Making Porn in Florida

It's been a while since my play, Making Porn, has been produced but it sounds like this production in Ft. Lauderdale in Florida is not a disaster. But does it make me miss the theater? Hmmm. Not much. Producing theater is mostly headache-inducing but nice reviews can make the trip a little less painful. If you're in Florida, go check it out. The producers are very nice guys!

Fleshed out: 'Making Porn' at Fort Lauderdale's Empire Stage theater well-acted and directed

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Playwright Ronnie Larsen on his 1995 comedy-drama Making Porn:

The first preview was sold-out. 
The reviews were horrible. 
More sold-out shows. 
Everytime a bad review came out our ticket advance grew.

Hopefully this good review won't kill ticket sales at the new 48-seat Empire Stage theater in Fort Lauderdale, where a current production of Making Porn runs Thursdays to Sundays through Feb. 7.

Making Porn first played South Florida in 1998 at the Colony Theatre on Lincoln Road. 1980s gay porn icon Ryan Idol starred as Jack Hawk, a straight out-of-work actor who quietly takes a job in a gay porn film and reluctantly becomes a star.

Casting Idol in the star role caused a minor sensation on South Beach and the month-long run at the 400-seat Colony regularly sold out. (Making Porn contains much male frontal nudity and several simulated sex scenes.)

As gay-porn fans know, however, their Idol never was the world's greatest actor.

The current Empire Stage production is well acted, and well directed.

New York-based actor David R. Gordon stars as Jack, a part he first played during Making Porn's national tour in the late '90s. Gordon – a legitimate actor, the show's producer and also new owner of Empire Stage theater – knows the material well and appears quite comfortable with the adult situations that arise onstage.

Julia Clearwood, a mainstay at Fort Lauderdale's old Sol Theatre Project (where Empire Stage is now located), plays Jack's wife, Linda, who at first becomes sick to her stomach upon learning her husband makes a living having video sex with other men.

Gordon and Clearwood work well together and are quite believable in their scenes together.

Actors Keith Dougherty and Michael Lopez (also the production's director) are Making Porn veterans. Both appeared in the show's 1998 South Beach production with Ryan Idol. They play their parts as boyfriends/porn filmmakers with energy and conviction; neither walks through his role.

The two cast surprises are Ryan McFadden, who plays a 20-year-old porn hopeful, and Angel Perez, who co-stars as longtime porn star Ray Tanner.

McFadden starts off a bit goofy but soon shows an endearing comic flair.

Perez has the hardest job of all, not having his acting talents obscured by performing the most explicit scenes in the play. Let's just say it's a close shave, but Perez manages to pull it off. His Ray Tanner (a role often played by real-life porn stars) is human and – just one more double entendre, please – fleshed out.

Making Porn is not for everyone. Some will find it too explicit, others not explicit enough. But for the sold-out audience on Saturday night, Ronnie Larsen's play was just right.