I Wanna Be Adored

Book excerpt: Winston Frame is the self described, urban "poet of death and despair." Young, dour, pale and handsome, he is, much like Ian Curtis of Joy Division, also haunted and suicidal. When the pressure of impending success, fatherhood and an affair get too much, he hangs himself. Only his journey is not quite over. Winston finds himself in Purgatory, which is a Weimar style cabaret full of animal acts, exhausted chanteuses and the borscht belt comic Bobby Lemondrops. His guide is "Mad Simon," who seems intent on keeping Winston's damned soul out of Hell. Simon's agenda is hidden but we get the idea that this is no ordinary tour guide. It's A Wonderful Life meets 24 Hour Party People, I Wanna Be Adored is as strangely sweet as it is delirious and austere. "Beginning with a series of punchy and surprising scenes that include a woman getting spanked with a trout, a fight and a striptease by a wheelchair bound woman, the show maintains a gleefully racy tone throughout." -Jason Zinoman, Time Out New York