My Big Gay Italian Funeral

My Big Gay Italian Funeral is a very funny and entertaining sequel to the play My Big Gay Italian Wedding written by Anthony Wilkinson who played the lead in both productions in New York City.  

The comical colorful cast is great in its West Coast premiere at The Sherry Theatre in NoHo.   

Talented lead actor Brandon Goins gives a very commendable performance starring as Anthony Pinnunziato in this funny, over-the-top farce about a very crazy and dysfunctional Italian family gathering for the wake of family patriarch Joseph Pinnunziato at a Long Island funeral home. 

Anthony has been feuding with his brother Peter (Martin Alexander) for stealing his boyfriend Dominick (Rick Shattuck) 10 years earlier and mamma mia, all hell literally breaks loose when the family comes together to pay their respects to their father Joseph.  Their sparring and hissing is funny stuff.   

Proud Italian matriarch Angela Pinnunziato is well played by Elyse Ashton – she’s a very accepting mother of two gay sons and as the fast moving 90-minute play progresses has to deal with more unexpected shocks and surprises from her loco loving and well-meaning family while grieving over her husband’s death.  Paul Storiale is hysterical as funeral planner Maurizio LeGrande – he also is one of the producers and did a great job designing the set. 

MBGIF is well directed by Emmy winner Sonia Blangiardo who helmed the productions in New York City as well. 

For more information about this crowd-pleaser visit www.defiancetheatrecompany.com –  My Big Italian Gay Funeral puts the “fun” in funeral lol.