Silverback Mountain

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June designated as Pride Month is a time when a great many plays and entertainments are geared specifically for the gay community. The latest is Mickey Gooch, Jr.’s Silverback Mountain, a semi-musical comedy on relevant gay themes that has been given a less than irrelevant treatment and production. Gooch, Jr. has written and stars in the show which is probably more than one person should do at one time, with original songs by Alex Lewis. The subtitle “A new gay jungle play” suggests a farcical evening but Sam LaFrage’s scattershot direction undermines what real comedy is inherent in the premise. Some of the humor and gimmicks are reminiscent of The Book of Mormon which is much slicker and more successful at this kind of parody.

What plot there is concerns two middle-aged gay men, Lucas, a New York artist with commitment issues, and his boyfriend Andy, a successful architect who needs a vacation away from the city. As Lucas has always wanted to follow in the footsteps of Sigourney Weaver in Gorillas in the Mist, they find themselves on a safari in Uganda, one of the most repressive countries in the world for LGBTQ rights. (In Uganda, admitted homosexuals can receive ten years in prison, and aggravated homosexuals, i.e. repeat offenders are put to death.) Lucas and Andy think they are good enough actors to convince the Ugandans that they are straight which is not what happens.

On the safari with guide Mamadu and his tracker Mustafa, the men get so excited when they meet up with gorillas in the jungle that they kiss and get arrested by Mustafa who is virulently anti-gay. Immediately, the chief gorilla Undante saved Andy and drags him off to Silverback Mountain, a refuge for gay people. In “gay prison” Lucas meets Kai, a Brooklyn activist, who had come to Uganda to defend gay rights. When Lucas is able to break out of prison, he is unable to take off Kai’s shackles. He then calls for reinforcements from New York, Miss Jackson, their waitress at the Rainbow’s Nest, in the East Village, and their younger friend Marty, to help save Andy not knowing that he is not in any danger. The show ends with a happy ending for all concerned.

The language is continually raw and raunchy and the jokes are mainly gay or sexual or both, with some pop culture references thrown in. The X-rated (but not funny) language often describes a catalogue of sexual practices of various kinds. The staging is slipshod and much of the dialogue is either rushed or spoken in supposed African dialects so that it is partly unintelligible. The quite brief songs are mostly window dressing which allows for some quick choreography by Nico DeJesus. The unit set by Josh Oberlander made up of vegetation and corrugated iron needs items to be carried on and off in most scenes. More successful are the prop and set dressing by Sean Frank. Zack Lobel’s totally unnecessary projection design gives us huge lettering of words like “Gay,” “Homosexual,” “Customs” and “Goon” periodically. Coby Chasman-Beck’s lighting design fails to be atmospheric where it is most needed.

As Lucas, Gooch is rather curt and perfunctory while Joe Regelbrugge’s delivery as Andy is off hand and casual. Much of the acting of the hardworking ensemble is over-the-top from the beginning giving them nowhere to go. As trans woman waitress Miss Jackson, Star Amerasu makes a meal out of all of her lines. Leo Jasper Davis plays jungle guide Mamadu with a bright glee as though all his remarks should get a laugh. Samuel Selman is a bit heavy-handed as tracker Mustafa. Olamide Asanpaola as both the narrator and a villager in Silverback Mountain is a bit more sedate in her performance and excellent as the lead singer in one of the musical numbers. Six members of the cast play multiple roles with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Silverback Mountain has the feeling of being a thrown together late-night show or “let’s put on a show.” If it taken itself more seriously, it might have been more successful. Had it been more precisely staged it might have been much funnier. It also misses all its opportunities to deal with the major issues raised from homophobia in Africa to lack of commitment in couples the U.S. to ugly Americans abroad but none of these topics are dealt with to any extent. It all seems rather random and haphazard though the actors seem to be having a good time. This is definitely not for children for a lot of understandable reasons.

Silverback Mountain (through June 21, 2026)

AMT Theater, 354 W. 45^th Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.SilverBackMountainPlay.com

Running time: 80 minutes without an intermission