly Betty, but who has more recently become a fixture of the DC stage in a variety of roles—including as the star of another one-man show, Buyer & Cellar, in 2014 and, this month, reprises his role as Hamlet in Shakespeare Theatre’s Free-for-All production. (He also and just happens to be featured, as an actor, in another play about gay marriage in the form of this week’s episode of the podcast Playing On Air.)

Here, we’re swept into the over-the-top, verbose orbit of Gerry, who has just arrived at a tackily decorated AirBnB in Palm Springs (“It looks like Trina Turk and Betsey Johnson threw up Bacardi Razz and sold it to Target!” Major kudos go to scenic designer Dara Wishingrad for truly embracing this aesthetic.). To say he’s harried and in need of a strong cocktail is an understatement. He has joined his former roommate (and briefly, lover), Dwayne, Dwayne’s new 23-year-old boyfriend, Mack, and Dwayne’s ex-boyfriend, Neal, (and, by extension, the audience) to celebrate a friend’s impending same-sex nuptials.

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The car ride got him frazzled, but what’s really riled Gerry up is the invitation to the wedding itself, which requests that guests refrain from wearing “bright colors and bold patterns” to the ceremony. From this jumping off point, Gerry launches into a no-holds-barred diatribe about everything from assimilation and respectability politics vs. nonconformity to dubiousness about the very institution of marriage itself. “I’m happy for them,” he says, referring to the engaged couple. Then, with a wave of the arms meant to encompass the entirety of the queer community, he adds, “I’m just not sure I’m happy for us.”

Droege may have written the role of Gerry for himself, but Hiller slips into it like a (defiantly ostentatious) Mr. Turk suit. Hiller embraces the role of the sassy Southern homosexual (or “peach queen”) with verve and the perfect mile-a-minute delivery. Under Urie’s subtle direction, you genuinely forget that Dwayne, Mack, and Neal aren’t actual actors on stage; Hiller holds you in the palm of his snarky hand, which turns out to be a wickedly fun place to be. He shines as well during the more serious moments, when the cocaine and booze have run their course and earnest self-reflection (or self-pity?) have taken their place. In all, Gerry is like several characters from The Boys in the Band rolled into one and transported to desert.

Bright Colors and Bold Patterns at Studio Theatre closes July 28, 2019. Details and tickets

Let’s get one thing, er… straight: Bright Colors and Bold Patterns is proudly high camp, which isn’t everyone’s cup of (piping-hot) tea. Gerry is the kind of person you either love or hate—or love, but only in small, generously spaced out doses. I, for example, could have happily listened to him gossip, quote Steel Magnolias, and reminisce about his hatbox-sized apartment in New York all night. The person seated next to me, however, found the show to be well acted, but ultimately an exercise in vapidity (this may also just mean that I myself am deeply vapid, but let’s not go there; this isn’t about me, thank you very much). What I’m saying is, like a trip down I-10 on a Friday afternoon in the summer, your mileage may vary.

Ultimately, Bright Colors and Bold Patterns is the perfect embodiment of Studio’s stated goals for the SHOWROOM series: something a little lighter and a bit more intimate than its mainstage productions. The drinks (real and of the prop variety) were flowing, the air-conditioning was blasting, and the audience’s laughter—much of which had the tinge of recognition that often passes between members of the LGBTQ+ community at shows like this—was offered genuinely and freely. I can certainly think of worse ways to spend a swelterng evening in the city.

Bright Colors and Bold Patterns by Drew Droege. Directed by Michael Urie. Featuring Jeff Hiller. Scenic designer: Dara Wishingrad. Production stage manager: Lauren Pekel. Director of production: Josh Escajeda. Technical director: Jeffery Martin. Produced by Zachary Laks and Studio Theatre. Reviewed by John Bavoso.