A vintage classic Hollywood film gets a farcical drag makeover as Society Hill Playhouse presents “Norma Doesmen” through Nov. 7.
The play is a comedic spoof of “Sunset Boulevard,” a classic 1950s movie that the play’s writer and director, Stephen Stahl, adores.
“It was about as dark as you can get about Hollywood in that particular era,” he said. “To me, it was amazing. From the very first time I saw it, I was attracted to it. I was attracted to that dark feeling and, of course, the underbelly of the story itself.”
The original story follows the slow decline of Norma Desmond, a faded silent-film star who draws those around her into her fantasy world, where she still sees herself a star primed to make a comeback.
How on earth will today’s audiences relate to a fading star who has lost touch with reality? Oh, right. That’s VH-1’s entire programming schedule these days. Anyway …
Garrett Longo, who stars in the stage role of Desmond, was Stahl’s inspiration for this twisted version of the iconic character.
“Garrett had always felt that Norma lived within him,” Stahl said. “Up in New Hope, where we both live, we do the gay pride festival every year. Dan Brooks came to me and said, ‘Why don’t you do something for the pride festival with Garrett as Norma? Just write a small, 20-minute play.’ The next thing I know, the Bridge Theater Company was interested in producing it as a full-length play. So that’s what I did.”
Stahl said even though “Sunset Boulevard” is revered as a classic film, much of it is ripe for lampooning — hence the transformation of Desmond into “a schizophrenic multi-personality character that’s into everything from S&M to women’s clothes.”
You can stop right there. We’re sold.
“Today, that melodrama that was known as realism in the early 1950s is so over the top that it can be viewed as comic at this point,” Stahl said. “Audiences that see it the first time really don’t comprehend the drama of what the film is bringing out. They look at it as if it’s camp, and it has become camp. So that allowed me to go ahead and move forward in the style that I’m doing it.”
Not everyone sees it that way. Stahl said that “Norma Doesmen,” which was well received when it ran off-Broadway, did have its fair share of detractors. But he expected that.
“When I wrote this piece, I made it clear. I called it a miscarriage of theater in two acts,” he said. “It’s everything that theater is not supposed to be. But that is what makes it fun. I broke every guideline and rule that makes good theater good theater. I made no qualms about that. What I got in New York is critics that absolutely got it and loved it, or critics that thought it was a huge insult and the worst thing they’ve ever seen on the stage.
“It’s dangerous waters. I’m taking a classic and I’m destroying it. I’m destroying what it really was. But that’s also what makes it funny.”
“Norma Doesmen” runs through Nov. 7 at Society Hill Playhouse’s Red Room, 507 S. Eighth St. For more information, visit www.societyhillplayhouse.org or call (215) 923-0210.
Larry Nichols can be reached at [email protected].