Through Feb 24.

PRO

It's official: Stephen Hando is the funniest man alive. At least that's the impression you get while watching Cruisin', Hando's new one-man show, in which he guides the audience through a series of instructional vignettes about the secret life of the gays, via the filter of a mocked-up '50s social engineering film (complete with ominous Peter Gunn-style score). He speeds down the "Homo Highway to Hell," stopping to impersonate the various types of modern urban gay described by the authoritarian narrator: butch jock, bathhouse slut, yuppie scum closet case, et al. Bounding from one character to the next, Hando creates an astounding series of monologues and physicalizations (the Park Sex Bunny Hop is transcendent)--astounding because of the deftness of his transformations, but also because of his natural ability to make you laugh until your lungs explode. Within the breadth of his caricature, Hando finds what's true and human within these stereotypes, and thus allows a simple premise to expand into the very best kind of satire. SEAN NELSON, HETEROSEXUAL

CON

Ouch. Spurred by Stephen Hando's stellar comedic track record and the gushing of a friend and critic (see above), I sped myself to On the Boards to catch Hando's new homo opus. Cruisin' plunges the eternally impish Hando into the gay man's dreamscape (and Middle American nightmare) of quick-and-easy homo hookups, and hilarity ensues.

Or so you'd hope. Working without a director and with the thinnest of scripts, Hando quickly boxes himself into a dumb gay corner. Failing to arm himself with the sharp POV necessary for satire, Hando resorts to a balls-out, single-entendre song 'n' dance approach that recalls nothing so much as a gay Carrot Top. The result is something close to a gay minstrel show, a comedy about sex that is neither sexy nor funny. The show's conceptual sloppiness is mirrored in its production and execution, both of which would test the indulgence of a Fringe Fest audience, and are inexcusable at On the Boards.

Nothing can erase the memory of Hando's past performance triumphs, but I'll be happy to forget this unfortunate mess of a show. DAVID SCHMADER, HOMOSEXUAL