Advocate's Queen on the NYC Theater Scene

A collaboration between the creators of Contact and the Grey Gardens songwriters, Happiness , which closed June 7, wasn't exactly a match made in heaven at Lincoln Center's Newhouse Theater. In this twee musical about life, love, and the pursuit of you-know-what, the stalled subway car in which nine quirky New Yorkers were stuck turned out to be a purgatorial holding cell. Yep, they were dead. And with the help of an otherworldly train conductor, the recently deceased had to recall the happiest memory of their lives (which materialized in a production number) so they could exit and spend eternity in that instant. The least magical "moment" was actually the clichéd token gay one: In a hospital room, an André Leon Talley-esque interior designer comforted his mismatched dying lover with a wistful "What We Did On Our Summer Vacation" serenade: "The night on Fire Island that drifted into day. The ferry boat to fairy bliss across the great South Bay." If only the makeup team had used a less-is-more approach when it came to the patient's Kaposi's Sarcoma lesions. Stand clear of the closing doors, please!