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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE JUNE 10, 1994
ENTERTAINMENT
Out and about in the New York theater
by William Randall Beard Many gay men and lesbians from all over the country will be traveling to New York this month to participate in the Gay Games and Stonewall 25. There will be plenty of activities connected with those celebrations, but anyone desiring to take advantage of the rich theatrical life of the city will find an abundance of plays and musicals of interest to the gay community.
Unfortunately, this preview features almost exclusively gay men. That is the reality of the work being produced right now, a fact few women will find unusual or surprising.
The Broadway theaters are all located within a few blocks on either side of 7th
Avenue, just off Times Square. Unless otherwise noted, tickets can be ordered from 212-239-6200.
At the top of the list has to be Tony Kushner's seven-hour masterpiece, Angels in America (Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 W. 48th St.). The two halves, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika present the painful reality of AIDS integrated into more complex and detailed stories of gay-and heterosexual-life.
A man abandons his lover when he discovers that his lover has contracted AIDS. The man then becomes involved with a married bisexual Mormon who works for Roy Cohn, a former aide to Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the witch-hunts of the 1950s and a part of the team that prosecuted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Cohn is now a rabidly homophobic closeted gay power bro-
ker.
At the same time, the lover is visited by an angel, taking the play beyond the limits of conventional realism. Ultimately, it explores our entire national consciousness. Challenging and thought-provoking discussions of religion and politics are juxtaposed against love stories and scenes of camp humor. There has never been a play like this.
Each half plays four times a week. It's best seen in one day, which is possible on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Another first class Broadway production is Kiss of the Spiderwoman—the Musical (Broadhurst, 235 W. 44th St.). Those who have seen the movie will recognize the plot, set in an unnamed South American country, of a gay window dresser imprisoned on a morals charge sharing a cell with a political prisoner. But the musical is subtly different. Created by a gay team— playwright Terrance McNally, composer John Kander, and lyricist Fred EbbMolina, the gay character is highlighted.
It is rare for the commercial theater to present so honest a portrait of a flamboyant queen. For all his stereotypical swishiness. Molina displays a real dignity that can produce audible discomfort on the part of the predominantly heterosexual audience.
Steven Sondheim is represented with the musical Passion (Plymouth, 236 W. 45th St.), the most lushly romantic score he's ever written. Sondheim has admitted in interviews that he has fallen in love for the first time in his life. But the gender of his love is always conspicuously absent. And so is any hint of his sexuality in the
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story of Fosca, a plain woman who loves a dashing officer in 19th century Italy. It might be possible to draw parallels between the gay experience and Fosca's experience as an outcast, but that's stretching things.
Throughout Greenwich Village, there are a continually-changing variety of drag and camp shows. Anywhere there's a loft, there's a potential extravaganza. But the pedigree is held by the Ridiculous Theatrical Company (1 Sheridan Square, 212691-2271). Founded in 1967 by Charles Ludlam, it has been pushing the limits of gay culture for decades.
After Ludlam's death from AIDS in 1987, his lover Everett Quinton carried on and is currently starring in his own one man show, Movieland. He plays drag queen Ruby Stevens (Barbara Stanwyck's real name for those who are trivia-challenged), being held captive in her apartment by a giant dragon. To survive, she must amuse the dragon with stories from old movies, including The Spiral Staircase, Dracula, The Invisible Man, even a solo version of The Ten Commandments. As a finale, Quinton does a real star turn as Lana Turner in Madame X.
Gay playwright Edward Albee won this year's Pulitzer Prize for Three Tall Women (off-Broadway, uptown at the Promenade, Broadway at 76th), a hymn of forgiveness to his mother. In the second act, she is played by three women, at ages 90, 52 and 26, following a first act in which the actresses play the old woman, her companion and her young attorney. (That transformation is never fully explained.) Though his mother's hatred and bitterness towards his sexuality is very real, he is able to make peace with her, onstage if not life. Broadening the perspective, there are
two other plays that will have deep relevance despite their lack of gay characters. These stories of other minorities tell tales of oppression that carry a resonance for gay men and lesbians as well.
Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Cort, 138 W. 48th St.) is a solo performance piece by black writer and performer Anna Deavere Smith. Following the L.A. riots, she interviewed over 200 people, from Chief of Police Darrell Gates to Rodney King's family to a neighborhood Korean grocer. Her text is made up of verbatim excerpts from these interviews. In the course of the evening, she plays 35 different characters from across the spectrum. She explodes racial stereotypes and personalizes the despair and alienation that is all too familiar and makes the resulting violence all too understandable.
There is also Arthur Miller's new play Broken Glass (Booth, 222 W. 45th St.). Set in 1938, it is the story of a Jewish housewife who has experienced hysterical paralysis in response to the news of the increasing persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. As a doctor strives to cure her, he exposes the fear, self-hatred and shame that she feels as a member of a persecuted minority. The obvious parallels give a historical context from which to view cultural evolution.
Single ticket prices range from $25 for off-off-Broadway to $45 for plays and $65 for musicals. On the day of the performance, however, tickets for most shows can be obtained for half-price from the TKTS booth on 47th Street and 7th Avenue, at the north end of Times Square. The booth is open at noon for matinees and 3 pm for evening performances. To check on availability, call 212-563-2929. ✓
HOUSE OF ST. JAMES
by Steven St. James
Breakbeat
Speed Limit 140 BPM #4, various artists, Moonshine
It's getting to the point where you don't even need to question whether a compilation from Moonshine is any good! Although there have been many changes, such as Suburban Base pulling out from making any future comps with Moonshine and the addition of symphony sounds, they still release some bone-shaking jungle techno products. You can find this in the new 140 BPM #4, from the soulful sound of Bonny & Highlander to the Rasta motion of Top Buzz "Living in Darkness."
Always, Erasure, Elektra
I don't ordinarily cover crossover stuff but I felt the public should get fair warning. Erasure hasn't put out anything for a while, which is a good thing. This single may not
only be the worst Erasure song produced, but the worst song produced this year. In some parts of the world you'll get two forms of torture, genital clamps or this song.
Happy Core
One, Midi Rain
This happy core LP is not the most innovative but still yields some good songs. Even comes with a lyrics sheet so you can sing along-how sweet. Producer John Rocca does however show a great deal of potential, so maybe there will be interesting 12-inch mixes. If you like the group Electronic, you'll want to pick this one up.
Steven St. James is a host of One Brother In the Basement, which brings you the best of underground dance music, featuring trance, tribal, house, and breakbeat on Cleveland's WRUW. He now also spins at Avalon, 1946 St. Clair Ave. "Bring a second pair of shoes,"
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