Taking a page from the Family Secrets book, Gregory Henderson comes up with one of the more impressive solo turns in recent memory. As impressed as we are by his skill at metamorphosing into old men, good ol’ boys, and gay majorettes, we’re also grateful that the seven vignettes comprising Big Wind on Campus have enough humor and forward momentum so as not to depend totally on Mr. Henderson’s enviable skills as a characterizer.
Just how much work the writer-performer and his director, Joseph Massa, put into expanding “Put it Where You Want to Put It” (the show’s previous title) comes through in the audience-friendly costume changes and such sharp touches as keying each person to a different color: Bitsy, a pledge of “Mekong Delta House,” waits uncomfortably in her red dress; J.K., the elderly gardener hoping to be campus employee of the month, creaks about in a long blue raincoat; Priscilla, the neurotic camera freak who’s sworn off men (after being dumped by Coors drinkin’ Chaps stinkin’ Bubba), zips about in basic black.
As in Sherry Glaser’s Family Secrets, characters and stories all interconnect, with a hurricane making strange bedfellows of Bitsy and Priscilla, and a football halftime pushing Steve the baton twirler out of the closet and onto the field.
Gregory Henderson is a Bistro winner, a MAC nominee, and a multi-talent to follow with more than passing interest.
