Once a year, Orlando’s Walt Disney World opens its doors for its Gay Days celebration, attracting thousands of men and women nationwide. Among them, a year ago, was playwright/impresario Phil Geoffrey Bond; afterward, back home, he translated his experiences into several short monologues, which he delivered himself at The Laurie Beechman Theatre. Now he has developed them into a single theater piece – imaginative, observant, wry and hilarious – which premiered as The Disney Diaries at The Beechman over five nights in June.

Now the show embraces several characters: narrator, stage manager, a drunken Ohioan, even a little girl splashing in a wading pool. Playing them all non-stop, and transitioning seamlessly among them in a tour-de-force performance, was actor and cabaret artist Jonathan Whitton. Arriving in white slacks, blue shirt and sunglasses, soon changing into the Gay Days “uniform” (a red shirt, so participants could identify each other), he proceeded to hold the stage with unflagging focus and magnetism. With agile direction by Michele Pawk, scene changes were suggested simply by a prop or two and by smooth lighting changes designed by David Colbert and Joey Pier.

Over its five nights, the show was still evolving, and, says Bond post-run, it still is. For this reviewer, it could have benefited from shortening, and (personal prejudice) even with a song or two for a change of pace. Watch for the return of The Disney Diaries. 

Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
June 21, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org