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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE APRIL 4, 1997
IN BOX
'Lone lesbian of musical theatre' is on Palace stage
by Doreen Cudnik Cleveland-Hot off their one-week run at the Ohio Theater in Columbus, the national tour of the musical How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying will be making a stop at the Palace Theatre in Playhouse Square Center. Touring with the company and playing the role of Smitty is Susann Fletcher, the self-proclaimed “lone lesbian of musical theater."
Fletcher has made her living in the theatre since moving to New York after finishing college. A mere seven months after arriving
in the Big Apple, she was honing her craft in the Broadway cast of The Best Little
Whorehouse in Texas. Since the, she has been in six Broadway shows and four national tours. She shares her home and her heart with her partner, Susan Jester.
How to Succeed is based on the popular 1950s self-help book of the same name. The show opened on Broadway in 1995, starring Matthew Broderick in the role of J. Pierrepont Finch. Ralph Macchio, of Karate Kid fame, plays Finch in the current production. Fletcher's character Smitty is the best friend
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to Ralph Macchio's love interest, and the office weisenheimer.
"In those old-fashioned movies there was always the best friend who was wise and caustic and that's who Smitty is," Fletcher said. "If it were the '90s she'd probably be an executive. But since it's a period piece, [the musical is set in 1961], she's only an executive secretary."
Fletcher said she based the character on "a
"In most shows I'm the only lesbian, with the exception of maybe one working backstage."
lot of people I've cared about growing up.” "[Smitty's] a quilt of a lot of women that I had a lot of admiration for as a young child," she said.
While musical theater has always been thought of as a place where gay men were not only present but highly visible, lesbian performers are fewer in number. "The truth is there's not that many lesbians in the musical theatre world," Fletcher said with a sigh. "In most shows I'm the only lesbian, with the exception of maybe one working backstage."
Fletcher hopes that by being out and speaking to the gay and lesbian press in towns where the show is touring, other lesbian performers will be encouraged to pursue their dreams.
"The reason that I've been doing this all over the country is that I want people to know
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what's possible." Fletcher said. “I want women and young girls that are coming up and looking at their options in life to realize that this is an option for them-that they can live an openly gay life, and be a successful performer. That's all possible."
Performances are April 1 to 13, at the Palace Theatre at Playhouse Square. Tickets are available at the Playhouse Square box office, at all Advantix locations or charge by phone at 216-241-6000.
Calling all Martinas and Andres
Columbus-Looking for a little "love" this spring and summer? The Columbus Metropolitan Tennis Organization will begin its third seasonal summer tennis league for 1997, and all would-be Martinas and Andres are encouraged to sign up. Deadline for registration will be April 20. For more information about the league, call the group's voice mail at 614341-7548 or write to P.O. Box 297885, Columbus 43229.
Sweatin' to beat HIV
Cleveland-Participants will be pumping, jumping and sweating with the hottest fitness instructors in the area during the Ninth Annual Workout for Hope to benefit AIDS and cancer research. The event will take place on Saturday, April 19 at the Baldwin Wallace College Recreation Center in
Human Race presents Angels
Dayton-For the last decade, the Human Race Theatre Company has been commited to celebrating the diversity of American theatre. Their tenth season will continue that trend, as they present Tony Kushner's Angels in America Part One: Millenium Approaches.
Angels has been viewed as a landmark DAVID MORGAN
Berea. Registration is at 8:30 Angels in America a.m., and the event will begin at 10 a.m. and end at 1 p.m.
Organizers said that the event has raised more than $10 million dollars towards AIDS research. Much of that money has been spent for clinical trials of gene therapy treatment for HIV-positive patients that hope to determine whether genetically altered blood "stem" cells can be transplanted back into persons with HIV. The goal is to eventually determine whether such an approach could slow or altogether halt the onset of AIDS.
A minimum of $50 is required to participate in the event. MasterCard and Visa will be accepted for contributions made at the event.
Workout for Hope began in San Francisco, and has grown to include more than 75 cities nationwide. For event information and registration forms, call 216631-0412, or 800-779-5893.
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event in American theatre. It has received multiple honors; including two Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, and is considered to be both funny and tragic; epic and intimate.
Angels is a play about outsiders-gays, Jews, Mormons and African-Americansduring the Reagan 80s. The plot revolves around Louis, a gay Jewish man who is unable to deal with his partner's AIDS-related illness and eventually abandons him; Joe, a closeted gay man who is also an ambitious Republican lawyer and struggling Mormon; and infamous real-life attorney Roy Cohn, who abandons everyone when he refuses to acknowledge his own AIDS diagnosis.
The show will run April 17 through May 4 at the Loft Theatre, 126 North Main Street in the Metropolitan Arts Center in downtown Dayton. Tickets are on sale at the Victoria Theatre ticket center at First and Main Streets downtown, or by calling 513-228-3630.
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