As I’ve already
mentioned, I tried to avoid solo performances like H1N1, but somehow I
got creamed by Pie-Face! The Adventures of Anita Bryant, a one-man show
from Orlando written and performed by David Lee. I usually enjoy drag
celebrity impersonations, so I stopped by the Actors’ Playhouse hoping
to be tickled while getting schooled on the Lord-loving, homo-hating,
orange juice–schilling beauty queen’s shameful legacy. But in blending
archival footage and recordings from the ’70s with fake newscasts and
clever theatrics like subbing a Ken doll for Rolling Stone reporter Ken
Kelley, Lee succeeds in celebrating a somewhat sympathetic Bryant for
all her sunny stupidity. After all, she united the LBGT community
before Carrie Prejean was even born.

Unfortunately, I happened
to be at Lee’s final Fringe performance, a technical disaster he’ll not
soon forget without intensive psychotherapy. Because his show’s so
highly dependent on video clips and voice-overs, a show-halting computer
meltdown made him break character to lament that both his agent and an
Ugly Betty bigwig were also there to witness the horror. Yet the genial
audience stuck by Lee even after we were forced to repeat a sing-along
of David Allan Coe’s “Fuck Anita Bryant.” Later, when he shared the
story of a concert appearance where an audience made Bryant cry by
standing up and turning their backs on her as she sang, nearly the
entire audience at the intimate Actors’ Playhouse instinctively pulled
the same stunt as a teary-eyed Lee stood centerstage, lip-synching
“God Bless America” -- one of the most awkwardly moving moments I’ve
ever experienced.