Can an open marriage survive if one husband embarks on a sexual relationship with one of the couple’s occasional bed guests? This is the provocative question posed by playwright S. Asher Gelman in Afterglow, a surefire seat-filler thanks to its extended softcore sex scenes early on but a West Coast Premiere whose real dramatic fire begins once the clothes have come back on.

When successful theater director Alex (Noah Bridgestone), 35, and his graduate student husband Josh (James Hayden Rodriguez), 33, invited 25-year-old massage therapist Darius (Nathan Mohebbi) up to their Manhattan high-rise for a three-way, neither had any idea that their latest fuckbuddy would be anything other than a one-nighter.

But the two husbands hit it off with Darius, so much so that Alex, with more time on his hands than Josh, gets Josh’s blessing to pursue further one-on-one hookups with the younger man.

 After all, the two husbands reason, there’s a baby on the way (through surrogacy, not adoption), so their marriage is secure, right?

What Alex hasn’t counted on is finding himself in love with two men, and though his commitment is to a husband who assumes there’s nothing more than sex going on between Alex and Darius, what will happen when Josh finds out the truth as he almost certainly will?

As Reader’s Digest used to ask its readers, “Can This Marriage Be Saved?”

Sculpted to Men’s Fitness perfection, Bridgestock, Mohebbi, and Rodriguez let every inch hang out, whether entangled in bed or getting drenched in an actual centerstage shower, but that’s not all playwright Gelman has to offer.

His perceptive, ultimately heartbreaking script is filled with crackling dialog (and plenty of laughs early on).

And he’s just as fine a director, eliciting three fabulous performances that reveal not just authentic emotion but also dancers’ grace in several exquisitely choreographed sequences.

Bridgestone and Rodriguez make for a thoroughly believable couple, though perhaps not the wisest where life choices are concerned, and though Darius might be called a “homewrecker” by those of a less forgiving nature, a heartbreakingly stunning Mohebbi proves once again why he’s been an L.A. stage star since his breathtaking Scenie-winning debut in Celebration Theatre’s Wolves.

Ann Beyersdorfer’s set, Fabian Aguiilar’s costumes, and James Roderick’s lighting have all three been imported from New York where they collaborated on the off-Broadway original (with only one local designer added to the mix), but what Midnight Theatricals and Gelman have brought west adds up to one of the most gorgeous productions I’ve seen at the Hudson Mainstage, a marvel of see-through plastic, moveable black set pieces, florescent lights, and the aforementioned shower, with L.A.’s own Alex Mackyol providing a dance club-ready soundtrack throughout.

Last but not least, it’s perhaps not surprising considering how much skin touches skin that Afterglow features not one but two “Intimacy Coordinators Of Color,” Ann James and Chelsey Morgan.

Casting is by Kate Lumpkin, CSA. Nate Richardson covers all three roles. Robbie Simpson is associate director. Aja Morris-Smiley is associate costumer.

Angela Sonner is production stage manager. Nico Parducho is assistant stage manager. Bryant Cyr is production manager. David Elzer is publicist.

It’s been a dozen long years since an L.A. intimate theater production has delivered as much full-frontal male nudity as Afterglow. And though Gelman’s play isn’t in the same major league as Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out, as was true back in 2010, audiences will go for the naked men but stay for the story being told.

The Hudson Mainstage, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood.
www.afterglowla.com

–Steven Stanley
May 7, 2022
Photos: Mati Gelman

Tags: Hudson Mainstage Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, S. Asher Gelman