GAY PEOPLE'S Chronicle
OCTOBER 1, 1995
Evenings Out
Juan Chioran gives Molina the "kiss" of humanity
by Franklin Sellers
Kiss of the Spider Woman "not only has the power to entertain, but it has the power to educate,” according to Juan Chioran, who plays Molina, a South American gay man imprisoned for soliciting sex from a teenage boy in the Broadway musical version now touring North America. But, Chioran insisted, it's not "preachy" in the conventional sense: "It doesn't hit you over the head-it grabs you by the throat."
The Tony Award-winning musical (seven altogether), directed by Hal Prince (Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Showboat) plays in Cleveland at the Palace Theatre at Playhouse Square Center on Thursday October 26 through Saturday, November 4 with the legendary Chita Rivera in the title role.
Anyone who has read Manual Puig's acclaimed novel or seen the 1985 film version (with William Hurt's Oscar-winning portrayal of Molina) knows the story of how the sensitive and feminine Molina is imprisoned in the same cell with the handsome, virile, and straight political guerrilla Valentin. Molina falls in love with Valentin and agrees to perilously pass secret information to Valentin's people once he's released.
"Molina really starts out very, very timidly and self-effacing,” Chioran said from his hotel room in Minneapolis recently. "He's a very self-loathing person" who queens out as a "mask ... to be able to deal with the situation he is in." Molina, not unlike many gay men, lives in a fantasy world in which he stars in every film with the story's fictitious screen idol, Aurora. Molina is infatuated with Aurora's glamour in every role she played except for one, that of the Spider Woman, a symbol of death.
During their time together, both Molina and Valentin learn to appreciate each other, they "learn about humanity," and they even have
sex, but only once.
"Fade to black" when the humping starts, Chioran said. "It's all left up to the audience." But when it comes time for the older Molina, 37, to risk his life for the decadeyounger Valentin (played by television and film actor Dorian Harewood, who is actually a few years older than the 32-year-old Chioran), is he doing it for the right reasons? For justice and humanity? Or simply because he's in love with Valentin?
"I think it starts as love for Valentin," Chioran said, "and then he discovers later on that there are others out there beyond your fantasies. Valentin says, “Not for me. I'm not worth it." And Molina says, "Wouldn't it be funny if that were true?"
Chioran is more familiar with the material than his predecessors in the role, Brent Carver and Jeff Hyslop. All three men are Canadian-"There's something about the role and Canadians. I don't know what it is"-but Chioran was born in Argentina, Puig's homeland, and the real-life inspiration for Kiss. The setting for the novelist's story, however,
Juan Chioran as
Molina in the musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman
is simply "somewhere in South America." "Puig hasn't specified the location because of the universality of the theme,” explained Chioran. "This stuff that happens onstage is still happening today."
What's happening on stage is based on the Argentine government's totalitarian reign of terror on its people during the late 1970s and early 80s. Thousands of men, women and children simply disappeared after being hauled off by the police. They are known in Argentina as los desaparecidos, Chioran said, or "the disappeared.'
""
The most recent revelations of that nightmare period surround a former military officer who exposed one horrific method of government genocide. The military boarded imprisoned civilians on planes at night under the guise of a transfer to another location in Argentina. En route, the officers on the planes served the prisoners drinks spiked with sedatives. After the civilians lost consciousness, the military stripped them and then dumped their bodies over the Atlantic Ocean.
The former officer, who appeared this past spring on CBS' 60 Minutes, said he flew on two of these "missions." He said that on his second flight there was a woman in her 60s and a 16-year-old boy among the dozen or so prisoners he threw out of the airplane to their deaths.
"It was horrendous," Chioran said of that period. And on stage, "I'm living part of the
history that I would've lived.”
Luckily for him, his family left Argentina in 1975.
Twenty years later the political climate in Argentina is dramatically different than when Chioran was a boy. He said he was “amazed" that there is currently a production of the play Kiss of the Spider Woman in the nation's capital, Buenos Aires.
"Because of certain circumstances" Chioran said he ended up playing Molina about 50 times during its Broadway run (his Broadway debut), even though he was the understudy for Hyslop. He received glowing reviews.
Hyslop went on to other roles, and Molina belonged to Chioran.
"I take criticism with a grain of salt," he said. "The good, the bad... it's certainly not going to rule me. My critic... is sitting out there in the house."
Although he was entering adolescence when he moved to North America, the actor's English is perfect enough for him to pass as an upper-crust Canadian; not one "ch?" after a sentence, perhaps thanks to his years of classical training at the famed Stratford Theatre Festival in Ontario. His Spanish retains its pure lyrical seductiveness. But gay men in the audience will have to be satisfied with seduction by Chioran while he wears his Molina sheath-Juan Chioran (believe it or not) is straight.
But he's extremely gay friendly.
"I don't think [Kiss of the Spider Woman]
is a play about homosexuality,” Chioran said. "One of the characters happens to be gay."
Still, why does it remain so difficult for Broadway and Hollywood-to cast queers in queer roles? Better yet (and no offense to the handsome, virile, masculine and straight Dorian Harewood), why not have a gay man play the role of Valentin?
Chioran had no answers, but agreed that it is "absolutely maddening that we're still there."
But he's used his years of experience working with gay men to his benefit. "I'm watching humanity all the time," Chioran said, "and sort of cataloguing it and storing it." Those human observations, he added, have taken in everything since he started acting about 12 years ago, and probably before.
Chioran said acting is about emotions, and every human shares the full gamut of those, from love to hate, from thoughts of benevolence to thoughts of murder.
"It's just whether you can access it or not," he said.
He loves the role, though. It's the "most complex, challenging and rewarding role that I've ever played," Chioran said. But the role is also "draining, especially on the weekends when we have to do two shows on Saturday, two Sunday, back to back."
In a recent interview, actor Wesley Snipes said that after he finished filming Too Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, he took all of his drag queen character Noxeema's dresses, fake nails and make-up, stuffed it in a coffin and buried it. Chioran said, "There will come a time when I will have to go, Aahh! That's it! . . . I'll be the one that they bury when the role's over, not the costume."
In addition to Kiss and Stratford, he's also played a lot of characters on Canadian television, as well as a bad guy in the film Robocop whose name was Dr. Rimmer-"He was [presumably] a straight character,” Chioran said, "but the jury's still out on him."
As far as Kiss of the Spider Woman is concerned, though, and even in theater in general, no one on stage is ever (or rarely) who or what they appear to be.
After all, Chioran said, "There are many gay actors playing straight characters in the musical-We're in the wonderful world of make-believe."
Tickets to Kiss of the Spider Woman may be obtained in person at the Playhouse Square Center box office, all Advantix outlets, or charged at 216-241-6000.
Groups of 20 or more may reserve their seats by calling 216-771-4444 or 800-8889941.
Franklin Sellers is news editor of Au Courant, a lesbian, gay and bisexual newsweekly in Philadelphia.