The Richmond Triangle Players’ “Key West” marks just the second time the play has been produced, and director John Knapp is grateful and proud that his troupe was chosen to perform it. Knapp originally contacted playwright Jack Heifner to inquire about the rights for an all-male adaptation of “Vanities,” the 1976 Drama Desk-nominee. Heifner responded that although the all-male “Vanities” had done well, he felt it tainted the original piece, and didn’t want it performed any more. Then Heifner dropped some surprising news: Word had traveled through the Purple Circuit (a national network of gay theaters) all the way to New York that RTP was a first-rate theater company. Instead of simply turning down Knapp’s request for “Vanities,” Heifner offered him “Key West” instead.

The play deals with the generation gap between older and younger gay men, and with the more universal idea of seeing the world through fresh eyes by spending time with younger people. “[Heifner] really captured the whole essence of life in Key West,” Knapp says. “It’s just a free place to be, and hopefully we’ve captured that in the show… the essence of that whole