Daniel and Mitchell have been together for seven years. One of them wants to tie the knot. The other does not. And that’s about all you need to know before making a beeline for the Fountain Theatre to savor Michael McKeever’s laugh-out-loud-then-get-out-your-hankies stunner Daniel’s Husband.

The topic of marriage doesn’t come up until architect Daniel (Bill Brochtrup) and bestselling gay-novel writer Mitchell (Tim Cummings) have served crème-brûlée to Mitchell’s literary agent Barry (Ed F. Martin) and Barry’s latest half-his-age flavor of the week Trip (Jose Fernando), after-dinner chitchat that once again proves there’s no wittier protected minority than the gays. (“You’re like Tallulah Bankhead. The older she got, the younger her lovers were. By the time she died, she was dating high school juniors.”)

Then Trip makes the mistake of complimenting Mitchell on having married the perfect husband and Daniel is once again forced to hear the man he so desperately wants to wed declare marriage “an archaic institution forged in that crucible of all things evil, religion, that over the years, has been distorted into some putti-infested, Victorian-laced, curlicue-covered concept created by Madison Avenue for the sole purpose of once again making money.”

How’s that for putting a damper on what had till that point been the most scintillating of evenings?

And if Mitchell’s unwillingness to walk Daniel down the aisle weren’t already enough to have his partner climbing the walls, Daniel’s widowed mother’s upcoming week-long visit is sure to do the trick, because despite being to all outward appearances the ideal gay man’s mom, Lydia (Jenny O’Hara) is also the woman Daniel has never forgiven for discouraging her painter husband from pursuing his passion, so much so that he eventually just gave up and died.

And then …

Suffice it to say that if Daniel’s Husband’s has been equal parts charming and conversation-sparking throughout its first hour, it suddenly morphs into something considerably more heart-wrenching and profound, and the year’s most powerful defense of marriage, gay or straight.

Reuniting Cummings and Brochtrup from the Fountain’s 2013 LADCC Award-winning Best Revival production of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart’s proves just one of Simon Levy’s strokes of directorial genius.

Both abrasive to the point of cruelty when denying Daniel what he so desperately craves and the glue that keeps mother and son from breaking irreparably apart, Cummings burns up the stage, and never more so than in the play’s emotional roller-coaster of a final half hour.

The always fabulous Brochtrup is sweet and steely and deeply affecting as a man for whom the terms partner, lover, or companion no longer suffice, and Fountain favorite O’Hara is so feisty and fabulous and undeniably likable that when she declares, “There are no villains here,” you believe her.

Martin is equally splendid as a man any gay couple would count themselves lucky to call their best friend (no matter that Barry refuses point-blank to grow up), and terrific newcomer Fernando is so downright appealing as the unexpectedly perceptive, deeply caring Trip that it’s clearly Barry who loses out by declaring his latest twink conquest neither “fun” nor “goofy” enough to date for longer than two weeks.

Scenic designer DeAnne Millais (her name misspelled two different ways in the Daniel’s Husband program) gives Daniel and Mitchell precisely the beautifully appointed main room specified in McKeever’s script (the meticulously chosen properties are Millais’s as well), and Jennifer Edwards lights the couple’s perfectly put-together abode to vibrant effect.

Michael Mullen costumes all five characters in precisely the outfits they themselves would have pulled from their closets, and sound designer Peter Bayne ties it all up with one just-right scene-linking tune after another. (Trust me, you’ll never again hear Peter Gabriel’s “The Book Of Love” cover without an added measure of tears in your eyes.)

Jessica Montoya is production stage manager. Scott Tuomey is technical director.

Daniel’s Husband is produced by James Bennett, Deborah Culver, and Stephen Sachs. Karen Kondazian is executive producer.

Only a decade or two ago, you’d probably never have seen a play like Daniel’s Husband in a non-LGBT theater let alone featuring four openly gay actors as its stars, a measure of how far we’ve come, and not just in matters of marriage.

Avoiding Lifetime Movie-style clichés every step of the way, and guaranteed to leave you profoundly touched and moved, Daniel’s Husband’s Southern California Premiere at the Fountain is not to be missed.

The Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Los Angeles.
www.FountainTheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
May 20, 2019
Photos: Ed Krieger

Tags: Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Michael McKeever