Playwright Eric Anderson pays affectionate tribute to William Inge in Back Porch, the play Inge might himself have written had mid-20th-century Middle America not kept the gay Kansan locked tightly in the closet.

Like Picnic’s Madge, Back Porch’s eighteen-year-old protagonist Gary Opat (Isaac W. Jay) feels trapped in small-town Kansas, though in Gary’s case, it’s because his love of movies and theater (and the men’s underwear section of the Sears catalog) make him stick out like a sore thumb.

And like Madge somewhere over in a neighboring town, Gary lives with a widowed parent and a younger sibling (Karl Maschek as dad Barney and Cody Lemmon as kid brother Del Wayne) and a room-renting teacher (Eric Zak as music instructor Myron), with family friend Millard (Jonathan Fishman) dropping by for an occasional visit.

Then comes the day that Hollywood arrives in town, and Gary’s life will never be the same again, because who’s about to start shooting a major motion picture right smack dab in Hutchinson, Kansas but director Joshua Logan, film stars William Holden and Rosalind Russell, and rising starlet Kim Novak.

The film is, of course, Picnic, and even more exciting for Gary than their mere presence is news that the director will be holding auditions for crowd-scene extras, and if anyone’s ready to be cast, it’s you know who.

Unfortunately for Gary, it’s Del Wayne who gets picked, though sad tidings are about to turn glad when the youngest Opat announces that none other than William Holden himself will be coming for dinner!

It’s not, however, 37-year-old Bill Holden who shows up on the Opats’ doorstep but his hunky 20something stunt double Bill Holman (Jordan Morgan), and as far as Gary is concerned, that makes him a minor player among icons.

 Things begin to change (and to heat up considerably) when an accidental misstep sends Bill hurtling into, and subsequently on top of, our sexually repressed hero, and when the twosome find themselves alone together on the back porch later that evening and Bill blurts out “Christ, you’re a good looking guy,” it’s clear that Bill is about to rock Gary’s world just as Bill Holden’s drifter rocked town beauty Madge’s in Picnic.

Unlike William Inge, Anderson doesn’t feel the need to heterosexualize gay stories as his predecessor did back when being gay could get a man arrested, and in Gary and Bill, he’s created a same-sex couple whose romance is all the more sizzling for being taboo.

That’s not to say that Back Porch is as perfect as Picnic was and is. A drunk scene involving a supporting character feels intrusive arriving so late in the play and could easily be shortened if not outright cut. And Del Wayne’s 1950s-style preteen precociousness is a bit too Leave It To Beaver for contemporary tastes.

I have absolutely no complaints, however, about the three lead performances elicited by director Kelie McIver.

Jay’s Gary could not be more engaging, more touching, or more achingly real; Morgan is not only hot as the dickens as Bill but makes us believe that this bad boy is really a good boy at heart; and Maschek digs deep into the ongoing heartbreak of a loving father widowed far too soon.

Not only that, but the sexual chemistry between Gary and Bill is as blazing it gets and the father-son love between Barney and his odd-bird first-born is deeply touching.

Completing the cast, Fishman provides terrific, folksy support as Millard, Zak makes Myron appropriately obnoxious and judgmental, and Lemmon gives Del Wayne his 12-year-old all.

Kenneth Klimak’s back porch set evokes Picnic’s pair of front porches in the best of ways, Molly Martin’s mens-and-boyswear, Tim Molina’s props, and Judi Lewin’s hair designs have a just-right 1950s feel, and Cinthia Nava’s sound design had me believing those were live voices coming from inside the house.

Only Carol Doehring’s lighting design seemed to be suffering multiple glitches on opening night.

Back Porch is presented by Bluestem Productions and produced by David Willis and McIver. Margaret Magula is stage manager. Amanda Rose Villareal is intimacy director. Brett Elliott is stunt/fight director. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

William Inge might have wanted to tell Gary’s story back when he was creating such classics as Picnic, Bus Stop, and Come Back Little Sheba, but it’s a tale the times would not allow.

Thanks to Eric Anderson, we have that unwritten play in Back Porch. Though not quite ready for the big time yet, it nonetheless makes for a compelling, heartrending World Premiere winner.

The Victory Theatre Center, 3326 West Victory Blvd., Burbank.
www.onstage411.com/BackPorch

–Steven Stanley
June 2, 2023
Photos: Keira Wight

Tags: Eric Anderson, Los Angeles Theater Review, Victory Theatre Center, William Inge