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HIGH GEAR

ALONG OUR "GAY WHITE WAY"

(Who is AR High Gear knows can't tell If you know don't yell But he and we would appreciate any comments. contributions. about this his first column for us)

Along Our Gay White Way

By A.R.

The name of this column (the first of what I hope to be a regular feature in High Gear) is a term used to describe the Broadway theatre district in New York Recently The Cleveland Plain Dealers Critic-At-Large Peter Bellamy headed a column with Our Gay White Way Glows and, no. it wasn't about Gays in a direct sense But Since it dealt with Cleveland's many entertainment blessings the column's heading was unin. tentionally appropriate As you will see when you read on So. please. all those who are not "white don't take exception to this column s masthead It's not

a slur to you

THERE'S LIGHT AT THE TOP OF THE PLAYHOUSE'S DARK STAIRS

When William Inge s Dark At The Top Of The Stairs was first presented on Broadway and on movie screens decades ago only the insiders recognized the homosexual undercurrents inherent in the play. Even now.

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our enlightened time. the drama critics of our two daily newspapers chose to ignore this fact in their reviews And so did the Cleveland Playhouse program for the play though they did wisely choose to reprint a commentary about the play and author by Inge's friend Tennessee Williams that appeared in The New York Times during the play opening week in 1957.

In 1957 most of us were still in the dark about the sexual pre-

ferences of our famous play wrights. actors, etc. But any gay seeing Inge's play then or seeing it now KNOWS that it is an autobiographical study of childhood with the "classic" characteristics associated with homosexuality. It's all there the overly possessive mother

play. Old stuff, obviously, but it is an old play and what appears trite today was fresh and revealing then. Still it is worth seeing. It gives us a better understanding of William Inge. author of Come Back Little Sheba" and "Picnic" and other plays not so well received, who

Carol Channing and Craig Russel Can you guess who is who?

the gruff. unaffectionate and very absent father the sensitive 10-year old boy who recites Shakespeare. collects movie star photos. lives a fantasy world of films many times a week at the local Bijou. is taunted hit and hated by his classmates and his physical and emotional attachment to his Sister's first beau a very handsome 17-year old military academy cadet (superbly played by James Richards) If ail this sounds like a cliche a generalization of every gay's growing up it is just that in the writing and in the performance of the

"came out of the closet" with "Dark and subsequent works but who still faced the "dark" of alcoholism, social criticism and his own hang-ups. until his tragic death. (See comments about Inge elsewhere on this page.)

Some words about the Cleveland Play House production: the direction by Larry Tarrant misses the mark completely. The first act is all of one tone-

strident. shrill, monotinously hectic. as the mother Cora Flood played by Lizbeth

4 Profile of William Inge

The major works William Inge authored, during his turbulent career. are Come Back, Little Sheba (1949). Picnic (1953), Bus Stop (1955. and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957). Looking back on his most productive decade during which he had established himself among the important playwrights of this century he made the following evaluation: All of my plays have survived on Broadway and met success in varying degrees. 'Success is counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed,' according to Emily Dickinson; and her words are very meaningful to me when I compare the success I anticipated with the success I found. They are not the same things at all. Maybe success today means little more than survival, in a life that makes it inhuman to err and forces us to prove we are indestructible before it

recognizes our

presence."

It is ironic that at the peak of his career. Inge was a bitter, almost totally defeated man. But it is apparent that he could not deal with either his success unmatched by that of Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller, men to whom he is often compared -or with the consequent demands of success.

Inge's great strength as a writer was in developing fullblown characters and writing realistic dialogue, elements which he drew from his childhood and his keen observations of life. His remarkable talent was also in the skillful melding of the individuals he created with plots which underline universal truths but stop well short of sermons. His subtle manipulation of charac-

terization, dialogue and plot is what makes his plays distinctive, vital, and compelling, today.

Asked which of his characters

were autobiographical, Inge once remarked "They're all me." In fact, Inge regarded his plays as containing "something of the very essence" of his being, and when his later works, A Loss of Roses and Natural Affection

Mackay harrangues husband Rubin (Kenneth Albers) for his inadequecies as a provider. father and lover. The second act benefits from the broad playing of Evie McElroy as the sister but the zap she puts in the part throws the play completely out of perspective. When she's on it's almost like we're watching a different play. The third act is the most successful in part because of the moving performance of James Richards who singly catches the author's recollection of a world seen through the eyes of a 10 year old "misfit" and his confrontations with the hates, passions and desires that are to shape his life. (Anybody who has seen James Richards bare ass in his first play in his first Play House production "Relatively Speaking" know that here is an actor with "many attributes" of which one of course is acting Kind words too to Tony Phelan as the 10 year old, Christian Moore as the sister and to Sharon Bicknell, as the Betty Boopish girl friend. Now if they only had a director who knew the value of "silences" and mood created by underplaying, hushed words, and a less frenetic pace we would have a play worth seeing by all. As it is I recommend it to those who are interested in seeing one of the first plays of the American Theatre dealing with some psychological causes of a person's homosexuality. The play closes at the 77th St. theatre February 21.

Notes along the Gay White Way: Fran Soeder, our own local 26-year old directorial genius (he gave us "El Grande Coca Cola", "A Little Night Music". "Company" "Corlette" and many other Firsts for Cleveland) is getting ready to open

by Bill Limke

were torn apart by the critics, Inge felt deep personal rejection. For the next decade he tried vainly to regain his audience. Twenty-three years after the acclaimed Broadway run

FEBRUARY 1976

"Pretzels" as Pickle Bills in midFebruary. From what Fran tells me, it's a show WE will enjoy seeing. For a chilling, grippling time in the theatre see what's in "Veronica's Room" by Ira (Rosemary's Baby) Levin now at the Dobama Theatre on Coventry and catch Mike LiBassi's performance as a demented young man who can only "touch" a woman after he kills them. Mike plays him "gay" but the author meant him to be "crazy straight". Now is that a nice thing to do for the Gay image Mike? Around the corner from Dobama is the Heights Theatre on Euclid Heights Blvd. and if you haven't caught their Saturday Midnight Movies you're missing something. On February 14th: "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein" where the Doctor and his assistant try to make a third "beauty" and fun and games. On Feb. 21: A group of shorts by the great new directors including "The Fat and the Lean" by Roman Polanski, a comic yet disturbing parable on the master-slave relationship. And, finally, on March 6th, a hip rock 'n roll flick filmed above and below the decks of San Francisco's notorious houseboat community in Sausalito titled "The Last Free Ride". If you missed Russell's engagement at the Bayou Landing you missed one of the great impersonation acts. I deplore entertainers who mimic great stars with the aid of star's recordings. Craig does it all Garland, Streisand, Dietrich, Bankhead, Monroe, Channing. Midler, Davis and more and he does it with the voice sounding like the originals and with gestures, expressions, even facial characteristics, so true you forget it's only an impersonation. Let's bring him back.

of Sheba propelled Inge to the forefront of American drama, he on June 11, 1973 died. At the age of 60, he took his own life at the California home he shared with his sister.

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