“Suddenly, one day, we were old. We’re trolls now, baby. Get used to it.”

No, we’re not talking about those big, nasty trolls that lurk under bridges awaiting unsuspecting travelers. It seems “trolls” is the new lingo used by younger gay men to refer to older gay men. Not very flattering, perhaps. But, in the case of Bill Dyer’s new musical about a bunch of trolls who reunite for a friend’s wake, it proves to be a monstrous source of hilarious comedy!

A short musical with no intermission, Trolls is packed with several fabulous songs loaded with witty lyrics and performed to David Brannen’s hysterical choreography. The showstoppers include kicking it all off with a kickline of Trolls, a lighthearted prance down memory lane with Back in the Gay Old Days, Ed Hollingsworth dressed as Carmen Miranda leading a bunch of Gay Caballeros, an Ethel Merman impersonation by Rick Stevens, and especially Work It!, a disco number intermixed with It’s Raining Men that features the sexily-clad Jo (Leigh Scarritt) – former Disco Queen (as well as former “Joe the mechanic” before his/her little sex change operation). With Leigh’s magnificent voice, striking appearance, and priceless expressions, and with her amusing backup of troll crooners and dancers and the swirling disco lighting (Karin Filijan), Work It! really shifts the show into high gear and makes the audience giddy from there on out.

There’s also some seriousness sprinkled in here and there, which comes off with somewhat mixed results. Several attempts by Blane (Barron Henzel) to reconcile with a miffed and extremely sulky Phillip (Tom Fitzpatrick) just seem sort of thrown into the plot and don’t add a great deal of emotional depth. (Regardless of whether I thought their relationship was poorly developed or written, it does serve an important purpose, as one of our readers nicely points out here.) But there are some truly poignant moments with the entrance of the ghost of Boomie (Ralph Johnson) whom only the audience can see, entering with a bright white light and brushing off a little fairy dust from his shoulder (okay, so it’s not all seriousness). He and his sister (Kate Hewitt), who disapproved of his lifestyle and hardly talked to him during their adult lives, share the most touching scene in If I Could Live My Life Again.

Rob Hopper
San Diego Playbill