Casa Valentina

On Broadway-at The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

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The story takes place in the Catskills where a heterosexual couple run a hotel that caters to men who like to dress up as women. All of these men are heterosexual, if you can grab hold of that concept. They simply just like to dress up like women and otherwise have perfectly “normal” heterosexual lives with wives and children at home. Let me remind you this takes place in 1962, so this kind of behavior was not acceptable. Think that during this period of time people were imprisoned for homosexual behavior.

The guests begin to arrive, pleasantries are exchanged, the ritual dressings begin and average Joe’s are transformed into ladies fit for a tea table. Dinner is served and the party begins. A
special guest of some kind of fame arrives from the West. He/She is on a mission to start a sorority for this group of transvestites. After delivering the sales pitch, she asks them all to sign a petition. As you might guess, this did not go over well with any of the closeted cross-dressers, save the HOUSE-band who is the transvestite ringleader, George a/k/a Valentina, played wonderfully by Patrick Page. It was interesting to see how prejudice played into this story. It does really make you think about how judgmental people could be. Even when their own lives were so far out of what was considered normal, they wanted to exclude others, who had much of the same struggle. So it's all fun and games until somebody gets their teeth punched out. Some secrets are exposed and it all comes to an end. 

Here lies my problem. For the 2 plus hour length of this production, I'm really not sure this was a complete thought. And I am left wanting more. Still, I enjoyed the show immensely. You just can't help but be entertained by a bunch of middle-aged men dressing up like women for dinner.
Add a pinch of sarcasm, a dab of serious, a sprinkle of political edge, and dust it all over with funny and its good theatre. A shout out to Mare Winningham, the only true lady of the house, and the only female cast member on the stage for more than 5 minutes. She was darling. And speaking of “shout”, they really need to turn up the volume on this one. ThisroadSway says put on your best dress and get on over to the Friedman for a makeover at the Casa! -thisbroadSway 4/17/2014