Review: Brandon Kyle Goodman Invites You to Come Inside Their Heaux Church

The key to Brandon Kyle Goodman’s new show Heaux Church lies in the “heaux” part of its title. If that looks and sounds like merely a classier spelling of “ho,” that, Goodman informs us early on, is exactly what it is. Goodman, who, as the second part of the title suggests, strides onto the Ars Nova stage in full preacher regalia (with a queer twist, courtesy of costume designer Mika Eubanks), is on a mission: to redefine the “heaux” for a new, sex-positive generation. They proceed to do so in a 90-minute service that is part sermon, part autobiography, and part adult puppet show.

That sounds like the ingredients for an overly didactic time at the theater. Thankfully, the energetic and affable Goodman makes sure it never descends into that level. Part of that is thanks to the colorful production director Lisa Owaki Bierman has built around them. The out-and-proud aesthetic has carried over into Lawrence E. Moten III’s scenic design, an altar with disco balls and additional screens on which Stivo Arnoczy’s stained-glass-styled video projections appear. Matt Lazarus’s lighting design occasionally exudes the feel of a nightclub more than a church service.

None of these technical elements distract from Goodman, the self-appointed bringer of a new era of frank sexuality. With that, of course, comes an expected level of raunch. Chief among the vulgar elements are the genital puppets, operated and voiced by Greg Corbino, that pop up from time to time to lead the audience in sing-alongs of songs like the “Uncomfy Song” (choice lyric: “uncomfy’s more comfy when you talk to a friend”). But Goodman’s service also includes moments of audience participation, co-facilitated by DJ Ari Grooves (who provides pre-show music and acts as Goodman’s right hand throughout), in which members are encouraged to be open about about aspects of their own lives, sexual or otherwise. There’s even a tutorial about how to orally pleasure one’s partner, complete with Krispy Kreme doughnut and cleaning wipes.

Goodman reciprocates the openness they sometimes asks of us by offering up details from their own life. A queer interpretation of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (his “very shiny nose,” for instance, is actually code for being “limp-wristed,” a classic slur) leads into a discussion of how their sex-education classes growing up in Rome, Georgia, focused more on abstinence than on sex. They also recount their first exposure to gay porn as well as the way they initially dealt with the attendant shame, which involved listening to the music of Kirk Franklin in a sustained bout of guilt and self-loathing.

Most importantly, they talk about their upbringing at the hands of both their mother and their grandmother. They describe themself as a “pastor’s kid,” but the pastor in the family was not their single mother, but their grandmother, a minister who was instrumental in helping to raise them. Not that their mother, who gave birth to Goodman out of wedlock (just as their grandmother had given birth to her), was absent. A professional theater actor, she brought her child up in a fairly liberal environment…until their grandmother died, when mom turned to religion. Thus comes the show’s most heartbreaking moment, as well as the planting of the seeds for this show: the day she visited Goodman and made it clear, through three Bible verses she shared, that she could not accept their queerness. They are no longer on speaking terms.

Heaux Church could be seen as an attempt to pick up the pieces of that familial betrayal and discover a new way forward, one that preaches self-love regardless of societal expectations. That’s hardly a fresh lesson, especially in the queer-friendly off-Broadway theater landscape in New York City. But then, no one ever expects preachers to offer new insights, merely to find new ways to reinvigorate the old Bible stories and maxims we all know. Goodman, it turns out, is a genuinely magnetic priest, and their enthusiasm and vulnerability make their ennobling message worth hearing yet again.