OCTOBER 24, 1997 Gay People's ChroNICLE 19

EVENINGS OUT

Exuberant 'straight man' adds spice to cabaret show

by Lisa Gitlin

Cleveland-All Night Strut blasted from the stage of the newly reopened Hanna Theater Cabaret for the first time on September 30, and Michael Richard Kelly, one of four spectacular performers in the show, is in no hurry to go back home to Philadelphia.

The show, affectionately referred to as Strut, has electrified many theaters over many years, but probably no performances of this revue of popular songs from the 30s and 40s have been executed with more captivating charm and kinesthetic harmony than those delivered by Kelly and his co-stars Lori Flynn, Rachel Lynn Oliver, and Gary Thompson.

Kelly, who is openly gay, plays the "straight man" during song-and-dance numbers with tongue-in-cheek impishness that adds extra spice to the rollicking show. Strut also is helped along by the synchronicity among the performers, who are all close friends.

"I've done this show in various places with Lori, Gary, and Rachel,” Kelly said. "Lori and I are incredibly close. When we first came here, I told the stage manager, ‘I should let you know, we are not a normal cast.' There's a certain amount of bitchiness and competitiveness that goes on in most shows. But that doesn't exist with us. As soon as the stage manager saw us clowning around during rehearsal, she knew we weren't a normal cast."

According to Hanna officials, All Night Strut will run as long as audiences want to see it. In November the show will be converted to "Holiday Strut," with traditional holiday numbers mixed in with the standard American classics such as "Chattanooga ChooChoo," "Brother Can You Spare Me a Dime," "Minnie the Moocher," "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" "The White Cliffs of Dover,"

All Night Strut's cast, from left, Lori Flynn, Gary Thompson, Michael Richard Kelly, Rachel Lynn Oliver.

and "As Time Goes By." Kelly, who had originally planned to return to Philadelphia after the holiday run, now says he plans to remain for the duration.

"I was lucky," Kelly says. "All the other people in the show got put up at Reserve Square Apartments, but because I had my two dogs with me they put me up in the Grand Arcade, on West Sixth and St. Clair, right where all the action is. I love it here. I have 13-foot ceilings and these huge windows. My dogs can jump on my lap and look out at the city.

Kelly loves dogs as much as he loves being on stage. Three years ago, eager to take a break from performing and grow some roots underneath him, he opened an upscale

pet supply store in Philadelphia. It is now thriving, even in his absence, thanks to the growing demand for exotic pet products, his close friend's conscientious management, and the store's irresistible name: And Toto Too. (One of the two cairn terriers he brought with him to Cleveland also bears that distinguished title.)

Kelly has been an out performer as far back as he can remember. "My parent had a philosophy that people should be accepted as they are," he said. "I never heard them speak ill about anyone because of their color or sexual orientation. So I was always comfortable with my sexual orientation. I never found it necessary to live any kind of charade, onstage or offstage."

Several years ago, Kelly teamed up with a friend, piano player Alan Lee, and started a cabaret act at a gay club in Philadelphia, which won over both gay and straight audiences (and even critics, one of whom expressed delight over the "bitchy patter between songs"). The act broke up a year later when Lee got a gig on a cruise ship.

Shortly thereafter, Kelly received a call from theater restorer Ray Shepardson, who was doing All Night Strut in Detroit and needed a Strut veteran. Kelly, who had done the show in Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and Monte Carlo, did not require much urging to leap back into his favorite show. (Strut premiered in Cleveland during the 1970s in the lobby of Shepardson's first project, the State Theater.)

During the Detroit run of Strut, Kelly was an Equity actor and helped promote the Equity Fights AIDS 1996-97 holiday campaign. After each performance he briefly addressed

the audience while buckets were passed around, urging people to give "from as deep within their pockets as they could and from as much within their hearts as they can." The audiences gave generously.

Kelly is pleased that the Hanna Theater Cabaret is planning an AIDS benefit performance of Strut When the date is set, he will doubtless be one of its enthusiastic campaigners.

"My credo is to be an active participant in your life," Kelly says. “Many years ago, I was just coasting along. And then I realized it wasn't working for me. I'm just not a casual person. Now when I'm committed to something, I go all the way with it." ✓

John Thrash, Ph.D.

Registered Representative New England Securities

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