Lube: A Modern Love Story

Synopsis:

"Just love yourself; the rest will fall in place." This is the theme of the new gay-themed Broadway-style musical, "Lube: A Modern Love Story." The music of Lube is fun, youthful, and brings voice to the unique feelings and experiences of growing up gay.

Lube follows two male high school seniors who lead starkly different lives. They found love and solace in each other's company at a summer football camp. The Shakespearean consequences of their encounter rock their worlds.

This upbeat story delightfully contrasts the differences in the lives led by two male high school seniors who are in love with each other. The charming and intellectual Andy boldly comes out of the closet, damn the consequences. The object of his affection, the handsome and athletic Manny, confused by his unexpected attraction to Andy, feels he must stay in the closet in order to pursue a career in the high-testosterone world of professional football.

Andy's refusal to be pulled back into the closet in order to be with Manny breaks up the couple. Lube follows the two lovers during their last year in high school as they search for the possibility of living authentic and fulfilled lives in a world laced with prejudice, rejection, and persecution.

Andy struggles to assert his own identity while navigating between heterosexual typecasting and homosexual stereotyping in an environment that is clearly lacking in positive gay role models. He searches for a way to define himself and reject the illusion of the straight man his father expects him to be.

Football Captain Manny lives a life filled with deception and lies as he tries to deny his inner urges, emotions, and feelings. He is so busy pretending to be straight that he becomes oblivious to the damage that internalizing shame, rejection, and anger is having on him and those he holds most dear.

Andy and Manny are ultimately forced to learn the hardest lessons of all: self-acceptance and the fact that you can't truly love someone else until you learn to love yourself.

Finally, Lube is an out-of-the-box attempt at addressing the national epidemic that is young adult suicide, especially among gay youth. Lube does this by providing an uplifting theatrical experience that gay people of all ages can walk out of, having seen what heterosexuals have seen for centuries – a love story featuring characters that they can directly identify with. They can say to themselves, "I'm gay. They were gay. They met someone and fell in love. They overcame their problems and lived happily ever after. That could happen to me."

Notes: A short intro to Lube: A Modern Love Story