When it premiered at La MaMa nearly 30 years ago, the Talking Band’s “Hot Lunch Apostles” imagined a society sometime in the future where millions are unemployed and religious fervor is sweeping the nation.
Welcome to the future.
It’s not surprising that this play, about a traveling carnival resorting to biblical pageantry, would be revived at a time when its concerns seem virtually up to the minute. Even so, the piece feels stylistically dated, as if it sprung from the experimental ’60s rather than the Reagan ’80s.
The atmosphere is established early on, as the audience walks into a carnival playground outfitted with games of chance, a food stand and sideshows.
Led by a cynical barker, Barney (Loudon Wainwright), the troupe is a ragtag bunch that includes a “professional garbage eater” and several over-the-hill strippers, one of whom has “sores that don’t stop running!”
Convinced the carnival should change with the times, Barney decides to incorporate biblical stories into the mix. This leads to auditions to determine which member of the troupe gets to play Jesus. The part eventually goes to Rod (Jack Wetherall), a male stripper.
Eventually, what started as cynical opportunism turns serious, with Rod immersing himself in his role with deadly earnestness.
Sidney Goldfarb’s satirical play is hardly subtle, and the relentless raunchiness and nudity seem more desperate than amusing. (The “hot lunch” of the title refers to a particularly unsavory sex act.) At least it gives Wetherall, repeating his role from the original production, a chance to display his remarkably well-preserved, lithe physique. And it’s fun to find Wainwright — the singer/songwriter (“Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road”) and father of pop icon Rufus — again doing theater.
Paul Zimet’s lively staging features Talking Band veterans Ellen Maddow, Tina Shepard and Will Badgett alongside newcomers like the idiosyncratically named nicHi douglas. But despite committed performances, “Hot Lunch Apostles” is a dish served lukewarm.