KAIZAAD KOTWAL

July 2, 2004

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

eveningsout

Music from Broadway gay hits-and a miss-is on CD

by Anthony Glassman

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway. They say there's always magic in the air.

At least, that's what the Drifters said in their song "On Broadway." Looking at this year's Tony Awards nominees and winners, one thing is clear: it was a pretty good year to be queer on Broadway.

A veritable plethora of recently-released CDs transports the lights and magic of the Great White Way into the living room of listeners, spanning seven decades of musical theater.

Boy George's semi-autobiographical musical Taboo was a huge success in London. But it crashed and burned on the American stage, despite being produced by Rosie O'Donnell with a new book by cult icon Charles Busch. Shortly afterward, however, it was nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Original Score.

For those who missed it on Broadway-most of the nation—the soundtrack is now available on DRG Records.

More successful was Avenue Q, a musical exploring life and love in the modern world through the milieu of big, fuzzy puppets. At the risk of infringing on copyright, the show was best described as the Muppets on crystal meth.

Not only did Avenue Q do well at the box office, but it took home Best Musical and two other Tonys. It's not every musical whose original Broadway cast recording has a parental advisory on the cover, but they must have done something right.

While best known for his role as Wolver-

ine in the X-Men movie franchise, Hugh Jackman was a popular musical theater star in his native Australia.

He can also now lay claim to a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of gay Aussie Peter Allen, at one time married to Liza Minnelli.

With music and lyrics by Allen, who died in 1992, and others, the musical tells the story of his life, from his youth in his native Australia through his finding fame in the United States.

There's even been talk about making it into a movie. Of course, there's talk about turning any successful show into a movie, so it should be taken with a grain of salt.

One true story of a queer composer has already been turned into a movie. Well, actually, a couple of movies.

De-Lovely, the new biopic about composer Cole Porter, will be the first film about his life to actually deal with his sexual orientation. In the 1946 biography Night and Day, Cary Grant-who some say was gay—played Porter as a heterosexual.

In De-Lovely, however, Kevin Kline illustrates Porter's attractions to men as well as his marriage to a woman.

More importantly, the soundtrack collects some of the biggest names in contemporary music performing Porter's songs. With Ashley Judd, Diana Krall, Alanis Morisette, Robbie Williams, Natalie Cole, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow and others, a better collection of celebrities has not been assembled since 1990's Red Hot + Blue, a tribute to Porter to benefit AIDS.

In addition to the soundtrack for the motion picture, available on Columbia, Bluebird is releasing It's De Lovely: the Authentic Cole

Run to base in stiletto heels

Cher A. Cockring gets ready to swing as Cirque catches in the Bat 'n' Rouge drag softball game on June 27.

The 21st annual game, featuring teams of drag queens and kings, raised money for the Columbus Lesbian and Gay Softball League, Stonewall Columbus and the Columbus AIDS Task Force.

Celebrity personas on the Africentric School diamond in German Village included Britney Spears, fresh from her knee surgery; Jessica Simpson; Tiger Woods and Joan Crawford in her Mommie Dearest incarnation.

The two teams, the Hygienes and the Monistats, also featured Aunt Jemima and Hellin Bedd, who won Miss Bat 'n' Rouge.

"I think the score was nine to seven," said Bedd, noting that the Monistats won.

The event was hosted by local drag performer Missy Marlow along with the Kinsey Sicks from New York, who sang and added color commentary to the event.

K

The event raised approximately $50,000 for the trio of benefiting organizations, said Curtis Davis of the Columbus Lesbian and Gay Softball League. It also drew a crowd of over 4,200 people, a record for this event.

-Kaizaad Kotwal

Porter Collection, 19 tracks written by Porter when he was on Victor and performed by some of the label's biggest stars, including Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Artie Shaw, Lena Horne and Porter himself.

For any fan of the classic musical, this CD is a major necessity.

The one thing Broadway is best known for, besides the lights and the magic, is the music, and the music is coming home.

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