Me Mom & Morgentaler • Deja Voodoo • Mado Lamotte • Ellen Gabriel • Francine Pelletier • Ivan • Michael Pintard and amuna baraka-clarke • Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick • Pascale Bussières • Steve Galluccio • Michel Tremblay • James DiSalvio • Nicole Brossard • Édouard Lock • Mack Mackenzie • David Fennario • John Kastner • GrimSkunk • Cecil Seaskull • Gros Michel • Ian Stephens • Great Antonio • Harry Mayerovitch • Robin Spry • François Gourd • The Gruesomes • Tiga • Five poor neighbourhoods

Mainstream mambo

Through the transformation from low-budget camp to big-house darling, scriptwriter Steve Galluccio hasn’t lost his youthful spark

by AMY BARRATT

In 1993, the Mirror crowned playwright Steve Galluccio the King of Gonzo. Theatre critic Gaëtan Charlebois coined the term (with a debt to Hunter S. Thompson’s “gonzo journalism”) to describe a type of low-budget, camp and funny theatre that was burgeoning in the city. It was unpretentious fare for the TV generation, chock full of references to 1970s TV shows and pop culture in general.

By the time of the Mirror cover story, Galluccio had attracted a loyal following with shows like Batman and Robin: The Untold Story, and Brady Bunch—The Hidden Episode (What’s Alice Doing in the Freezer?). 1993’s Sexual Success in Montreal was followed two years later by Peter and Paul Get Mary’d, after which Galluccio slipped off the theatre radar. That was because he was working—making money even—in French-language TV, as a writer on sitcoms like Un gars, une fille.

Then, in 2000, his name made a surprising re-appearance on the season program of Compagnie Jean-Duceppe. The mainstream Montreal theatre would be producing Mambo Italiano, written by Galluccio and translated by Michel Tremblay, in the 2000-2001 season. For those of us who remembered him as the Gonzo King, it seemed like a strange fit, but as Galluccio told the Mirror just prior to the Duceppe opening, his plays had never really been suited to the cramped houses they had played out of financial necessity. He was excited to see one of his plays fully realized using the resources of a major company.

Mambo Italiano—as you know, unless you’ve been on a mountain in Nepal—became a huge stage hit, first in French then in English, and subsequently, a very successful film.

Galluccio’s next project was the TV series Ciao Bella, shot in English and French versions for CBC/Radio Canada. When the sitcom was cancelled after one season, Galluccio didn’t dwell on it. It allowed him to get to projects that had been on the back burner, like a new play that he finished writing this past July.

“It’s very under wraps for the moment because it’s being shopped around to theatres,” Galluccio says. “But I can tell you it’s called The Yellow Woman, and it’s not about Italians. I mean, there are Italians in it, but it’s about my generation. I have explained the older Italian generation [with Mambo], now it’s time to focus on the younger ones. Not that I’m a kid anymore. I’m turning 45 soon.”

Which brings us to his latest project, a screenplay called Chasing Oscar. In the space of a day—the day of her 25th wedding anniversary—a woman is taken on a wild ride that brings her to a new place in her life.

“I’m dealing with, not a midlife crisis, but just the realization that I’m going to be 50 in five years,” says the still boyish writer. “When I was a kid watching All in the Family and Maude... And when my dad turned 50, that was ancient!”

So is there anything left of the Gonzo Galluccio in this successful, no-longer-young man? Well, he still illustrates his points with classic TV references. And he still pals around with his actors.

“I’ve always been part of the gang,” Galluccio says. “The important thing has always been, ‘Where are we going after the show?’”