GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE JUNE 20, 1997

EVENINGS OUT

Longevity on stage comes from dancer's hard work

by Kaizaad Kotwal Columbus It is a well-known fact that finding employment in the entertainment world can be more dangerous and uncertain than the world of killer showgirl Roxie Hart and the seedy underside of Chicago. In light of that, finding work consistently for 16 years is a testimony to one's talent, tenacity, hard work, and longevity in a business that is more fickle than the sunshine in Siberia.

Gregory Butler is one such actor, singer and dancer, who came to New York 16 years ago and has stayed, unless of course he's on tour. Butler can be currently seen with the national tour of Chicago as one of two dance captains, also playing the part of the judge.

Butler is one of the many openly gay performers with this tour. In an energetic and funny interview from Washington D.C., where Chicago's run was just extended following the Tony Awards hoopla, Butler talked about the show, Broadway, and what being a gay and African-American performer means in an art world ravaged by AIDS. He graciously informed me that "he had given up Rosie O'Donnell for the interview" and then laughed the first of his many warm and infectious laughs.

Butler's past work includes Evita and La Cage Aux Folles and he intends to stay with Chicago for a while. His excitement and enthusiasm for the show were infectious. He believes that the show's success lies in the fact that it is a "performer driven show" with a book that tells a story that doesn't rely on "helicopters and crashing chandeliers."

But Butler is quick to add that spectacle has its place in the theater and is valued by audiences. However, for him, Chicago reminds people about the importance of “a great book, good songs and superb choreography," something many musicals take for granted.

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Butler, now 36, came out at the age of 16 and has had almost no problems being accepted and finding work. He claims that "theater is more open than any other form of entertainment where being gay, being out is no big deal."

Butler added that there are many major stars who are out and known to the theater community but the outside world remains oblivious. And like all facets of life, the specter of AIDS has played a integral role in the rate and way at which people are coming out. Butler observed that "with AIDS, people had a larger chance to come out and say that this is so much bigger that the individual being gay is not as big a deal."

While AIDS has become inescapable for an increasing number of people nationally and globally, there is no doubt that the arts community has been hit disproportionately. Butler said that because the theater scene in New York is "a community much like a family" there is a greater proclivity towards dealing with this scourge and "taking care of each other."

Gregory Butler

The New York theater family has risen to the challenge in numerous ways, Broadway Cares and Equity Fights AIDS being only two examples. Butler identifies this philanthropy and humanity as a place where "entertainment became secondary and responsibility became the key." Butler is also astute to recognize that recent anecdotes of better lives for PWAs due to more potent drugs is already allowing people to forget.

"It's not over, much to certain people's surprise. People are still dying," he adds passionately.

When asked how many people he had lost to the epidemic, his answer was a terse and somber, "Too many."

While Butler has not been denied jobs on

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account of his sexuality, he does believe that his racial background may have been used to let certain opportunities be taken away from underneath his deserving and talented feet.

The great irony of Broadway is that while the American musical owes its immeasurable debt to the African-American artistic heritage, from minstrels and spirituals to the blues and plantation dances, most people think of this uniquely American art form as a "white" invention.

Butler agrees that audiences as well as the movers and shakers on Broadway need to "understand from whence all this came." Butler credits the recent work of people like George C. Wolfe, Savion Glover, and August Wilson who work hard at "entertaining and educating their audiences with their shows."

As a performer, Butler has drawn his inspiration from the likes of Ben Vereen who "epitomizes the entertainer" as well as Gregory Hines. While Butler is delighted with his involvement with Chicago, he wants to work in the future with people like Glover and Wolfe as well as trying to branch out into film and television.

While Chicago is not a gay-themed musical, Butler says that it is very popular with gay audiences as are many of the Kander and Ebb works. Butler believes that Chicago's appeal to the gay community is simply because "it's good." Butler emphasizes that the show has "a lot of beautiful people, costumed very sexually with very little clothing, seductively choreographed and anyone would find this great, gay or straight."

In a culture that always wants to read more into things that may be necessary, Chicago is no exception. Butler related the way in which certain audiences have read into the character of matron "Mama" Morton, a prison warden, as being lesbian because a character refers to her as "Diesel" and "Butch" at one point in the show. While this may be a case of stereotyping, Butler says that the performer playing

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Morton has an edgy quality and hence such a reading may be justified.

And who better to know about stereotypes than a male dancer? Butler said that the assumption that because a man is a dancer he must be gay is a myth "that needs to be broken down." Butler adds that male dancers both challenge and reinforce "the code of masculinity" in the culture at large because while dance is traditionally considered to be a female domain, men who dance are incredibly athletic, strong and physically well developed.

But Butler is also aware that a dancer has a limited professional life because of the demands placed on the body, and he believes that his longevity lies in his other talents as a singer and actor. Butler joked that he reminds his cast that if Chicago keeps getting extended, he'll end up being the oldest living chorus boy, having to be wheeled off the stage in a chair. When I quipped back that it was about time somebody gave Carol Channing a run for her money (and longevity) Butler laughed his warm and boisterous laugh.

And if the Tonys are any barometer of success, Chicago's longevity is guaranteed and everyone involved with the show will be laughing all the way to the bank-where hopefully there is no Roxie Hart waiting to con them!

Tony-winning

musical

opens in Columbus

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Chicago, the Windy City, is knows for its culture, its cosmopolitan melting pot, its torrid history with the mob, and winds that can make a sunny day seem stormy. Chicago, the Kander, Ebb and Fosse musical, is also creating a storm of its own, having recently won the most awards at the 1997 Tonys, and a national tour which is certain to receive several extensions.

Chicago will complete the 1996-97 Broadway Series presentations in Columbus. This touring production is cloned from the current show running on Broadway, which was in turn heavily influenced by the 1975 original, with the book written by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, lyrics by Ebb and music by John Kander.

The Kander and Ebb team have regaled audiences with other classics which are already part and parcel of musical theater mythology: Cabaret, Zorba, and Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Chicago is immersed in historical irony and controversial cultural iconography. When it was first produced in 1975, just after the age of Vietnam, the story of a 1920s nightclub floozy who becomes a celebrity after shooting her lover was seen as too dark and cynical. At that time it failed to win a single Tony, being outstripped by the feelgood A Chorus Line. In 1997 Roxie Hart, the murderous bimbo, is part of the cynical landscape and celebrity machine, and the play won six Tonys, beating out another Kander and Ebb musical, Steel Pier.

The current tour brings with it a stellar cast (several openly gay or lesbian) including Carlotte d'Amboise as Roxie, Jasmine Guy as Velma Kelly, and Obba Babatunde as the slick lawyer Billy Flynn. The production is directed by Walter Bobbie with choreography by Ann Reinking whose inspiration sprung from the roiginal by Bob Fossc, her partner for many years.

Chicago will play at the Palace Theatre in downtown Columbus July 8-13, at 8 pm Tuesday to Saturday, and 7 pm Sunday, with matinees at 2 pm Saturday and Sunday. Tickets, $37.50, to $46.50) may be charged by phone at 614-431-3600.