Review: Trevor is a sweet-hearted mil about a gay kid

Contents:

• ‘TREVOR THE MIL,’ A SHOW ABOUT A BULLIED GAY TEEN THAT PREMIERED GLENE, TO OPEN NEW YORK
• TYLER JOSEPH GAY

‘TREVOR THE MIL,’ A SHOW ABOUT A BULLIED GAY TEEN THAT PREMIERED GLENE, TO OPEN NEW YORK

Generatns of gay kids grew up lovg mils whout expectg to ever see characters like themselv one of them. Lately, that’s been changg: Proto-gay kids feature promently  Fun Home and Billy Ellt, and shows about high school now routely clu LGBTQ teens the mix (Mean Girls, Brg It On, Saved) or even the lead (Bare, Zanna, Don’t!, Everybody’s Talkg About Jamie).

"Trevor, " told the story of a gay 13-year-old who is bullied bee of his sexualy and then tri to take his own life. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn this bizarrely cheery adaptatn of the Amy Award-wng film, suici among young gay people prov difficult to sg Klwich/The New York TimThere is no lack of chee, God knows, mils.

Based on a 23-mute film of the same name, which won an Amy Award 1995, ’s about a 13-year-old boy who n see only one solutn — suici — to the problem of beg gay a homophobic society. Through s 24-hour Trevor Lifele and other servic, the nonprof aims to terpt the cycle of hatred and self-hatred that n sometim lead young people stgglg wh siar problems to dire the anizatn and the mil are not affiliated, they do share the same name and the same source: a young gay character Lecne’s one-person show “Word of Mouth. ” Nothg suggts that Trevor (Holn William Hagelberger) will have anythg worse to face the urse of the actn than the general failure of the world to regnize his fabulons is a pilp of gay markers: Trevor is obssed wh Broadway, dance and, above all, Diana Ross, who appears a seri of fantasy sequenc (and spangly outfs by Mara Blumenfeld) to enurage the boy on his journey of self-acceptance.

TYLER JOSEPH GAY

Exactly what he has to accept is apparently hard to say, as the word “gay” occurs only once the script, three-quarters of the way through. Even then, ’s oddly disowned and unidmatic: “Everyone at school is sayg that I’m a gay, ” Trevor tells , doubtfully.

The scene between Trevor and a ndy striper, apparently gay himself but old enough to have passed through the tunnel of adolcence, is as ankly and thoughtfully wrten as you wish everythg else a surprise, then, that for the first time the show, the performanc, unr Marc Bni’s otherwise hectic and sk-ep directn, strike real not and adm real feelg? And yet, as I image “Trevor” beg performed for young dienc, perhaps middle schools that even today are scen of vic homophobia, I have to thk the ends jtify the means.