TDF Stages

The veteran actor makes his NYC debut as a writer-director with the Off-Broadway comedy Ginger Twinsies

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When the classic comedy The Parent Trap was remade in 1998 starring Lindsay Lohan, a new generation of moviegoers discovered the zany tale of twins separated at birth who meet at sleepaway camp and hatch a plan to reunite their estranged parents. Ten-year-old Kevin Zak was an instant fan. "It hit me right in my heart and I loved every second," recalls Zak, now 38. "But I wasn't relating to the twins. I loved [the vampy villain] Meredith Blake, I loved [the sarcastic nanny] Chessy, I loved [the clueless camp directors] the Marvas. I saw Polly Holliday onscreen and I finally felt represented, you know what I mean?"

Zak's decades-long obsession with the film has found an outlet in Ginger Twinsies, which is having its world premiere Off Broadway at the Orpheum Theatre. Best known as a stage performer (Waitress on Broadway, Silence! The Musical), Zak wrote and directs this campy and queer Parent Trap parody starring adult actors Aneesa Folds and Russell Daniels, who look nothing alike, as the central siblings. Gender-bending, slapstick and pop-culture references abound.

The seed for Ginger Twinsies was planted during the 2023 writers' and actors' strikes. "I had a friend who was a programmer at Littlefield in Brooklyn, and he asked if I had anything I wanted to do a reading of, just to raise money for people affected by the strikes," Zak explains. "And so I thought, let's do a reading of my favorite movie The Parent Trap. I cast it with a bunch of friends and funny comedians, and it sold out almost instantly. Three hundred people came in costume, speaking along to the movie. And I realized, if I don't do something with this, someone else will."

He hammered out the script in a couple of months and sent it to a producer friend, Preston Whiteway, who signed on right away. "It was really out there and irreverent, a parody of The Parent Trap and a bunch of other movies I love," Zak says. "We did one more workshop and it came together quickly. I like finding Off-Broadway shows that are off-color, off the beaten path and wild and weird and unique and hysterical. I genuinely feel like there's been a hunger for that" as evidenced by gleefully gay hits like Oh, Mary! and Titanique. In fact, Zak believes those over-the-top shows have helped usher in a full-on camp revival.

"I have to thank Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue [who co-created Titanique] and Cole Escola [who wrote and starred in Oh, Mary!] for reopening a door that has been closed for a while in New York City," Zak says. "I don't know Cole at all, but I thank them because I think they've really made room for people who don't necessarily fit into a box."

The cast of Ginger Twinsies. Photo by Matthew Murphy.

While Ginger Twinsies marks Zak's inaugural Off-Broadway show as a writer and director, he has other outrageous projects in the pipeline, including Little Fucking Women, "a terrible, naughty, irreverent adaptation," of Louisa May Alcott's seminal novel, and A Kidman Carol in which "Scrooge Cate Blanchett is visited by three spirits of Nicole Kidman in order to get into the spirit of awards season."

Clearly, Zak isn't the only one tickled by these outré ideas. Camp master Drew Droege (Bright Colors And Bold Patterns) was part of a recent Little Fucking Women reading, and TV star Busy Philipps, Tony-winning Hamilton director Thomas Kail and Elaine Hendrix, who originated the role of Meredith Blake in the 1998 Parent Trap movie, recently joined Ginger Twinsies as producers.

In addition to a crackerjack comic cast, Ginger Twinsies includes the Tony-winning talents of scenic designer Beowulf Boritt and lighting designer Bradley King, and movement by Zak's husband, Jesse Robb (Water for Elephants), who created a delicious theatricalization of The Parent Trap's iconic secret handshake, a highlight of the show. "Around every corner, I feel like I have incredible support," says Zak. "I think the Lindsay Lohan Parent Trap dug really deep into the millennial zeitgeist. It's baked into the DNA of several generations, but especially my age group of people in their mid to late thirties. Something about it just keeps coming back around."

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TDF MEMBERS: At press time, discount tickets were available for Ginger Twinsies. Go here to browse our latest discounts for dance, theatre and concerts.