“In central Illinois,” says playwright Aaron Loeb, who grew up in the area, “there’s God and there’s Lincoln… though not necessarily in that order.” Which is only a slight exaggeration.

L to R: Robert Hogan, Ben Roberts, Ted Koch, Arnie Burton, Lisa Birnbaum, Pippa Pearthree, Stephanie Pope Caffey. Photo by Thom Kaine

Intense interest in Lincoln (some might call it obsession) still grips the area, where every imaginable establishment bears his name, and where elementary students make annual pilgrimages to every site where he once trod.

Over the past twenty years, authors like Larry Kramer and C.A. Tripp have publicly questioned the sixteenth President’s sexuality. For Loeb, a native of Champaign/Urbana, Illinois, these allegations concerning a sainted hometown hero were too dramatically enticing to ignore. "The show plays with the idea of ‘we know who Abraham Lincoln is…’" he says. "Well, no, we don’t.”

In the new play ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S BIG, GAY DANCE PARTY (a critical and popular success of last year's New York International Fringe Festival), a fourth grade Christmas pageant in a rural Illinois town celebrates Lincoln’s fabulocity (and his “special” relationship with shopkeeper Joshua Speed). The Lincoln-loving community goes apoplectic and the resulting legal firestorm brings a media circus to the great emancipator's hallowed hometown.

“Why is (Lincoln’s sexuality) important to us?” Loeb asks. “This is a quintessential American figure, so while it’s meaningful to me, others may shrug, and to some it’s a deeply offensive idea. I love exploring the different ways people respond to that question, while getting into the larger questions of the politics of gay, and of political division.”

Playwright Aaron Loeb

In his day job as a video game developer, Loeb works extensively in non-linear storytelling. And this preoccupation carries over into the challenging dramatic structure of his Off-Broadway debut. Each of the play’s three acts is written from the perspective of a different character: a defense attorney, a prosecutor, and a reporter, all of whose life stories are intrinsically linked. And in true democratic fashion, the audience votes prior to each performance to determine the order in which each act will be presented. 

“I’m really interested in theatre that can only be theatre – creating a unique structure and challenging the audience’s perception of the characters. ‘What would I (as an audience member) have thought if I saw it in a different order, and how would the story have changed?’”

Despite its sensational title, Loeb says that the prismatic, provocative ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S BIG, GAY DANCE PARTY “covers a wide variety of tones. I’m interested in things that can be very serious, as well as very funny. So, you’ve got high comedy, and the serious stuff too... And that’s what life is like.”

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S BIG, GAY DANCE PARTY is now in previews at Theatre Row’s Acorn Theatre (410 West 42nd Street, NYC), with opening night set for August 11. Tickets are priced at $51.25 and $66.25 for premium seats ($20 student rush) and are on sale now at www.ticketcentral.com or by calling (212) 279-4200. The playing schedule is as follows: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday at 8pm, Thursday at 8pm, Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm and 7pm.