Sodomites!!!

SALT AND BATTERY The Sodomites!!! cast mulls its Lot in life.

Photo: Sean Cusick

“Who puts the ‘bi’ in the Bible?” Sodomites, that’s who. The Annoyance’s ingeniously literal new musical expansion upon Genesis 18–20 recasts Lot as a pervert who projects his own suppressed longings to bone animals and inanimate objects onto his fellow citizens of Sodom. When God responds to Lot’s prayers by sending the archangels Michael and Gabriel to judge the city, the angels disregard all the good works of Sodom’s denizens; all they’re concerned with is whether or not there’s gay stuff going on.

Asmus (Love Is Dead: A NecRomantic Musical Comedy) and Descoteaux (The Best Church of God) use touches of sublime ridiculousness—the voice of God (Asmus) riffs on the selling points of his two favorite movies, Armageddon and You’ve Got Mail —to highlight the inherent absurdities of the source text and the ways it’s used and abused today. Minimal production values (though Emily Candini’s costumes are pretty delightful) keep the focus on the clever script. Michael gives a Sodomite couple a copy of the Bible when he realizes they’re being punished for breaking rules that have yet to be written; when he later says, “He’s doing this because he loves you—unconditionally,” they retort, “Have you read this fucking thing?” It’s a nice lead-in to one of the best numbers, “The Leviticus Rag.” The winning lyric: “This whole book is bullshiticus.”

• More theater reviews
• More Theater articles