To My Girls (4*)

Bryan Batt, Carman Lacivita, Maulik Pancholy, Noah J Ricketts,
Britton Smith and Jay Armstrong Johnson

Nothing like three months in the crypt of Palm Beach to put you in the mood for an off-Broadway gay play starring more than one pretty boy set in Palm Springs, another crypt on the West Coast. Time was when I vowed "never again" because so many similar productions in the late 90s and early Aughts were more about the male body than the crisp, hilarious repartee uttered by the self-loathing characters in The Boys in the Band.  JC Lee never rises to Mart Crowley's level but at least he attempts to explore what it means to be gay in this particular moment of Instagram, representation and the kind of political correctness men who survived AIDS find meaningless. Uniformly excellent performances compensate for the weak dialog which does manage a zinger or two ("God give us all the confidence of the mediocre white man.") To My Girls blames white privilege a little too much for the kind of narcissism that is less about race than individual psychology.  Still, the 90-minute play provides an entertaining, post-marriage equality look at the  minefield young gay men currently have to navigate (without GPS!) in their timeless, endless quest for sex.