SomethingToDo2

Think Pretty Woman — but even gayer. That’s the basic premise of The Little Dog Laughed, the Tony-nominated play loudly stomping the boards in Brisbane for the Queensland Theatre Company. It’s terrific fun.

Rich man falls for the prostit-te with the heart of gold… Except here Mr Moneybags is Hollywood hunk-on-the-rise Mitchell Green (Tom O’Sullivan) and his “companion” is New York hustler Alex (Nick Cook). Who is very much a man — gratuitously naked on stage as if to prove the point. Otherwise, you half expect someone to snap shut a jewellery box on the other’s hand: Mitchell — with a “slight recurring case of homosexuality”, according to his monstrous agent — is searching not for s-x but for companionship; he wants to take Alex to a movie premiere and offers to buy him new clothes; the question arises of what constitutes paid service and what doesn’t.

The premise is outrageous; the romance a little limp (there’s a line there about wrists, but mercifully the leads don’t resort to stereotype). But as theatrical farce it has got some zing. Mitchell is set to play a gay role but the studio will only make the film with a heteros-xual object of female fan obsession. When word of his “special friend” hits the headlines, nervous studio bosses sack the gay scriptwriter and water down the same-s-x scenario. When straight men play gay it’s daring and Oscar-worthy, says bawdy agent Diane (the scene-stealing Caroline Kennison); when gay men play to type, your megaplex blockbuster fades to an indulgent art-house picture. The hypocritical double-standard is well drawn.

In the end, the dish really does run away with the spoon, so to speak, in a thoroughly un-Hollywood ending that is oh-so-Hollywood. It’s keenly observed stuff, a genuinely witty script, with some well-timed performances.

You’ll laugh, too.

The details: The Little Dog Laughed is playing at the Cremorne Theatre at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre until 13 March. Tickets available from QPAC.