Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly
Hollywood has a long history of hypocrisy when it comes to gay celebrities, so a musical that sheds light on their closeting is a production one wants to praise – if only one could.
The story in The Max Factor Factor, now at Noho Arts Center, unfolds in the 1930s. Two rival studios are battling for public attention while struggling to stay free of the prying eyes of the “Legion of Rectitude,” made up of self-appointed guardians of public morality. To the chagrin of the studio head honchos, the leading men in their productions — Lance (Jeff Scot Carey) and Hoyt (Jeffrey Christopher Todd) — are gay and attracted to one another. Each is promptly “bearded” — that is, married off or affianced, Lance to his sexy strutting co-star Alice (Jessica Howell) and Hoyt to his, kittenish starlet Clara (Jessica Snow Wilson). Read more…
Now playing through August 31.