GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

JANUARY 1, 1999

Evenings Out

Toni Tennille as a drag king

Singer butches it up for Victor/Victoria road show

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Columbus-Drag has been a hallmark of the gay liberation movement since the days of Stonewall. While male drag is popular and has been glamorized in Hollywood films such as Priscilla Queen of the Desert and To Wong Foo, women masquerading as men is a far less frequent phenomenon.

But male or female drag is simple compared to the protagonist of Victor/Victoriaa woman masquerading as a man who plays a woman on stage.

Blake Edwards created the Oscarwinning movie for his wife Julie Andrews, based on a 1933 German film. He created the stage version just for her as well. The music in both is by the late Henry Mancini.

While it seems unlikely that Andrews will ever sing again, the touring version of Victor/Victoria features Grammy-winning singer Toni Tennille, half of the Captain and Tennille duo, in the lead role. The trick for the star of this demanding show is to be able

to look gorgeous in the

traditional female sensibility at the same

time being

able to take on androgyny convincingly as well.

Tennille and her husband Daryl Dragon (a.k.a. the "Captain") have sold over 23 million records and Tennille has recorded four solo albums as well. Tennille and Dragon live in the scenic Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe, a home she has temporarily vacated to tromp across the U.S. in the dream role for an actress.

Tennille spoke with me from Orlando, Florida, about the triumphs and tribulations of all the gender switching each night.

How Tennille snagged Victor/Victoria is in her words "a long and complicated story." Her manager Sherry Ingram brought the musical to her notice via a bootleg video of the show with Japanese subtitles. "I was familiar with the movie, which came out in 1982,” Tennille said, "but it had been a while." Upon seeing the video, Tennille knew instantly that she "had to play the role."

With her versatile voice and her tall and slender frame, Tennille seems an

obvious choice for the role but she had "to take a gamble" to prove to Edwards and his people that she was perfect for the part. "Even though I have done a lot of acting, the musical theatre world sees me as a pop singer," Tennille explained, “and as such I knew that in order to prove to them that I could play Victor/Victoria I had to do something flashy."

Tennille put together an audition tape of several scenes and songs. Tennille and her manager hoped to snag Glenn Close's departure from the show on Broadway, but the tape arrived two days after Raquel Welch had been cast in the role.

But Tennille's tape caught Edwards' attention and she was offered the touring part. It was a tough decision for Tennille to leave behind her husband and the beauty of her abode in the mountains, for the exhaustion of road tripping.

"Daryl and I agonized over it and we knew that if I didn't do it, I would always be left wondering what it would have been like," Tennille said.

"If one person in the audience can have their perspective changed about gays and lesbians, it will all be worth it."

Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews have yet to see the touring show. "Blake hates flying," Tennille explained, "and so far we have been on the coast, but when we get to Stamford [Connecticut] they will come see the show."

"I am so glad that I did it, and it has been rewarding in so many ways. They say that touring companies become like family and our troupe clicked from the first moment," Tennille said beaming with pride and

Toni Tennille looks slightly more believable as a man in drag than Julie Andrews.

love for the company. “I love the people, it is truly an ensemble and there are no big egos."

But the other part that is rewarding for me," Tennille continued earnestly, "is that having spent my life in show business, both Daryl and I have many gay friends and we have seen much of what they have gone through."

"I believe," she added, "that if one person in the audience can have their perspective changed about gays and lesbians, it will all be worth it." "Worth it" refers to the intense homesickness she has succumbed to at times during the tour.

"I am a very homey person, and Daryl and I go hiking every day, and it's hard to be away from home and our dogs," she confided.

Like a proud parent, Tennille gushed when she said that “just two days ago we got back re-

ports of our efforts with Broadway Cares and Equity Fights AIDS and our touring company has raised more money than any other touring show. That makes me so proud, and I hope we can continue to keep giving."

"The easiest part for me is the shows. Eight shows a week is a piece of cake for me," Tennille said, even though "it is a rollercoaster for me because when I am not on stage I am frantically changing costumes."

""

The costume changes are necessitated by the constant gender flux of the central character. Having fallen on hungry times in the 1930s, Victoria Grant finds financial salvation headlining at Paris' finest cabaret as a man impersonating a woman.

The mixed identities and switched genders make for some very funny pratfalls, and also for some poignant commentary about the fluidity of gender and the spectrum that we all could inhabit in a world without judgement.

"The real message of the play, especially for Toddy [Victoria's gay manager] and Victoria, is that they eventually only find happiness when they return to being who they really are," Tennille said.

In order to play a man, and play a man doing drag, Tennille said she observed men, their gestures, the way they walked and the way they did things.

"Physically I am five-eleven and very thin, and I fit the role quite well," Tennille said. "I don't have to wear that squish-down thing because I am not as busty as Julie or Racquel."

Technically the music of the show is a gem for Tennille's virtuosity, with different styles from jazz, blues, vaudeville to the more romantic ballads.

Tennille has been booked with the show through June 1999. It is quite likely that the show will be extended beyond that but according to Tennille, "they will have to make me a really sweet deal," to convince her to stay away from her husband and home for longer than she already is.

Besides, Tennille has been bitten by the Broadway bug and she says she is "determined to find a show to do on Broadway." When asked what show she would like to do she quickly said, “It hasn't been written yet."

99

"I would love to do a musical or even a straight play and I will actively push that." After all, Tennille has gambled on herself many times before and she will find a way to get on Broadway.

In the meantime, husband Daryl and she intend to take the "Captain and Tennille" show back on the road in 2000, the 25th anniversary of their marriage and their hit song "Love Will Keep Us Together."

Tennille's fan base seems to be following her to Victor/Victoria.

"My hope is that some of these fans will be turned onto theatre by coming to see me in my show."

Victor/Victoria will play at the Palace Theater in Columbus from January 12 19, Tuesday through Friday at 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Ticket prices range from $32.50 to $51 and can be reserved at 614-224-7645.