Fern Siegel, Stage Door
March 17, 2008

Straight Up With a Twist, playing much farther downtown at the renovated Players Theatre in Greenwich Village, is a one-man comedy delight. Paul Stroili is a straight man with metrosexual sensibilities. In short, he knows as much about food, wine, art and fashion as many gay men. He's heterosexual, though his Italian father and German mother, assume otherwise. What's a sensitive boy to do? Go artistic. Stroili dons seven different characters and spins adolescent angst into comic gold. His mother is unquestionably the best.

Chain-smoking her Merits and sipping liberal doses of gin, she is a laugh riot -- the one-liners come fast and furious. Stroili's remembrance of things past is a reminder that, thankfully, there is a refuge for the misunderstood: the stage.