Film Reviews: Is “Stop! That! Train!” as Stoopid as It Looks? (Fabulously So); Who Will Win the “Power Ballad” Battle Between Musicians Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas?, and Is Box Office Phenomenon “Backrooms” Worth It if You’re not a Horror Fan?

Stop! That! Train! (c) Bleecker Street 

Film: Stop! That! Train! 
In Cinemas 

Just as small-minded politicians seem to think painting over rainbow crosswalks and banning rainbow flags are the most pressing political issues of the day, comes the one film that will unite the country in patriotism and reach across the aisle for bi-partisan pride. Not! Director Adam Shankman’s Stop! That! Train! is the railway equivalent to Airplane! upping the exclamation point quotient by two and ramping the gay perspective to 11 (don’t worry straights, you’ll get enough of the references to get by). Impeccably cast by Brett Greenstein and Collin Daniel from the Fire Island chapter of SAG-AFTRA, the film is the spiritual sequel to Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar with the innocent charm of Dee Dee (Ginger Minj) and Tess (Jujubee) as two best friends with high aspirational dreams of being glamorous train attendants—the throughline that makes the film more than just mile-a-minute visual gags. If you’re a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race, you get the level of the humor here, with Ru herself having a supporting role as the clueless but always happy President (thankfully, she did seem to have reversed all the structural changes of the White House of the current administration). The film’s disaster plot of a once-in-a-lifetime monster storm in the path of the Glamazonian Express train seems secondary (why can’t they just stop! that! train! again?) with the gay sensibilities making the scattershot jokes a pleasure to sit through (with the sassy train attendants, played with scathing bitchiness by Brooke Lynn Hytes, Symone and Marty Lauter, giving perfect reads). There are also many celebrity ally cameos with unequal success: June Diane Raphael and Charo being the most successful while Sarah Michelle Geller and Missi Pyle miss the mark. Just in time for Gay Pride month, this film should be enjoyed with a crowd, because once it hits streaming, altered viewing parties will be the popular way to enjoy it from there on. 

The Interested Bystander’s 2026 Theater Awards Round-up

 

Schmigadoon! (c) Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman 

The 79th Tony Award Nominations 

Play 

Liberation by Bess Wohl 

Play (Revival) 

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman 

The Final 79th Tony Award Predictions

Death of a Salesman (c) Emilio Madrid

The 79th Tony Awards will be handed out this Sunday, June 7, with P!nk hosting.  These are my odds of who I think will win. 

Enjoy. 

GALECA Announces Dorian Theater Award Winners Including "Schmigadoon," "The Lost Boys" and "Prince Faggot"

 

The Lost Boys (c) Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Announcing the winners of the Dorian Theater Awards, given out by GALECA, the LGBTQ entertainment writers and critics.

Theater Reviews: “||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||” Is an Enjoyable Night of All Three, “Small” Is One Man’s Quest of Being a Horse Jockey and “Celebrity Autobiography” Is Now on Broadway, Dropping the Tea

||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :|| (c) Carol Rosegg

Theater: ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :|| 
At Vineyard Theatre 

Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Eisa Davis’ latest play with the unique title of ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :|| defies categorizing. It is definitely a play, but the four actresses that make up the cast all sing and/or play instruments for almost half the runtime. There is a narrative arc, but the production, as skillfully directed by Pam McKinnon, is more interested in moments rather than the whole. The play takes place at a summer music program in the San Francisco Bay Area in which we follow the ||: Girls :||:, who are all in high school focusing on their :||: Music :||. The most intense of them is singer Fax (Hillary Fisher). She loves the rules of classical music and is most lost when asked to improvise, or in the play’s lingo, allow :||: Chance :||: to take over. More adept at :||: Chance :||: is the school resident outsider and drummer, Margot (Naomi Latta), who is looking for meaning in her mostly unsupervised life, with music being her focus now. Pianist Rile (Yeena Sung) is the most typical teenager, sometimes acting like a mean girl, which may be her defense for wanting to find her tribe. Rounding out the cast is Clementine (Gianna DiGregorio Rivera), who plays a lot of instruments and doesn’t seem too bothered by the teenage angst around her. There are a lot of themes swirling around Davis’ play (lost and found parents, earth-shaking life changes, sexuality, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts), but they take a back seat to when the three elements of the title finally find its harmony in the play’s most satisfying scene. But this happens halfway through and nothing in its second half matches the synergy of that moment. All the actors feel natural and vulnerable, but how newcomer Latta exudes Margot’s open wound personality is astonishing and heartbreaking. Davis, whose next project is a musical with Lin-Manuel Miranda, throws a lot at us during the play’s runtime, giving the audience the choice of what is important to us in these character’s stories (with only a late play “father” subplot being the least earned and far-fetched). Still, this is a very special evening of story, song and humanity.