Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man

If you’ve noticed a few more ladies’ nights swarming the downtown arts complex, don’t worry — they’re just there for sex tips.

Or, the full title, Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man, which is currently playing the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Garner Galleria Theatre.  The production, which has been successfully playing Off-Broadway in New York City for a few years, is finally making its way across the country.

“I somehow knew in my mind I wanted to do a faux-sex seminar of a show,” playwright and University of Colorado graduate Matt Murphy explains. “I wanted it to be playful with the audience and interactive in a fun way.”

And in an unexpected twist, Murphy is a straight, married father. (His wife actually read the book in college.) Along with being a playwright, Murphy is also a Broadway producer of hits like Memphis and the recent production of Side Show.

The play is based on the book of the same title, which came out in the late 90s, just before Will and Grace popularized the “straight woman, gay man” relationship in mainstream culture. Writers Dan Anderson and Maggie Berman claim their book’s popularity set the tone for that show.

“There are a few tips you might not have heard before, but ultimately … it’s just sex,” Murphy says. He pulled the most unique tips from the book, so those familiar with the original text will recognize them alongside an original storyline. However, he left out parts about intercourse — which are mostly just positions anyway — because he felt it didn’t fit with the show’s other topics.

The show’s premise takes place at a “meet the author” event at a community college, where the professor who typically leads the discussion has suddenly died. That leaves her coworker, a mousy young conservative named Robyn (Jacklyn Collier), to take the reigns alongside her hunky assistant, Stefan (Michael Milton). The author, flamboyantly based on the book’s original writer Dan Anderson (Grant MacDermott), quickly claims bestie status with Robyn, using the forum as a way to get her out of her shell … and ultimately into Stefan’s pants.

In Murphy’s original draft, authors Anderson and Berman led a discussion with a moderate male moderator, whom they both wanted to bang. Once Murphy scrapped Berman’s character and added the muscular assistant, shuffling around some roles, the show was free to thrust the audience into the action.

(Sometimes literally.)

“I often joke that the most risqué part of our show is the title,” Murphy jests. “When you get into it, it’s a sweet, romantic comedy … where they talk about tickling the taint.”

The show also includes audience participation, including what to call a penis for the entire night. (In the original book, it’s Mr. Stiffy.)

But he doesn’t think it’s too controversial for Denver audiences, even though the title can cut both ways.

“When we play these hallowed institutions like the Denver Center, it gives the title a certain level of credibility,” Murphy explains. “It brings out the fun bride-and-tunnel crowd, but to add the subscriber base of the institutions has been really fun to see.”

While the show has made minor physical modifications for the road, the DCPA built a replica of the New York set, so you’re essentially seeing the original production, cast and all.

Murphy hopes that by touring, the title will naturally be added to the theatrical canon of regional shows, settling comfortable alongside other modern shows like Naked Boys Singing or Altar Boyz (which Murphy originally produced).

Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man plays the Garner Galleria Theatre at the DCPA through July 24. Tickets are available online at DenverCenter.org or by calling (303)893-4100.