Broadway Damage

Marc (Michael Shawn Lucas) is a gay aspiring actor who's looking for love after graduating from NYU. You'd think his best friend, Robert (Aaron Williams), who secretly digs him and also wants to make it in show biz, would be an ideal candidate. Unfortunately, Marc goes only for 10s, and Robert, with his bowl cut and lack of definition, is a 5 even on a good day. While "auditioning" potential significant others, Marc is living with fellow graduate Cynthia (Mara Hobel) in a funky Greenwich Village walk-up. This Long Island princess, who's never worked before, spends her days harassing New Yorker editor Tina Brown for an interview (maybe she'll have better luck with David Remnick) and promising Marc she'll look for a real job. When Marc falls for David (Hugh Panaro), a Jakob Dylan-esque neighbor with rock-star aims and a shady romantic track record, and Daddy shuts off Cynthia's cash flow, the situation in that well-decorated Village apartment gets rather touchy.

Victor Mignatti's fairytalish flick, ridged with reality, is about being young in a city where seeing your name in lights is the dream, and making the "grand gesture" (a/k/a spilling your guts) toward your beloved doesn't always work the way you planned. Despite a show-tune-cutsie tendency (with a touch of Friends on the side), there's enough catchy dialogue, quirky characters, and city scenery to make Broadway Damage a worthwhile trip through NYC.

-- Rachel O'Malley