MilkMilkLemonade

This underground 2009 hit reopens in Queens with its scrappiness—and superb original cast—intact. Using a children’s-theater aesthetic, Joshua Conkel’s bawdy queer fantasia tells of an effeminate 11-year old who dreams of escaping his Bible-thumping Nanna' s poultry farm by making it big on a TV talent show. Seething just beneath the play's campy surface are the anger and despair of growing up gay in America's heartland, where escapist fantasy is key to survival.—Paul Menard