Want drama, gossip and theatrics? Then head to a gay birthday party!
That’s where writer-performer Drew Droege set his latest off-Broadway solo show, “Happy Birthday Doug,” a comedy about a 41-year-old’s eclectic bash.
“I used to invite everybody I ever met to my birthday party,” Droege tells The Post about the origins of his play, which is produced by his friend, former “Ugly Betty” star Michael Urie. “It’s exhausting.”
Just as exhausting is what the 43-year-old Droege is doing onstage: playing nine characters and delivering lightning-speed monologues over an uninterrupted hour. He says those characters — including Jason, a chatty actor, and Brian, a DJ — are amalgams of “friends of mine, frenemies of mine and everything in between.”
His pals who’ve seen the show have taken notice: “Friends of mine will be, like, ‘Oh God, is that me? Is this person so-and-so?!”
Droege calls Jason a unique creature of Los Angeles, where the play is set. At the start of the comedy, that character boldly announces, “I know I wasn’t invited,” and then brags about how he has retired from acting.
“He’s definitely very LA,” Droege says. “Everyone is either in the entertainment business or smugly proud that they’re not in the entertainment business.”
Droege’s last show, “Bright Colors and Bold Patterns,” also took place at a gay gathering: a wedding in Palm Springs, Calif., whose guests were urged to wear neutral colors. Droege says such events are often hotbeds of conflict.
“Gay men are each other’s best friends and worst enemies,” he says. “We get very nervous socially around each other. We don’t know what to say. We try to be funny, but we often end up being very mean and hurtful.”
Hence one of the show’s best lines: “Every gay man thinks he’s Oscar Wilde after he’s had a few drinks.”
At the Soho Playhouse through March 29. 15 Vandam St.; 212-691-1555, SohoPlayhouse.com