by Beth Levendis August 27, 2009

**** [FOUR STARS] Camp Wanatachi takes a topic often exploited for provocative drama—a gay teen’s sexual awakening—and strips it down to a sweet story about a simple crush. Natalie Weiss’s musical, cowritten with composers Conrad Winslow and Travis Stewart, is set at an all-girls summer camp, and evokes that fraught environment well. Much of the play is spent familiarizing us with the show’s archetypal characters (a bossy girl, a slutty girl, an awkward girl, a nerdy girl, horny counselors, goofy boys from the camp across the water); a weird subplot involving disgruntled New York City expatriates bent on disrupting the camp with radio transmissions keeps things interesting. It’s only in the second half that one of the girls falls for another. In the meantime, you’re treated to music worthy of the program’s Fischerspooner namedrop; and although the cast does an excellent job—particularly Aleque Reid, Biet Simkin and Weiss herself—the live band may be the real stars of the show. Camp Wanatachi defies all expectations of both gay coming-of-age tales and musicals. The result is refreshing and uplifting.

The review and directions to where to see the performance on the 28th are here: http://newyork.timeout.com/events/fringe-festival/298277/camp-wanatachi