Even more so than in the case of the original Levy's Jewish bread ad ("you don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's ... but it helps"), you don't have to be an opera nut to enjoy Terrence McNally's The Lisbon Traviata, but if you're not, you may be nonplussed by gales of laughter in the theater, virtually after each sentence in the first act.
The story turns starkly dramatic later, but through it all, it's Maria (Callas) this, and Renata (Tebaldi) that, horrible (and hilarious) things about Sutherland, Scotto, Marilyn Horne's first career as a truck driver, and on and on — specific dates and memories of performances and personal recollection flash by in a dizzying and delightful whirl.
The title and the play's conceit/device is about the famous pirate recording of Callas' 1958 performance of La traviata in the capital of Portugal. It is at the center of two opera queens' evening, spent hinting at the intense relationship problems (with others), which take center stage in the radically different second act.
Gay or straight, any true opera fan will enjoy the play, especially in the fine production now at the New Conservatory Theatre Center, in the 2010 Kennedy Center revival and update of the 1989 Broadway original.
Why bring up gender preference? Because the play is all about gay people. Why doesn't it matter? Because, unlike McNally's Love, Valour and Compassion — probably his weakest play — Lisbon Traviata has universal context and appeal, dealing with love, lust, yearning, and betrayal.
The two main characters, played by Michael Sally (Mendy) and Matt Weimer (Stephen), are excellent. Sally meets the difficult task of being relentlessly outrageous, but Weimer performs a rare theatrical coup, being so natural that at first the viewer wonders if he remembers his lines. His pauses, hesitations, preoccupations soon add up to a kind of convincing performance that goes far beyond reciting lines.
Philippe Gosselin (Mike) and Adam Roy (Paul), who are distant, but important, figures in the first act, come into their own in the second act. Dennis Lickteig directed with economy and assurance.