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Hotel Bethlehem
by Tom W. Kelly & Tim Bryant

SF Weekly (December 12, 2001)
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Two gay playwrights retell Bible stories, but it's not as funny as it sounds
BY MICHAEL SCOTT MOORE

"Scholars say the actual sin of Sodom was
not homosexuality," writes playwright Tim
Bryant in his program notes to Hotel
Bethlehem. "It was the city's act of being
inhospitable [to] strangers." Bryant and his
writing partner, Tom Kelly, are gay satirical
revisionists who have rewritten a few Bible
stories from both Testaments in a show that
intends to correct the old material as well
as make fun of it. It's a nice idea, but it
doesn't work. A Sodomite family, on the
original Christmas Eve, has just escaped
from their burning city. They arrive at the inn
in Bethlehem, where the greedy innkeeper
kowtows to the wealthy father, Mordachi,
after slamming the door on Mary and
Joseph. Mordachi's oversexed daughters
flirt with a Roman centurion who "seeks
boys," and a nearsighted angel with a
sensitive nose keeps mistaking the rundown
inn for the barn. Hotel Bethlehem wants to
be a tasteless and groaningly funny
alternative to The Nutcracker or A
Christmas Carol -- a show you can bring
your hip gay boyfriend to see without
running into your parents. The acting,
unfortunately, stinks worse than the barn,
and the promised Bible-revisionism gets lost
in a swamp of silly routines. Even midrun,
the cast seemed unrehearsed. Samantha
Stephenson-Smith and Danielle Thys are
not as bad as the others, but then, as
Mordachi's daughters, they get all the good
lines: "Sister and I were born in Sodom. We
don't care what's going on behind us!" And,
"As they say in Sodom, Bottoms up!"
Yeah. Best viewed while drunk.
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