In “Must Be the Music,” a rather different presentation by the Arts Project of Cherry Grove, at the Community House, on August 3, Greg Scarnici (www.gregscarnici.com), writer, performer, and musician, assisted by singer-songwriter Joe Thompson, singer and dancer Maine Anders, and dancer and Miss Fire Island 2010 Sabel Scities, not only looked lovingly and nostalgically at, but also sent up late 1970s and ’80s music and the club and disco scene.
To open, in “No Pants (No Pants Tonight),” Greg’s morning-after version of Donna Summers’ “Last Dance,” he entered in just a g-string and tank top, and Maine helped him remember just what went on, the previous night, in the disco and its backroom. “They fucked me, sucked me, blew me, screwed me,” were some of the lines in the song, which he explained by declaring, “I figured I’d start off singing something autobiographical,” and continued, “I wanted to share some of the music I was listening to when I was growing up.” Donning a towel, he lip-synched to “Love to Love You, Baby,” noting, “I was a black woman born in a white boy’s body.”
Spreading the word about a dance party, Greg mentioned Gusty Winds, Charity/Charles, and Logan Slaughter/Hardcore and, wearing shades and a black leather shirt by now and insisting “(I’m) Cooler than You,” informed us that the old neighborhood streets are cool now—and so is he. In “New Wave Girl,” he told the tale of being the closeted gay boy in the drama club, with numerous girlfriends who practiced their oral sex techniques on him, when what he really wanted was a Latino boyfriend.
During the show, Maine and Sabel contributed energetic dance interludes in “The History of Club Music, Parts One and Two.”
Greg was in silver and black, including high black high-heeled boots, for “Free,” his falsetto tribute to singers of the era, including Sylvester, whose “(You make me feel) Mighty Real” he quoted. He and Sabel dirty danced to “French Kiss”—he once tried it with his friend Samantha, which got him thrown out of a club.
In a scene set in the old Vault, on West Street, Greg and Maine demonstrated, in “I Wanna …,” his futile attempts to prove his heterosexuality by having anal sex with her. “Girl, I’m comin’ inside of you tonight,” he sang, in his explicit slow jam/slow jism version of the genre of ‘baby-making songs,’ backed up by Maine and Joe, who suggestively wielded confetti guns.
Taking on the ball scene unveiled in Jennie Livingston’s film “Paris Is Burning” and Madonna’s song “Vogue,” the company took us to “the first annual House of Television Ball,” with the guys in outrageously bad drag and Maine awarding the paper crown and paper bag prizes to Sabel, while annexing her wig. In gold gown, blonde wig, and facial hair, Greg, backed by Joe and Maine, confided, “I’m so glad that I’m a woman,” and then stripped down to prosthetic breasts and flesh-colored g-string with ‘pubic hair.’ For “I’m writing this letter to let you know,” Greg became ‘Conchetta Del Vecchio’ in a sketch about free-style music, “a bastardization of disco,” adopted, he said, by Italian-Americans all over New York City.
Greg and Joe compose the duo Undercover, so Joe sang their sensual song “You’re Turning Me On,” and Greg joined in with a rap version in counterpoint.
For “Curious,” Greg morphed into BQE, his character looking for ‘some bi-curious action’ in Cherry Grove; encountering Joyce Rodgers, Porsche, Ooofaa, and Brett Roper, all of whom he offered his impressions of; and reciting his poetic tribute to the MTA, the subway. With backup vocals by Joe and Maine and dancing by Sabel, Greg concluded the show with its title song, one he learned from a favorite 45 by Secret Weapon, “Must Be the Music,” sung, however, as “Must Be the Cocaine.” Just reporting …