Duane Jackson stars.
‘SORDID LIVES’
7:30 p.m., Weekend Theater. $10-$14.
The Weekend Theater kicks the year off with a “black comedy about white trash.” From playwright Del Shores, whose “Southern Baptist Sissies” played memorably at the theater in 2008, the comedy is set at the funeral of a family matriarch. That she met her end in a seedy motel after tripping over the wooden leg of her young, secret lover and hitting her head on a bathtub gives you an idea of the tone this one takes. Those gathering for the funeral have names like LaVonda, Wardell and Brother Boy, and they all come with heavy baggage. One’s a cross-dresser, long institutionalized by his parents, with a special knack for channeling Tammy Wynette. Another’s traumatized for life because of a “pig-bloating” incident. Then, of course, there are all the requisite ex’s, preachers, bickering kin, and “de-homosexualizing” psychiatrists you’d expect. Adapted into a cult film (starring Delta Burke, Olivia Newton-John and Beau Bridges) and, later, a cult TV series, the play’s likely to draw a good number of folks who’ll see the punchlines coming. The play runs through Jan. 30.