Oh no, “Ma Femme S’appelle Maurice” (the cross-dressing play to which you referred) was far from being “Off-Broadway”, it was a major spectacle. And it was very funny too.
BTW, it wasn’t about homosexual cross-dressers. It was, rather, about a heterosexual man who hides another heterosexual man dressed up as a woman to avoid implication in a financial scandal. Then the first heterosexual man himself has to dress up as a woman to avoid being caught in an affair by his wife. And then the police inspector investigating the case shows up poking around, and thinks that the two men are women, and chases them around lustily (”Je vais me regaler!”), until, of course, the whole thing falls apart and all is revealed, if I remember correctly (I saw it back in ‘97 or so), in the way that maximizes embarrassment for everybody involved. But nobody in it is actually gay. French farce is always about adultery and affairs (and is perfectly suited to the audience watching it, too), but nobody in Paris’d go watch a play about a bunch of actually gay guys parade around in dresses. To see THAT you’d best hop on the Eurostar over to London!
I believe you're right on the date. We were living in Paris at the time and got the benefit of 'display advertising' for both productions.
The humor sounds to be in the same vein as "Le Dîner de Cons".
I find much of the French humor 'off kilter' enough to tickle my funny bone.
I loved the ad for 'French' Preparation H... showing the "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil jade monkeys"... but the last was holding his bum instead of his mouth.