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It’s Still a Fabulous Life

Holiday Musical is Bigger and Gayer

 

By Mary Damiano,
Entertainment Editor

  

When playwright David Sexton wrote It’s a Fabulous Life,
his gay take of It’s a Wonderful Life, as a holiday concert for the South Beach
Gay Men’s Chorus (now the Miami Gay Men’s Chorus) in 2001, he never imagined
that the show would turn into a project that would keep him busy for years to
come.

 

 Last year, It’s a Fabulous Life was expanded into a full
musical and played for several weekends at Teatro Avante in Coral Gables. This
year, the show has new cast members, new producers and two new venues, the
recently renovated Byron Carlyle Theater in Miami Beach and Broward Center for
the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.

 

 The show has also been retooled with new songs and more
fleshed out characters.

 

 “I really feel like last year’s production was more like
an elaborate staged reading,” says Sexton, who also owns Ironworks Gym in South
Beach. “We were creating it right up until the last minute, and this year we
were able to fix the things that weren’t working. It’s a more professional
production this year.”

 

 It’s a Fabulous Life follows Joe, a member of the
theatrical troupe the Lavender Players. Joe has written a holiday show for the
troupe, Randolph the Rainbow Reindeer, but the production is fraught with
demanding divas and Joe’s own holiday melancholy. When he’s had enough and
wishes he were not born gay, an angel comes down from heaven to grant his wish.

 

 E.L. Losada can relate to his role as Joe, a young man who
wonders what his life would be like had he been born straight.

 

 “The first 20 years of my life was, ‘God, take this away.
I don’t want to be like this,’” says the Cuban-born Losada. “And coming from
parents who were pastors and raised in church, it has not been an easy journey.
The story is still being written of how my family is dealing with it.”

 

 In the play, the turning point of Joe accepting his
gayness comes when he sees that his friends are worse off because he is not in
their lives. Losada’s acceptance of his orientation came in a more intimate way.

 

 “The first time I felt loved by another man and it didn’t
feel horrible, I didn’t feel like I had sinned, that was the first time I
accepted it within myself,” Losada says.

 

 In addition to Losada, there are several other new cast
members, including Andy Rogow as Frank, the director, Dean Swann, who plays an
ambitious stagehand named Steve Harrington, Nadeen Holloway, who plays lesbian
stagehand Angela and Ben Bagby, who plays Tim. Swann, Holloway and Bagby were
recently seen in The Life at the Atlantis Playhouse.

 

 Another newcomer to the cast is Kenny Calabria, better
known throughout South Florida as drag performer Daisy Deadpetals, who
auditioned for It’s a Fabulous Life as an assignment for Deco Drive, on which
Daisy D. does a regular segment. Calabria never expected to actually get the
part.

 

 But once he landed the role of Carlo, a reluctant drag
queen, Calabria still wasn’t sure he wanted to commit to the show. Reading the
script and watching the video from last year’s production made up his mind.

 

 “It was amazing,” Calabria says. “I’m making less money
but I’m so into it and loving it.”

 

 It’s a Fabulous Life marks the first time in his
professional career that Calabria has been billed under his own name and not
that of his alter ego. A graduate of New World School of the Arts, Calabria
trained as a dancer and never intended to become a drag performer. He is both
excited and nervous at the prospect of people seeing him in a new light, and is
considering auditioning for more professional acting roles in the future.

 

 “It’s challenging and it’s different for me, but at the
same time, it’s relit my creative fire and juices,” says Calabria.

 

 Several cast members from last year’s production return
this year. Edison Farrow is back as the special elf Gabe, Ezequiel Hernandez
plays Joe’s boyfriend, Luis, Brian Ricci plays butch Bruce, Sexton gets into the
act once again as Dale, and David Leddick is back as Arthur the gay angel, a
part that Sexton wrote especially for him.

 

 “I said I would do this show again if I could have a big
number in the first act,” says Leddick, who was also in the chorus version of
the show. Because this year’s venues have larger stages, Leddick, who is 74,
also gets to dance. “I don’t know whether the audience likes my dancing or if
they’re amazed that I’m able to do it.”

 

 Behind the scenes, director Robert Johanson is back at the
helm. Fred Diekmann and Dave Knight, best known for their theatre reviews and
columns in various South Florida publications over the years, have made their
first foray into producing. Sexton notes that Diekmann and Knight have seen
thousands of shows and that It’s a Fabulous Life is the first one they’ve ever
wanted to produce.

 

 “It is touching and warm, yet funny,” says Knight. “It has
all the human emotions at some point throughout the show.”

 

 Word has spread about It’s a Fabulous Life. Sexton has had
inquiries about the musical from Atlanta, Washington D.C., Ohio and London, and
hopes to be able to authorize regional productions.

 

 Ultimately, Sexton would like to take it to New York. To
that end, several New York producers are coming to see the musical Broward
Center.

 

 At the very least, it looks like It’s a Fabulous Life is
on its way to becoming a South Florida holiday tradition.

 

 “It’s a happy holiday show that sparkles for young and
old,” says Diekmann. “It’s a wonderful annual Christmas show for everyone.”

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