GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE December 19, 2003

eveningsout

Stylist enjoys doing The Graduate's big 1960s hair

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Director Mike Nichols is currently enjoying a lot of raves for his HBO film of Tony Kushner's Angels in America. But Nichols first came to fame and notoriety with his classic film The Graduate, which is now touring America as a stage play.

The Graduate is a timeless story about the seduction of a young man by an older woman, a tale which raised many an eyebrow when it was released in 1967. The Broadway version stays very true to the film and as such has already become a period piece on stage.

Russell Kern, who was born and raised in

Ohio and who moved away from Columbus in 1987 to pursue his Broadway dreams, is currently touring with The Graduate as the company stylist. Kern, who is openly gay, has had an impressive career, having worked on other Broadway fare such as The Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard and David Henry Hwang's Flower Drum Song.

Kern said that he loves working with the cast of The Graduate "because we are like family." He also joked that this show is a hoot to work on because "there's a lot of backcombing and a lot of big hair." Kern's parents still live in London, Ohio, and he likes touring through the state so that he can visit with

northcoast men's chorus

richard cole,

music director

them. He was last through Ohio with the musical staged tour of Saturday Night Fever.

Now 35, Kern was a dancer and performer briefly before he decided to pursue hair and make-up for the theatre. Kern says that he loves working with Linda Gray (from television's Dallas). “She is just wonderful," he said of his main star, a woman who briefly gets to do full-frontal nudity on stage.

Kern said that he has had mostly wonderful experiences in the theatre. "However," he said, "there is one person, who shall remain unnamed, who I will never work with again.” This individual, "who is big in the opera world," according to Kern, “was extremely homophobic and disrespectful."

"He brought his own make-up artist," Kern said, "because he didn't want a gay guy to touch his face."

Kern fondly remembers coming out in Columbus, where he met his first boyfriend at the now-closed Garage dance club.

Sometimes he gets flak for being gay and working in make-up and hair, he said, "Sure, there are always a lot of put downs, and sometimes they come from within the community."

"Once I met this guy in Nashville who thought it was stereotypical that I was a hair designer," he said. "When I asked him what he did he replied, 'I'm a florist'."

Kern is used to having many other gay cast members and crew, but not so with The Graduate. "There's at least always a chorus boy or two who's gay," he joked, but Kern is the only

Linda Gray

gay man in this company, along with three lesbians. "It's always nice to have gay people to hang out with," he said of his experiences on the road.

The Graduate will be going to Cincinnati after its Columbus date. It plays the Aronoff Center, 650 Walnut St., Cincinnati, from December 16 to 28.

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Girls kick ass on DVD

by Anthony Glassman

On posters, stickers and pins, one can find the wonderfully tacky motto, "Girls kick ass!" On DVD, however, one can actually watch the girls, young ladies and women kicking ass, and those same DVDs would make wonderful holiday gifts.

Now, with a movie like Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life, bisexual glamour girl Angelina Jolie is suddenly in the living rooms of the nation, freeze-framed in photographic quality as she strikes an especially sexy pose.

Of course, they have yet to release a DVD of her exploits with ex-girlfriend Jenny Shimizu to satisfy her lesbian fans, but if they videotaped it, it will turn up some time.

Now, the second Tomb Raider flick was silly and fun, and thankfully better than the first movie, but to really get some bang for the buck, it's the boxed sets that light the fuse. Alias seasons 1 and 2 are now available, for instance, introducing the world to double agent Sidney Bristow and her incredibly convoluted story.

She works (she thinks) for the CIA. When she tells her fiancé, however, he is brutally murdered and she realizes she is actually working for the other side. She marches into the CIA headquarters and offers her services to bring down the nation's enemies as a double

agent.

Along the way, she repeatedly runs into former KGB agent Anna Espinosa, now working for the K Directorate. As the two flirt with death and each other, the fate of the world hangs in the balance, to use an overly dramatic turn of phrase.

For something a little less down-to-earth, they are now up to season five of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's DVD releases, meaning audiences can once again thoroughly enjoy the lesbian witches Willow and Tara in all their Sapphic glory.

Creator Joss Whedon was widely hailed

for the matter-of-factness of his presentation of the relationship between the two college students, and the ultimate outcome of the relationship caused jaws to drop across the nation.

The show wrapped up at the end of last

Tara and Willow

season, so within a year seasons six and seven will probably also be available as well.

Finally, for something a little less "save the world" and more "get me out of high school," the first two seasons of Strangers with Candy are now available on DVD.

The Comedy Central series, starring gay writer David Sedaris' sister Amy Sedaris, was one of the most dysfunctional, hilarious shows to play on a network whose very name implies funny.

Sedaris plays Jerri Blank, a boozer, user and loser who is forced to go back to high school after being paroled in her mid-30s. Voraciously bisexual, it seems she'll sleep with just about anyone but her Filipino friend Orlando.

Meanwhile, two of her teachers, Mr. Jellineck and Mr. Noblet (played by The Daily Show's Stephen Colbert) are having a passionate, tumultuous affair, despite the fact that they both insist they're heterosexual.

It's not politically correct, but it is fun and funny, and there are times when Blank literally, as well as figuratively, kicks ass.