Theatre review: The View UpStairs

The 1973 arson that killed dozens in New Orleans’ UpStairs Lounge gay bar was the biggest terrorist attack on the LGBTQ+ community before the Pulse shooting in Orlando, but ranks as something of a forgotten chapter of queer history. I’d never heard of it before this year, but perhaps it’s fitting that in the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots other landmark moments are commemorated, and I’ve seen the attack referenced on stage twice this year: It formed a plot point in Gently Down the Stream, and is now the inspiration for Max Vernon’s musical The View UpStairs. In the present day, entitled influencer Wes (Tyrone Huntley) buys a burnt-out building in New Orleans’ French Quarter with the intention of gutting it and turning it into the flagship store for his new fashion line. It is, of course, the building that once house the UpStairs Lounge, and when he’s alone the ghosts of the bar’s owner Henri (Carly Mercedes Dyer) and her clientele appear.

Wes is now to all intents and purposes in 1973, where the regulars greet him at first with suspicion before establishing he is in fact gay and cautiously welcoming him; but he remains very much alien in their world.

He gets to know some of the regulars, and even starts a possible romance with Patrick (Andy Mientus,) but despite the bar being raided by a cop in search of a bribe early on, and drag queen Freddy (Garry Lee) being queerbashed as soon as he leaves the bar, Wes struggles to understand the realities of being gay in the South in the early ‘70s. He’s judgmental when he discovers Patrick is a hustler, and constantly expects the regulars to stand up for themselves in a way that would be extremely dangerous at the time. In fact one major issue with The View UpStairs is that Vernon paints his lead character in broad strokes as the kind of vacuous millennial that’s already become a cliché and wouldn’t be out of place in a sneering Daily Mail piece.

The 1970s characters aren’t much more defined but at least they show a bit of variety – married, closeted Buddy (John Partridge) is a vitriolic presence and alcoholic Dale (Declan Bennett) a downright chaotic one but Willie (Cedric Neal) is a calming figure who sees himself as the resident elder statesman and Richard (Joseph Prouse) holds prayer meetings for those who feel excluded from their own churches. It’s a bit odd though that in a bar owned and run by a lesbian the only other woman we see is Freddy’s supportive mother Inez (Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, who must be thrilled, thrilled that only a few years after striding around the stage heavily pregnant and in heels in In the Heights she’s now been lumped into a casting bracket that says “lovable middle-aged Puerto Rican mom.”)

The show’s blurb promises, or possibly threatens, “a collection of beautiful love songs and power rock ballads,” but fortunately the show is musically a bit more varied than that makes it sound; there are inevitably a number of introspective numbers but there’s also plenty of more upbeat moments as well, and while the songs don’t jump out as instant classics I found them toe-tapping enough and Jonathan O’Boyle’s production consistently entertaining. Lee Newby’s design and Nic Farman’s lighting create a suitably intimate space, and the musical succeeds both as queer history, as celebration of the advances made since then, and as strident call to arms over those that still need to be made. It’s a shame that a lack of subtlety in the way it makes these points remains a nagging cloud over the show as a whole, but if it’s not one for the ages a very strong cast help make it a successful evening.

The View UpStairs by Max Vernon is booking until the 24th of August at Soho Theatre.

Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Darren Bell.