Out Late, by Tim Turner, is a coming out story that to my knowledge hasn’t
been seen before on stage. A 65-year-old physician, married 37 years and
father of a grown daughter, acts for the first time on his long suppressed
homosexuality. The object of his affection, a handsome 27-year-old cable
TV personality, has a thing for older men, much older, in fact anyone under
60 need not apply. Their first meeting, when young Evan consults Dr.
Charles Barrett for a testicular exam, leads to a 6 month affair, culminating
in Barrett’s coming out to wife and daughter, neither of whom is delighted
by the news. Mrs. Dr. Barrett rages at her husband’s years of lies and
deception, as might be expected. Performances are all around excellent.

Nic D’Avirro is especially powerful in a scene where he reacts to his elderly
mother’s death, and talented newcomer Kasey Mahaffy makes Evan’s
senior citizen attraction believable and touching. Megan Maureen
McDonough gives a lovely performance as Barrett’s sexually dysfunctional
daughter.  Completing the quartet is the marvelous Judy Jean Bern, whose
recent (and upcoming again) performance as a 16-year-old in Kimberly
Akimbo is one of the year’s finest.  Bern is very good indeed in this very
different role of spurned wife. 

At about 95 minutes (including an intermission), the play itself feels
incomplete (when the lights came up for curtain call, I thought, “That’s
it?”) and two scenes where three of the characters face the audience
rather than each other seem more gimmicky than theatrically effective.
But Out Late is nonetheless a worthy addition to growing list of gay themed
plays, and is effectively directed by veteran David Galligan.  Machd
Theatre, 1107 N. Kings Rd., West Hollywood; Thu.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Jun.
29-Aug. 5. (323) 960-7829. www.plays411.com/outlate.

--Steven Stanley