12 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE September 14, 2001

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The rainbow may shine on the 2001 Primetime Emmys

by Kaizaad Kotwal

After the lull of the summer, the annual awards season kicks off with the Primetime Emmy Awards. This year, the 53rd annual show will hosted by the inimitable Ellen DeGeneres, who is making her comeback in a huge way after the Anne Heche debacle last year. DeGeneres herself is nominated for two statuettes for her HBO special, serendipitously titled The Beginning.

(The show, originally set for September 16 on CBS, was postponed after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. At press time, no new date had been set.)

DeGeneres is not the only gay connection at this year's awards. The 2001 Emmys could very well be remembered as the year when gay television went upscale and mainstream. Gay-themed shows and performers have received an unprecedented number of nominations. If the rainbow is shining on the eve

of September 16, many of these nominees will be making acceptance

speeches.

Here is a list of nomi-

watch for Doris Roberts to upset in an Everybody Loves Raymond sweep. Also nominated are Kim Catrall for Sex and the City, and Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow from Friends.

Kudrow, also a brilliant comedienne, is the next most deserving after Mullally. Who should have also been nominated in the Supporting Actress category is Shelley Morrison, who plays Karen's indestructible maid Rosario with a straight-faced smirk and naughty panache that is all her own.

Like Will and Grace, the ABC miniseries Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows has also garnered 12 nominations including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for the unequaled Judy Davis in the title role and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for Victor Garber who played Sid Luft.

S

nees and predictions of inEllen DeGeneres terest to GLBT folk in TV-

land.

Will and Grace has garnered 12 nominations, making it the most nominated comedy series this year and the defending champion, having won the top honors last year. Will and Grace is competing against Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Malcolm in the Middle, and Sex and the City.

In this crowd, Will and Grace should win, although Everybody Loves Raymond has been knocking at the door for the past several years. Sex and the City, oddly popular with gay audiences, could provide an upset with industry favorite Sarah Jessica Parker carrying the show to a Best Comedy Series victory.

Debra Messing and Eric McCormack are both nominated in their respective Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a Comedy Series categories. McCormack, who plays the straight-laced Will, faces fierce competition from perennials Kelsey Grammer from Frasier and John Lithgow from Third Rock From the Sun. Ray Romano of Everybody Loves Raymond and the young and amazing Frankie Muniz from Malcolm in the Middle are also nominated.

Messing, wonderfully neurotic as Grace Adler, deserves to win hands down this year if Sarah Jessica Parker doesn't win again for Sex and the City. Patricia Heaton from Everybody Loves Raymond, like Messing, has also been overlooked many times and could end up winning, particularly if Romano wins in the Lead Actor category. Other nominees in this field include Calista Flockhart for Ally McBeal and Jane Kaczmarek from Malcolm in the Middle, who could pull an upset victory. In the Comedy Supporting Actor/Actress categories, last year's winners Sean Hayes (Jack) and Megan Mullally (Karen) are once again nominated. Their over-the-top performances are at the core of Will and Grace and once again they both deserve to walk away with the golden statues on September 16.

Hayes's competition includes Peter Boyle from Raymond, David Hyde Pierce from Frasier, Peter MacNichol from Ally McBeal, and Robert Downey, Jr., also from Ally McBeal. Boyle could win in a sweep by Raymond, and Downey, Jr. could be given the award by his peers as a sort of encouragement and incentive in his ongoing struggles with substance abuse. But Hayes deserves this award hands down just like Mullally, his feisty counterpart on Will and Grace.

Mullally is the best comedic performer on TV right now, lead or supporting and everywhere in between. She makes the audience love every bit of her while playing an unsympathetic character. She should have been given this award in advance of the show, but

Tammy Blanchard, who played the young Judy Garland, is also nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actress nod. Davis is probably in one of the most hotly contested categories of the year. It will be interesting to see who

gets to walk away with this award.

Holly Hunter is nominated for her portrayal of lesbian tennis legend Billie Jean King in ABC's When Billie Beat Bobbie. Oscar winners Emma Thompson and Dame Judi Dench are also nominated here for their work in Wit and The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, respectively. Hannah Taylor Gordon rounds out the category for Anne Frank. Davis should win, particularly if the industry feels like paying homage to Garland by giving Davis the award. Dench could upset, particularly because she has won the Golden Globe and other awards in the same category for this role.

Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows has been nominated as Outstanding Miniseries and faces competition from another gay favorite, the third installment of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series Garland should win this award easily, but ABC's Anne Frank, also a contender here, could upset. Showtime's Further Tales of the City, which was a solid follow up to the first two miniseries based on Maupin's expe-

riences in San Francisco, should have received more nominations in the acting categories.

Also snubbed without a single nomination was Showtime's Queer As Folk, which has garnered the cable network its highest viewer numbers ever. But the show, which has often suffered unfavorable comparisons to the impressive British version, doesn't really deserve any nods, especially in light of other drama series like The Sopranos, The West Wing and The Practice, which consistently feature great writing, stalwart performances and gripping human stories.

NBC's West Wing, which often features plot lines supportive of the GLBT community, has received a whopping 18 nominations including Best Drama Series and seven acting nominations. Susan Sarandon, a longtime ally of GLBT folk, has been nominated for her guest appearance on Friends, which has always favored well with that demographic.

Another gay icon, Barbra Streisand, has been nominated for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program for her Timeless show produced by Fox.

The evening's host DeGeneres has been nominated in the same category. Streisand's show was nominated in five other categories as well.

DeGeneres is making her comeback with a vengeance, following up her acclaimed HBO show by hosting the Emmys and coming back to primetime TV in another sitcom. Given her already astute and sweetly acerbic sense of humor, this past year and her failed relationship with Heche has probably given.e.

her lots of fodder for new gags. One thing is for sure, DeGeneres, not known to pull any punches, will keep the show interesting, a challenge for anyone hosting an awards ceremony.

It should also be pointed out that while there are many, many nominations this year to gay themed and gay friendly shows and stars, there are also probably many nomina-

tions (and hopeful winners) in the writing and technical and other behind-the-scenes categories that are also gay and lesbian.

Regardless, this has been a great year for the GLBT community on primetime television. After all, the Emmy statuette is a gilded, fairy-like figurine holding the world atop her outstretched arms. Who better exemplifies that than the GLBT community.

In lip-biting moments, this show grabs its audience

The Laramie Project

By Moises Kaufman Dobama Theater

Reviewed by Anthony Glassman

Nothing shocked and galvanized the lesbian and gay community in the United States like the October 11, 1998 death of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student.

He was beaten by Russell Henderson and Arron McKinney, who left him tied to a fence outside of Laramie, Wyoming

ANTHONY GLASSMAN

in the middle of a near-freezing autumn night.

Moises Kaufman and his New York theater troupe, the Tectonic Theater Company, traveled to Laramie and interviewed townsfolk, teachers and friends of the slain youth.

What they came up with, following extensive conversations with many people, is The Laramie Project.

Dobama Theatre one of Cleveland's premier outlets for new and alternative drama, is staging a production of the work from September 14 to October 6. Directed by Joel Hammer, a talented ensemble of seasoned professionals makes up the cast of this intense, albeit non-linear, play Perhaps an explanation is in order. Every actor on the stage plays multiple characters. They will play a Tectonic member and, say, a taxi driver who drove Shepard to a gay bar in Colorado, and then one of his classmates, and then a cop.

Thankfully, the character is always noted somewhere at the beginning of cach conversation or interview otherwise it would be difficult to tell the players without a program.

There are also two different modes

of character interaction in the play, which makes use of both monologues and dialogues. Sometimes the characters speak to each other, which is fine. However the really wrenching, gut-churning, tear jerking, lip-biting moments for the audience come when the person on stage is speaking directly to them. Trily pity the poor souls who make eye contact with someone in the midst of à particularly tense monologue, it might be all that audience member can do to keep from sobbing These actors, this band of thespians put together for the play, are really that good. Let's take a look at them.

Scott Plate, the busiest gay actor in Cleveland, is no stranger to Kaufman's style of using found material, having played the title role in Kaufman's Gross Indecency: the Three Trials of Oscar Wilde at Cleveland Public Theatre last year Plate was Oscar Wilde in that play, whether or not that is a good thing is difficult to say, but ** the image of a smug, smirking Scott Plate ending the play as a broken man is almost indelible

Sabrina Gibbar gave one of the most emotional moments in Dobama's production of the original work Angst, 84, playing the metalhead burnout chick Tiffany, whose personal revelation completely changes the tide of audience emotion towards her character and another. She was also recently seen as Pertinax Surly, the “Sapphic Spaniard.” in Bad Epitaph's production of the Alchemist.

Kirk Brown plays Kaufman in Laramie, and the audience can see the playwright being channeled before their very eyes

Allan Byrne's quixotic characters and Jeanne Task's stern minister are note worthy, but with so many characters, which can be singled out? For that matter, out of respect for the sheer excellence of their performances, let's not forget the lovely Pandora Robinson and Laura Perrotta, or the chameleon-like Todd Krispinsky, who in one moment is a young doctor on the verge of tears, the next a brash bar dvner playing his cards close to the chest -

At the risk of engaging in hyperbole, this is probably the most important play of the last decade, and it is not every day that it can be seen with such a dazzling cast. If Dobama were to extend its run to six months, it should sell out every night. V

For ticket information, call Dobama at 216-932-6838, or log onto their web site at http://www.dobama.org.