If there’s anything gay men adore, it’s musical theater and porn, just two of the reasons why Shooting Star – A Revealing New Musical, a Hudson Mainstage World Premiere, is the gay porn musical event of this or any other year.

Not that there’s likely to be any other gay porn musical any time soon, nor is Shooting Star without its flaws, but cliches and stereotypes aside, things never get boring under Michael Bello’s direction.

More importantly, Shooting Star features some of the most triple-threat-tastic performers in town, one tuneful song after another, and for those who crave an occasional penis or two or three, a beefcake-blessed cast provides that as well.

Book writer Florian Klein/aka porn star Hans Berlin’s alter ego is smalltown Indiana “theater queer” Taylor (Taubert Nadalini), who heads west to pursue acting stardom in Hollywood USA.

Unfortunately for our boyishly hunky hero, poor Taylor can’t even pass his first audition challenge…to walk like a straight delivery guy, which is why unemployed and broke, he accepts popular porn director mr. Sue’s (Karole Foreman) job offer to shake his near-naked booty at WeHo’s Black Rooster, the off-set haunt of porn stars like:

Tiger Black (Bettis Richardson), who sees abundant potential in Taylor’s ass (“men would pay to see you jizz”) and books him a $1500 porn gig minus a 10% commission;

Butch O’Neal (Garrett Marshall), whose switch over from straight to male-on-male videos allows this gay-for-pay “top top-earner” to be “pornogamous” to his porn-star wife;

JR Andrew (Carson Robinette), who started off making “home movies” with his friends (“I would take them stem to shaft,” he warbles) before becoming America’s favorite bottom;

James Grant (Michael Scott Harris), who’s been fucking on film since the Reagan years, but now finds himself virtually gigless because nobody’s less in demand than an aging porn star.

With bills to pay, Taylor agrees to shoot a “reverse cowgirl” bottoming scene with Cocky Award winner Jesse Apollo (Nathan Mohebbi, serving up the lengthiest but not the last glimpse of full-frontal nudity we’ll get from more than one shooting star), with whom there’s obvious chemistry both onscreen and off.

Before long, the combination of fan adulation and failed auditions has convinced Taylor that “doing it undressed” just might be the way to go, and redubbed Taylor Trent (in honor of his childhood babysitter Lucy Trent), @TaylorTrentXXX is born.

Unfortunately, the lure of “partying” like a porn star takes hold, leading Taylor to set his sights on an exclusive contract with East Coast industry mogul Martin Lords (Christopher Robert Smith), even if that means selling his soul to the devil.

If it’s not already clear, Shooting Star doesn’t stray far from the countless cautionary tales of Life In La La Land that have preceded it, but that doesn’t make it any less fun to watch.

Klein’s book scores points for authenticity if not for tired one-liners like “Who needs Mr. Right when you have Mr. Right Now?” or sitcom-style exchanges like “I’m sexually fluid.” “I love sexual fluids.”

Likewise, though Erik Ransom’s lyrics are indeed informative, Cole Porter they’re not. (“Here To Have Sex” has Tiger instructing Taylor in the dos and don’ts of pre-shoot prep: “Do what you must to keep up your hygiene. Nothing quite kills the lust like a guy who’s not clean.”)

Fortunately, composer Thomas Zaufke gives Shooting Star one hook-propelled melody after another performed by a cast as vocally blessed as they are muscularly and otherwise endowed.

In his biggest professional role to date, recent USC grad Nadalini’s Taylor Trent is boy-next-door appealing, buffed to porn proportions, and has you rooting for our hunky hero even when fame and fortune turn his head before an insufficiently explained 180-degree flip has the boy rediscovering his small-town Indiana heart.

In the evening’s most revelatory performance, Celebration Theatre favorite Mohebbi is not only stunning to look at with a voice to match but so authentic and likable, it’s no wonder Taylor is smitten.

Showing off Broadway-caliber pipes are force-of-nature Foreman, having the time of her life as Shooting Star’s sole female player; Harris, scoring the evening’s loudest ovation for an embittered James’s look back at the golden age of porn in “Those Golden Days”; Richardson, personifying porn’s darker side as the increasingly money-grubbing Tiger; and graduating UCLA senior Robinette, revealing bottom twink JR’s studiously hidden heart in “All The Lovers.”

Marshall, Smith, and sculpted go-go boys Ryan Kanfer and Davey Miller make strong impressions as well, whether vocalizing or doing their dance-club thing to Jim Cooney’s booty-shaking high-energy choreography.

Gregory Nabours provides accustomed masterful music direction while conducting Shooting Star’s rocktastic live band*.

 Production design by Michael Allen Angel (porntatsic properties), Martha Carter (Vegas-pizzazzy lighting), Pete Hickok (dance club-ready set), Alex Mackyol (sound), Yee Eun Nam (scene-setting projections), and above all Angela Wendt (dazzling costumes) is Grade-A all the way, as are mr. Sue’s uncredited array of wigs, Matt Aument’s orchestrations and Ethan Deppe’s electronic music design.

Shooting Star – A Revealing New Musical is produced by Racquel Lehrman of Theatre Planners. Casting is by co-producer Michael Donovan, CSA. Richie Ferris, CSA, is casting associate.

Danny Crisp is stage manager and Brian C. Robrecht is assistant stage manager.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II could scarcely have predicted back in 1943 that seventy-six years later Jesse Apollo would be belting out that “for once I’d like a scene where I don’t need the Vaseline.” It may not be Oklahoma!, but odds are you’ll never see a better gay porn musical than Shooting Star.

*Jon Cornell, Nabours, Gianluca Palmieri, Doug Peck, and Justin Smith

The Hudson Mainstage, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood.

–Steven Stanley
May 25, 2019
Photos: Ed Krieger

Tags: Erik Ransom, Florian Klein, Hans Berlin, Hudson Mainstage Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Thomas Zaufke