eveningsout

Looks 10, acting 0: How will he perform Shakespeare?

by Anthony Glassman

Common wisdom says that soap opera stars are good at what they do, but they are not particularly good actors.

What would happen, then, if a soap opera star were about to lose his role, and were offered a chance to play one of the great roles in theater? Could someone who can't act very well play a role like, say, Hamlet?

This is the pillar on which Paul Rudnick's play I Hate Hamlet is built. It will be at the Cleveland Play House until December 2.

Andrew Rally, who has dashing good looks and talent that could fill a thimble, is about to get bounced from his gig on a top daytime drama when he is talked into playing Hamlet in Central Park in New York City.

The problem, of course, is that Andrew can't act his way out a paper bag, much less do justice to the Bard.

Then the ghost of John Barrymore, longdead star of stage and screen, pops up to give Andrew some acting lessons. Things rapidly go off the deep end, and Andrew may learn more about living than about acting.

Playwright Rudnick, perhaps best known for both the play and film Jeffrey and the scripts for Addams Family Values and In and Out, got the idea for the play while living in Barrymore's former apartment.

"I told my agent at the time, and she said, Maybe you will find my hairpins. She had an affair with Barrymore`s son-in-law,” he said.

The play was very much inspired by that apartment. his agent's story, and the Barrymore legacy.

"He was a towering figure." Rudnick asserted.

Barrymore battled alcohol and difficulty with relationships his entire life, which did not affect his career as adversely as it might have for a lesser talent, according to Rudnick.

"He still managed to challenge himself artistically." he said in a phone interview from New York.

That challenge, taking large and difficult roles. is another central theme in the play.

"This guy. Andrew, is wondering if he should stay in TV where it is easy, or go on stage where he'll have a hard time,” Rudnick explained.

Surrounding Andrew is a colorful cast of characters, which is to be expected from any piece emerging from Rudnick's pen. One of them, in fact, is based on the now-deceased agent.

Rudnick, however, has been active in three major fields of writing: stage, screen and novel. His novel I'll Take It, for instance, deals with a young gay man who goes on a crime spree with his mother and her two sisters. It's sort of a gay, Jewish Bonnie and Clyde and Bonnie and Bonnie.

Interestingly, especially given how out Rudnick himself is, the protagonist's homosexuality in the novel is barely mentioned.

ROGER MASTROIANNI

"It was not a deliberate choice in the novel," Rudnick said about the low-key nature of the character's sexual orientation. “In some families, there is a sense of not talking about personal issues. Older relatives, even with the best intentions, don't know how to talk about it."

Rudnick hit the Hollywood big-time by re-writing The Addams Family starring Raul Julia and Angelica Huston, but was not al-

David Furr plays Andrew Rolly, who can't play Hamlet.

lowed to tamper with the plot. When the film became a success, however, he was brought on board to script the Family Values sequel from scratch.

"It was a real treat to work on," he said mischievously. "You can put in constant depravity and, because it's the Addams family, no one seems to mind."

"You can't normally drop babies off buildings," he concluded sagely.

Which echoes a running theme in Rudnick's work, a lack of malice. Even his villains seem to be far from evil, which is unusual in today's mass-market entertainment world, ever fond of seeing things in polar opposites.

"I think you have to be affectionate," he said, referring to his characters. "because if you're always mean-spirited, it get boring quickly. I'd rather spend the time with characters I'm comfortable with."

Rudnick is not, however, resting on his laurels. A new play. Valhalla, is currently being produced in a workshop format, meaning that the play is done as a formal reading, instead of being fully staged.

He is also writing the screenplay for a remake of the 1975 movie The Stepford Wives. When asked if he would be playing it straight or making the film humorous,

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Rudnick said that he would be walking the line between the two-the concept of men replacing their wives with robots lends itself as easily to comedy as to horror.

Perhaps it would make a good video rental. Rudnick pointed out that the rise of video rentals is, in his eyes, a really wonderful thing.

"I'm always surprised how many teenagers, even in small towns, have seen Jeffrey," he said. The availability of gay-themed films in chains like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video gives questioning youth a chance to have role models that Rudnick never had.

"There's even Will & Grace on TV,” he exclaimed.

The Play House's production of I Hate

off the

Hamlet stars David Furr as Andrew Rally and Andrew May as John Barrymore, and is directed by David Colacci.

Cleveland Play House's Friends to Friends LGBT theater club will also have a "Brunch with Hamlet" on Sunday, November 18. A noon brunch will be followed by the matinée of I Hate Hamlet. The two-event package for $62 also includes an April 6 showing of The Waverly Gallery with a cast party to follow, and an optional third show, The Tin Pan Alley Rag.

For more information on Friends to Friends, or for tickets to Cleveland Play House shows, call 216-795-7000 or log onto http://www.clevelandplayhouse.com.

on the air off the press

The ayes of Tammy Faye

by John Graves

Former televangelist Tammy Faye Messner said she would give up her ties to her church if she were forced to choose between it and the LGBT people she has come to love.

Messner, told the National Examiner's Laurie Campbell (October 30) that her biography Telling My Way has been rejected by some Christian bookstores and has been turned away by the pastors of some churches because of her support for the LGBT community.

Messner told Campbell, "My church (Indian Trail Baptist Church near Matthews, N.C.) hasn't said a word to me about my support of gays. But if it did, that would be it. I'd have to give it up. I'd quit any church that wouldn't allow me to reach out to gays with love."

"God loves everyone equally," said Messner, who gave the keynote speech at a PrideFest celebration in Tampa, Fla. this year. "He doesn't label people. Only people label people. He made us all and He loves us all, black or white, old or young, gay or straight."

"God love gay people as much as he loves Billy Graham!" Messner exclaimed.

Messner's life-story is told in the cable documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which was produced by a gay couple, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, and narrated by the one and only Ru Paul. Ellen wows 'em at the Emmys

Ellen DeGeneres was given a huge standing ovation for her hosting duties at the twicedelayed Primetime Emmy Awards on November 4.

“On a personal level,” she said during the proceedings, "I thought it was important for me to be here tonight... I feel I'm in a unique position as host, because, think about it, what would bug the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit surrounded by Jews? I like to do my part."

In the awards themselves, gay positive shows were well rewarded: Eric McCormack won Best Actor in a Comedy Series for Will & Grace, while pro-gay drama The West Wing took Best Drama Series, Best Support tress and Actor, and Best Directing to th Séries. The HBO (daptation of len Margaret Edson's.

Television Movie and Best Di Miniseries, Movie or Special for Mike Nichols. On a campier note, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, the ABC miniseries about the gay icon, took home Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for a Miniseries or Movie.

Making the Scene

A belated, yet sincere, thank you to Laura Putre for "Hell to Pay," her wonderful report on Cleveland's African-American gay men that ran in the October 4 issue of Cleveland Scene.

The article presented a comprehensive report on the discrimination black gay, men still face within both the Arican merican and the greater LGBT community and the health and social problems associated with living in the closet, "on the down-low." It was especially gratifying to see former Gaywaves co-host and co-producer Scott Bibbs featured in the article.

Additional thanks go to Charles Underwood and his partner Wayne Toles, who detailed their love and the discrimination they faced in their church after their marriage; Scott, and all the other brothers and sisters who bravely took a stand and agreed to be interviewed for Putre's article.

She's under her spell

Willow (Alice Hannigan) and Tara (Amber Benson) sang out their love for each other on "Once More With Feeling," a special, allmusical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that aired November 6. Buffy creator Joss Whedon, who wrote all the music for the special episode over a six-month period, told Entertainment Weekly's Mary Kaye Schilling (November 9) that he was inspired by Broadway great Steven Sondheim and had dreamed of staging the musical episode ever since the show went on the air in 1997.

Schilling says Whedon held off until now because he felt the episode "had to be organic" saying he wanted the episode to be “a normal hour of Buffy" that would advance the show's existing story lines rather than a separate, stand-alone episode. Schilling hints the love song between Willow (Alice Hannigan) and Tara, "Under Your Spell," might become a pop hit.

Gay film festivals get Oscar grants

The Academy Foundation, the grant-making arm of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences-the Academy Awards $15,000 grants to two gay and lesbian film people has announced that it will award stals, Outfestin Los Angeles and Frameline in San Francisco.

to Gand

the Chicago International Film Festival.

John Graves is the producer and host of Gaywaves, a lesbian-gay public affairs show on Cleveland's WRUW 91.1 FM Fridays at 7 pm, and at http://radio.cwru.edu. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contributed to this column: '