INCITATION TO THE DANCE

An intriguing premise—sultry queer Millennial insinuates himself into the lives of a couple of gay married Boomers—falls flat in Theatre West’s overlong, overwrought, credibility-defying World Premiere melodrama Incitation to the Dance.

Michael Gabiano plays film professor Malcolm, whose class in “Gunsels and Gay Blades” surveys homoerotic undertones in classic Film Noir, case in point 1946’s Gilda, ostensibly a love story between Glenn Ford’s small-time American gambler Johnny and Rita Hayworth’s sexy songstress Gilda, though as Malcolm would have it, the film’s real hots-for-each-other pair are Johnny and cane-wielding casino owner Ballin Mundson, played by George Macready.

Malcolm himself is married to stay-at-home slouch Asher (David Mingrino), who seems more interested in watching videos of shirtless dancing identical twins than going out on job interviews, though today Asher’s got more on his mind than scrolling through TikTok and YouTube.

Who, he wonders, is the “very insistent young man with the tone of someone used to getting what he wants” who keeps calling their landline asking for Malcolm?

Could he be the same young man who’s standing in front of their house watching, no, make that “scrutinizing” their shared abode?

We in the audience have already met skinny, scantily-clad go-go boy Finn (Casey Alcoser) as he irons the bills that have been inserted into his bulging thong, so we recognize him when he rings Malcolm and Asher’s doorbell, informing the latter that he knows Malcolm as Franco, a regular at the gay club where he go-goes for cash.

 It hardly takes more than the blink of an eye for Finn to find himself firmly ensconced chez the married twosome with absolutely no intention of ever moving out, and things only get more twisted as Incitation To The Dance moves at a snail’s pace towards climax, its hour-and-fifty-minute running time due in part to playwright-director Michael Van Duzer’s sluggish direction and the out-of-nowhere intrusion of several same-sex dance sequences that the cast execute as best they can. (Stan Mazin is choreographer.)

 I give playwright Van Duzer credit for featuring as his lead characters gay men of a certain age not usually given the centerstage spotlight.

The trouble, for this reviewer at least, is that neither Malcolm nor Asher are all that interesting, either as individuals or as a couple, so I found myself far less invested in their story than I would have been had I found them more appealing or likable.

I also found it hard to buy into the idea that a supposedly hot young thing, even one with a daddy complex (which Finn may or may not have) would be so attracted to either Malcolm or Asher that he would set about breaking up their marriage to be with one or the other, that is unless all he’s after is destruction, and because his motivation for wreaking mayhem remains opaque, I ended up not caring one way or the other.

The cast tries hard, but Gabiano’s line delivery was still shaky on opening night, Asher’s grouchiness makes Mingrino’s performance rather a turn-off, and Alcoser’s Finn is all about creepy menace not much else.

Miles Berman’s dark, uneven lighting of Carter Vickers’ serviceable living room set doesn’t help keep audience alert, nor does Sammy Davis’s fragmented sound design provide much help.

Michael Mullen gets little chance to show off the flash and pizzazz of other recent costume design assignments, though on the plus side, Mel Glickman’s fight choreography includes a couple of the most believable slaps I’ve seen or heard on stage.

Incitation to the Dance is produced by Bryan Siu and Dina Morrone. Alexandria Sanders is assistant producer. Sarah Acuna is stage manager. Philip Sokoloff is publicist

 There’s no doubt in my mind that there’s a compelling play to be written about the characters Michael Van Duzer has created in Incitation to the Dance much as John Schlesinger’s Sunday Bloody Sunday kept movie audiences riveted back in 1971.

At least as things stand now, this latest Theatre West Writers In Residence World Premiere is not that play.

Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles.
www.theatrewest.org

–Steven Stanley
February 13, 2026
Photos: Carlos Hernandez

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

 

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