“Trick! The Musical,” based on the 1999 film written by Jason Schafer and directed by Jim Fall, is having its world premiere on May 1 at Out Front Theatre Company.
“Trick” is considered a gay cult classic. The film is a romance between Gabriel (Christian Campbell), an aspiring musical theater writer, and Mark (J.P. Pitoc), a go-go dancer who is more comfortable in his body and has a more relaxed view of sex. The film also starred Tori Spelling and Coco Peru in a small role as a drag queen.
It’s fitting that “Trick” is becoming a musical, because musicals are Schafer’s first love. He fell for the genre growing up and was in a musical theater writing workshop in New York when he started working on the material that eventually became the film. There has been some interest in adapting “Trick” into a full-fledged musical over the years, but when Out Front Founder and Producing Artistic Director Paul Conroy reached out, Schafer knew it was finally time.
Conroy remembers seeing “Trick” at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge while he was in college. The film impacted him as a gay man, and he said he feels a lot of people have a powerful, visceral memory of their first time seeing it. He always wondered why no one had turned it into a musical.
After closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Out Front reopened in 2021 with a production of “Xanadu.” Afterwards, he decided to reach out to Schafer.
“I was sitting at the theater one day before Thanksgiving, and I don’t know where, but I found his email address,” Conroy said. “Because of our mission, we are limited in scope in terms of what we can produce. I don’t know how it came into my mind but I told him that I think new queer musicals need to be created and my mind went to ‘Trick.’”
After more correspondence between the two, Schafer felt the timing clicked creatively.
“Paul told me about Out Front and that was the spark,” he said. “This is a movie in which New York is legitimately a character; how can you translate this onto the stage as a musical? When I started this, it felt right in terms of updating it and bringing it to a new audience. I think a fun uplifting queer story is needed now more than ever.”
The musical adaptation of “Trick” has a book and lyrics by Schafer, with music by Arthur Lafrentz Bacon. Conroy is directing the production, with Aavyn Lee portraying Gabriel and Will-Franklin Eller taking the role of Mark.
Once Schafer agreed to write the musical, he and Conroy would meet up in New York and look over drafts.
“Paul also smartly suggested Out Front present a private staged reading last spring,” Schafer said. “That allowed us to see the show and it was helpful in terms of getting it ready for this production.”
Schafer called “Trick” a classic tale that transcends sexual identity. The appeal of the material is in its simplicity and its universality.
“It’s about connection,” Conroy said. “It’s relatable and the strength is in the story and the words. The complications are not unbelievable. It’s also timeless. There’s no reference to what is going on in the world. It feels now.”
Conroy found it hard to put into words the importance of hosting the premiere.
“It still feels like an out of body experience that this is actually real,” he said. “Too often, I think that theater creators, authors, and composers don’t think about the importance of smaller theater companies that have missions like ours serving marginalized communities. They don’t think outside of the New York sphere.”
Conroy said he believes “Trick! The Musical” will live on and stay intrinsically tied to Out Front.
“It’s a tidal wave of change that raises our profile and that of theaters like us,” he said. “[It’s also proof] you don’t have to have a $30 million dollar budget or Broadway or the top A-list stars to be impactful.”
“Trick! The Musical” opens May 1 and runs through May 17.
