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Synopsis

This candy-colored, toe-tapping gift set contains three of the most acclaimed gay musicals of the past few years. Included are Thomas Gustafson's Were the World Mine, Casper Andreas and Fred M. Caruso's The Big Gay Musical, and H.P. Mendoza's brilliant new tribute to San Francisco Fruit Fly.

Fruit Fly (2009): Reuniting much of the cast and crew from Colma: The Musical, director H.P. Mendoza firmly grasps the helm in telling his story of Bethesda (L.A. Renigen), a young performance artist in search of a career - and her birth mother. Bethesda loves to hang out with her gay boy buddies. She goes to the gay clubs, dances with her boys until the wee hours and sends them off to their tricks with a kiss on the cheek. But don’t call her a "fag hag" — Bethesda is a "Fruit Fly." Like Colma: The Musical, the film is interspersed with songs that become conversations and solo musical journeys. This is not a musical where people dance on cruise ship ceilings: these songs are firmly rooted in reality (a gay reality, of course). Some of our favorites include "Fag Hag," "Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay," "Enough about Me," "We Are the Hag" and "Work in Progress." Though it's tremendous fuN, H.P. Mendoza's film is not without its serious moments. Do not mistake it as frivolous; the director’s hidden some underlying messages in the music (which you’re sure to be humming for days).

The Big Gay Musical (2009): The film opens as NYC gossip columnist Michael Musto fidgets in the audience of what looks to be one of the worst plays ever. He runs up the aisle and tells the usher urgently that he needs a "Big Gay Musical," and that’s what we get! NYC actors Paul (Daniel Robinson) and Eddie (Joey Dudding) are stars in previews for a new Off-Broadway play, "Adam and Steve, Just the Way God Made Them." In this musical gay version of the story of creation, God is a roly-poly happy fellow in a toga with a big "G" on a glitzy necklace. Adam and Steve are blissful in the Garden of Eden when religious zealots interrupt their idyllic existence. The film mixes elements of the staged musical with the stories of Paul and Eddie. Paul has been looking for "Mr. Right" with no success, and he finally decides to look for "Mr. Right Now" instead. Eddie’s conservative religious parents announce that they are coming to see Eddie’s big premiere — which looks like it’s going to be Eddie’s big coming out as well. As the two new friends share stories, Eddie confesses that he’s a virgin, and Paul reveals that his heart has been broken one time too many. A "Mostly Sondheim" night at a piano bar gives us a chance to experience some wonderfully touching numbers on life and love, and gives host Paul the opportunity to meet a guy with a crush on him. On stage, in the play, we get to see scantily clad angels sing and dance, the wonderful "new" version of Genesis, a bizarre televangelist couple and a conversion camp the recalls the RuPaul-managed camp in But, I’m a Cheerleader. Relentlessly upbeat and packed with delicious musical numbers, Casper Andreas and Fred M. Caruso’s The Big Gay Musical is a wonderfully big gay way to celebrate!

Were the World Mine (2008): Timothy (Tanner Cohen) is a gay boy stranded in a private boys school obsessed with rugby. There’s just one thing about rugby he's obsessed with, the über-hot Jonathan (Nathaniel David Becker). Both boys are students in Ms. Tebbit's (Wendy Robie, who "Twin Peaks" fans will recognize as "Nadine") English class. She's a teacher with a mission: to excite her students with the literature of the ages. When she decides to cast these two boys as the romantic leads in her production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and to cast boys in girl's roles, you know she’s just as mischievous as Puck himself. The rugby Coach and townspeople are up in arms, and Timothy sends himself off into musical gay fantasies that look as if they're designed by Pierre et Gilles. But Timothy just can't get the language right and Ms. Tebbit advises the boy to let the words work their magic. They do just that as Timothy finds in the script the recipe for a potion to make people gay! One spritz from Timothy's magic pansy and the person goes totally queer. The entire town (filled with Christian fundamentalists) is whipped into frenzy as the glorious production night approaches. This deliciously surreal confection of a film is steered by first-time co-writer/director Thomas Gustafson, whose 2003 short Fairies inspired this bit of magic. The musical numbers are over-the-top, production values first-rate and the acting is as flawlessly beautiful as the boys. We know the Bard would appreciate this totally queer take on his immortal tale of mayhem, "If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended."