Orlando Fringe 2025 review: ‘The Heterosexuals’

Being a straight cis male at Orlando Fringe can sometimes feel like being a member of an exotic species, so it makes perfect sense that Johnnie McNamara Walker has come here from Toronto to conduct a comical anthropological examination of the little-understood secrets of heterosexuality. After an abortive attempt at an audience sing-along to “Steam Heat,” this elfin ginger with blazing eyebrows and a “100% fruit” shirt catapults into a one-man show — except for when he dialogues with a recording of his own voice or morphs into his closeted Canadian alternative rock-fan shadow self. Everyone who attends this show is instantly exclusively queer and is tasked with helping stop the scourge of forest-immolating gender reveals, Office-themed office parties and other anti-social side effects of the so-called heterosexual lifestyle.

Walker fearlessly broaches controversial questions like “are heterosexuals made, or born that way?” during this spiraling satirical soliloquy that reflects society-shifting questions about gender and sexuality through a fabulously warped funhouse mirror of homonormativity. His manic momentum never flags, but he varies his blocking and levels enough to avoid exhausting the audience with his intense energy, and his climax lowers the manic mask long enough to advocate for civil rights and self-love.

Show up for Walker’s hysterically hyperverbal rant and connect to the hidden queer hive mind for flaming fantasies about teleporting lesbians, biting babies and canceled ’90s creatives before the heteros co-opt all of queer culture, like they have Drag Race and poppers. Note: If you aren’t into explicit descriptions of masturbation, this might not be the meeting for you.

You won’t have to dance to the Village People or even engage in assplay to prove your allyship … but hey, it couldn’t hurt.

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This article appears in May 14-20, 2025.