Whoopi Goldberg, Alec Mapa, Caroline Rhea, Bonnie Bedelia, Leslie Jordan, Dale Dickey, Emerson Collins and MANY MORE will be in attendance at A Very Sordid Wedding. The long-awaited sequel to Sordid LivesDel Shores‘ beloved gay cinema classic, is coming to DVD this October! With a massive ensemble cast and a plethora of hilarious story-lines, there’s a whole lot going on. Brace yourself for the many updates in the official synopsis…

 

The film, set in 2015, takes place seventeen years after Peggy tripped over G.W.’s wooden legs and died in Sordid Lives, and life has moved into the present for the residents of Winters, Texas. Sissy Hickey (Dale Dickey) is reading the Bible, cover to cover, trying to make some kind of sense out of what it really says about gay people. Her niece Latrelle Williamson (Bonnie Bedelia) has divorced her husband Wilson (Michael MacRae) who has taken up with a hot young gold digger (Katherine Bailess). Latrelle’s now out and proud gay son Ty (Kirk Geiger) is on his way back to town with “his black man” (T. Ashanti Mozelle) and news of their own. Her sister LaVonda (Ann Walker) is still cussin’ and drankin’ and is being blackmailed to sit with the sick and afflicted. LaVonda’s best friend Noleta (Caroline Rhea) meets a hot younger man (Aleks Paunovic) while visiting her awful mama (Carole Cook) in the hospital. G.W. (David Steen), sporting new fiberglass legs after Noleta burned his old ones, is still feeling guilty and mourning Peggy. Nearly incoherent barfly Juanita (Sarah Hunley) has moved from her obsession with Vacation Bible School roosters to the royal family while Wardell (Newell Alexander) and Odell (David Cowgill) still bicker at the bar. Tammy Wynette champion Brother Boy (Leslie Jordan) hasn’t been back to Winters since Peggy’s funeral, and he’s working at a tragic little gay bar in Longview, having added Loretta and Dolly to his new medley act “We Three Queens of Oper-y Are” till a chance meeting with a dangerous criminal (Emerson Collins) forces him out on the run… again.

 

As the sordid saga continues, an anniversary memorial service is being planned in honor of Peggy at Bubba’s Bar while the Southside Baptist Church is planning an “Anti-Equality Rally” to protest the advancement of same-sex marriage, spearheaded by Vera Lisso (Lorna Scott) and Mrs. Barnes (Sharon Garrison). Both events are to take place on the same night, so the cast of colorful characters are all on a collision course for shenanigans and fireworks! Along the way a host of new faces arrive in Winters – Ty’s man, Latrelle’s ex-husband and his gold digger, the new fire and brimstone preacher (Levi Kreis), Noleta’s mother, several drag queens and a bisexual serial killer, all swept into the adventure on the way to the surprise wedding.

 

As the original film dealt with coming out in a conservative southern world, A Very Sordid Wedding explores the questions, bigotry and the fallout of what happens when gay marriage comes to communities and families that are not quite ready to accept it. Bigoted “religious freedom,” marriage equality and cultural acceptance are all explored with Del Shores’ trademark approach – using comedy and his much-beloved Sordid Lives characters to deal with these important current social issues and the very real process of accepting your family for who they are instead of who you want them to be.

 

Sordid Lives came to life as Del Shores’ fourth stage play. Opening in Los Angeles back in May of 1996, the show ran for thirteen sold-out months. The play won 14 Drama-Logue Theatre Awards and was also nominated for Robby, L.A weekly and GLAAD Awards for writing, directing and producing. The stage play has been produced by over 300 theatre companies nationwide.

 

In 1999, Shores wrote and directed the film adaption of Sordid Lives,and it became a cult phenomenon winning many festival awards. Featuring a similar all-star ensemble – Bonnie Bedelia, Delta Burke, Leslie Jordan, Beau Bridges, Olivia Newton-John – the original, released on 2000, is still cherished by gay cinema fans today. In 2006, the play was revived at the Zephyr Theatre in Hollywood for a six-week specialty engagement that was extended repeatedly to a six-month, sold-out run with many of the original cast and went on a national tour playing in theaters that hold up to 1,700 seats in Palm Springs, Dallas, St. Louis, Nashville, San Diego and Fort Lauderdale.

 

Sordid Lives: The Series, a twelve-episode TV show prequel to the film, premiered on MTV’s LOGO network in  2008. Shores created, wrote, directed and executive produced all twelve episodes. Featuring much of the original cast – with the addition of the late, great Rue McClanahan and comedian Caroline Rhea, among others – the show was LOGO’s biggest hit up to that time.

 

Check out the trailer for the brand-new installment and make sure to pre-order your copy today!

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