TROPICAL HEAT
a steamy new comedy by Rich Orloff
(4 m., 1 w.*)
A daffy and over-the-top comedy in the style of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company. Set in the lobby of a small hotel on a tropical island in the 1920’s, TROPICAL HEAT is inspired by Somerset Maugham’s novella MISS SADIE THOMPSON and the Joan Crawford-Walter Houston film RAIN. A fire-and-brimstone minister clashes with a good-time party girl, resulting in passion, pandemonium, pithy patter and puns. Other characters include the acerbic hotel owner, a tormented young painter who hasn’t painted anything yet because he’s still developing his skills at being tormented, and a bum named Doc (“Is that what you used to do?” “No, that’s where I used to work.”).
*At a reading at Dixon Place, New York’s leading downtown developmental theater lab, the female lead was played beautifully by Sweetie, a 250 lb. drag queen. This is the kind of play which becomes even more fun with cross-gender casting.
