FIPAP Show, A Worldly Affair
Volume 49, Issue 10
By Mike Lavers

The Fire Island Pines Arts Project (FIPAP) proved once and for all that small inconveniences are mere speed bumps on the road of life with its production of “And the World Goes ‘Round” at the Pavilion on August 13 and August 20. The show, which capped off FIPAP’s busy summer season, featured local favorites Sue Willis, Jack and Rita Lichtenstein, Lori Lynch, Nicole LaFountaine and others in a variety of foot-stomping cabaret and Broadway numbers.

Steven Alan Black proclaimed his love for Sara Lee desserts as he expressed his deep desire for this culinary treat found at any corner delicatessen.

“Give me a taste of your cherry danish,” he proudly sang at the beginning of the hour and 15 minute show. “I love your cheesecake—white as pearl—and did I mention that I love your chocolate swirl?”

Love of the lustful kind was also an integral part of the show as Tom Gamblin proclaimed his love for hustler Arthur, whose stats are 5’11” and 155 lbs. in case any enterprising (and eager) gay men out there are curious, in the Jerry Springer-inspired “Arthur in the Afternoon” vignette. But on a more serious (and socially conscious) note support for marriage for gay and lesbian couples was on full display.

During the poignant “Marry Me” number, two men holding hands in front of a Fire Island-inspired woodland scene took the stage. And a screen flashed scenes of activists on both sides of this contentious issue protesting in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston last March as lawmakers inside debated a proposed Constitutional amendment that would have banned marriage for same-sex couples.

Other scenes, such as long-time partners Del Martin and Phyllis Leon marrying inside San Francisco City Hall last February after Mayor Gavin Newsom defied the Golden State’s ban on marriage for gays and lesbians by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, played prominently into this number. Rose Levine herself added an extra sense of hope as she assumed her lofty perch over the stage as a radiant fairy godmother.

“I have you, you have me,” Gamblin sang to Black. “We can make it.”

This contentious issue aside, Jack and Rita Lichtenstein brought everyone back to Earth when they both asked that age old question: What happened to class?

“Why is everyone now a pain in the ass?” Jack asked while he and Rita sat in a café with St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in the background. “Whatever happened to class?”

Rita, perhaps taking a page out of her Catholic surroundings and the church’s scandalous history, agreed.

“There ain’t no gentlemen left to open the doors,” she sang. “Jesus Christ ain’t there no decency left?”