Scissoring For Equality

This is one of the more amusing/odd stories we'll read today. From California State University, Long Beach.

About 24 theatre arts majors protested in front of Brotman Hall on Wednesday by tribbing with one another, a lesbian sex act commonly known as "scissoring." The demonstration was in response to Cal State Long Beach refusing to advertise a play on the Seventh Street marquee because its title has "tribades" in the title. The play, called "The Night of the Tribades," is about playwright August Strindberg's relationship with women. The play is part of the graduate acting program, Cal Rep, at Cal State Long Beach. According to theatre arts major Courtney Knight, tribade is an archaic Greek term for lesbian.

Knight said the school refused to advertise the play on the marquee because of the word's similarity with tribadism. "When you put tribade into a Google search image, apparently it comes up with the word tribadism, which is a sex act and they decided it was inappropriate," Knight said. In response to CSULB's refusal to promote the play, the group of students conducted a different type of protest. According to the flyers they handed out, the protest was a "flash mob," where a group assembles in a public place to raise awareness of something via a physical gesture or act.

FYI, scissoring is where Scissor Sisters got their name. True story.

NOTE: Didja see how I resisted using the headline The Trouble With Tribbles? You're welcome.

Never EVER Cross A Show Queen

The title of this post is lifted from John Aravosis at AmericaBlog who reports:

A friend tells me that there's a BIG musical theater in Sacramento, California called the California Music theater. It's been around for decades and, you might be shocked by this, but apparently there are gays who work in musical theater. Well, anyway, word get around in the past few days that the Artistic Director of the theater, one Scott Eckern, a nice Mormon boy, donated $1,000 to the hateful bigoted Yes on 8 campaign that repealed marriage for gay couples in California. And I checked the database of every donor (it's quite fun, check it out and look up your neighbors), and what do you know - Scottie did give a $1,000 to the hatemongers.

Now, here's the funny part. About two weeks ago, the hateful religious right and Mormon bigots running the Yes on 8 campaign threatened the livelihood of anyone who donated to the No on 8 campaign. Uh oh. I see a little goose and gander coming.

And what do you know. It seems our friend Scott has, um, angered the gays, to put it lightly. Marc Shaiman, composer of HAIRSPRAY, called Scott's theater, I'm told, and said he is pulling the rights from any of his shows, and is talking to other colleagues about doing the same. And a well known musical actress is now urging her friends to boycott working at the theater. Gosh, sounds like it's going to be hard for that theater to survive with Scott working there.

It's really too bad Scott's hateful bigoted friends in the religious right and in the Mormon Church outright threatened the livelihood of anyone donating to No on 8. That pretty much gives license to the other side - that would be the side protesting in the streets across California and Utah - to target the livelihood of anyone donating to Yes on 8.

Payback is a bitch. With very sharp heels.

Love it.

Closing: Xanadu & [title of show]

This weekend brought word that both Xanadu and [title of show] will be closing in a few weeks. [title of show], which only opened on July 5th, will close on October 12th after 13 previews and 102 performances. Xanadu, which opened on June 26th last year, also closes on October 12th, after 49 previews and 528 performances.

Both shows have enjoyed great reviews and strong support from gay audiences. I think all of the male cast members of both shows (save Xanadu's Tony Roberts) are openly gay. However, [title of show] has struggled at the box office; last week the show only sold 30% of its seats. Xanadu will live on in a national tour and a six month run in Chicago set to begin early next year. A London production is also in the works.

Saturday: Robbyne Kaamil's "Raw & Real" At Duplex Cabaret

This Saturday the hilarious Robbyne Kaamil will perform her "Raw & Real" one-woman show at the Duplex Cabaret in the West Village.

Comedian/actress Robbyne Kaamil who has matched wits with Howard Stern returns to the stage with her hilarious and thought provoking one woman show, Raw & Real. Robbyne uses explosive poetry, side-ripping comedy and dramatic interludes to explore racism, police brutality, abusive relationships and sex (the good, the bad and the ugly).

Robbyne and I worked together for several years here in Manhattan and shared the stage at Reading For Filth back in the spring. She is hands down one of the funniest people you will ever see. Highly recommended. Tickets here. Robbyne warns: "If you're under 21, overly sensitive or dislike profanity, please keep your ass at home."

In The Heights Tops Tony Noms

The hip-hop and salsa musical In The Heights led today's Tony Award nominations with 13 nods. The revival of South Pacific at Lincoln Center follows closely with 11 noms. Interestingly, four of the Best Play nominees got their start in London. The Tony Awards take place June 15th at Radio City Music Hall. Some of the major nominations:

Best Play: August: Osage County, The 39 Steps, Rock 'n' Roll, The Seafarer.

Best Musical: Cry-Baby, In The Heights, Passing Strange, Xanadu.

Best Score: Cry-Baby, In The Heights, Passing Strange, The Little Mermaid.

Best Leading Actor (Play): Ben Daniels (Les Liaisons Dangereuses), Laurence Fishburne (Thurgood), Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing), Rufus Sewell (Rock 'n' Roll), Patrick Stewart (Macbeth).

Best Leading Actress (Play): Eve Best (The Homecoming), Deanna Dunagan (August: Osage County), Kate Fleetwood (Macbeth), S. Epatha Merkerson (Come Back, Little Sheba), Amy Morton (August: Osage County).

Best Leading Actor (Musical): Daniel Evans (Sunday In The Park With George), Lin-Manuel Miranda (In The Heights), Stew (Passing Strange), Paulo Szot (South Pacific), Tom Wopat (A Catered Affair).

Best Leading Actress (Musical): Kerry Butler (Xanadu), Patti LuPone (Gypsy), Kelli O'Hara (South Pacific), Faith Prince (A Catered Affair), Jenna Russell (Sunday in the Park With George).

The gays are well represented as usual, with Douglas Carter Bean getting a nom for his book for Xanadu and the late Howard Ashman getting a posthumous nomination for The Little Mermaid. And this year there will be a special Lifetime Achievement Tony for Stephen Sondheim. There are doubtless more mo's on the list, point them out if you know them. But nothing this year for Cheyenne Jackson or Harvey Fierstein. Complete list of nominations.

Mike Jones: Naked B4 God

Mike Jones is performing a one-man show in Denver about his exposure of Ted Haggard.

Would you sacrifice everything to expose the hypocrisy of a man who influenced millions of believers? Naked Before God is the riveting true story of Mike Jones by Mike Jones, the man who revealed the truth about Ted Haggard’s secret life. Ted Haggard - minister, leader of the National Association of Evangelicals (and its thirty million followers), friend to politicians and the White House. And a three-year client of Mike Jones, a gay masseur who guaranteed satisfaction. Jones lays bare the facts of their relationship and events leading to his fateful disclosure. When is it right to betray a confidence? When does the right to know outweigh the right to privacy? And is telling the truth worth giving up everything you’ve worked for? Told with frank honesty and humor, Naked Before God is a fascinating and powerful night of theater!

Written by Neal J. Davis, Naked B4 God runs from March 13 - 22 at The Bug Theater in Denver.

LUSTRE at P.S. 122

Last night Little David and I attended Lustre: A Midwinter Trans-Fest at P.S. 122, starring Tony nominee Justin Bond. I wasn't sure what to expect, having seen Bond in many strangely diverse venues (on Broadway, at The Cock, etc). The show turned out to be an interesting melange of spoken word, performance art, dance, and cabaret as Bond and a cast of gender-variants took us on a trans-journey that included references to Joan Didion (really), Jean Genet, Kate Bornstein, and Ethyl Eichelberger. I particularly enjoyed the performance of pianist Our Lady J, who read with me at a recent show at Rapture.

Debbie Harry was seated a few feet away from us and at the end of the show I think I showed remarkable restraint by merely nodding politely as she exited past us. Out on the sidewalk, I waited for a cab a few feet away from Ms. Harry and her party and wondered if she could hear Feel The Spin, which I'd hastily cued up on my iPod.

Lustre continues through this weekend. Get tickets here. If you've never seen Justin Bond perform, you are denying yourself something quite magical.

LUSTRE: A Mid-Winter Trans-Fest

An only in NYC must-see now running at PS122 in the East Village and starring the incomparable Justin Bond:

Ethyl Eichelberger Award recipient and Tony Nominated performer Justin Bond and friends heat up your winter nights with a heady mix of Glamour, Gender Queer Cabaret, and Sexy Provocation.

LUSTRE is a night of music, monologues and song and dance for, by, or about transgendered people. Justin’s friends include Our Lady J, Glenn Marla, Nathan Carrera, and The Pixie Harlots; plus special nightly surprise guests including Taylor Mac and M. Lamar!

LUSTRE features original songs by Our Lady J (a.k.a. the show’s musical director Jonnah Speidel), neo-pagan revolutionary Appalachian-inspired folk songs by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld, and other songs written by Bambi Lake, Benjamin Smoke, Theo Kogan with Sean Pierce and Jemma Nelson. With sets and costumes by Machine Dazzle.

The show runs Wed.-Sun until March 9th, with additional shows on Saturdays at 11PM. Get tickets here. I'm going!

Broadway Backwards 3

In which my journey towards full-blown theater queen
approaches Platinum Level....

Last night I attended the fantastic Broadway Backwards 3, the annual benefit for the NYC LGBT Community Center in which Broadway stars perform classic musical theater numbers from a gay perspective - changing pronouns or singing numbers written for characters of the opposite sex. The cast (and the audience!) was a Broadway who's-who not seen outside of the Tony Awards. This year marks the 25th anniversary for the Center.

Some of the performers:

Neil Patrick Harris (TV's "How I Met Your Mother"); Tony Award Winners Gary Beach (The Producers) and Len Cariou (Sweeny Todd); Tony Award nominees Brooks Ashmanskas (Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me), Charles Busch (The Tale of the Allergist's Wife), Sandy Duncan (TV's "The Hogan Family," Peter Pan), Malcolm Gets (TV's "Caroline in the City," Amour), and Lainie Kazan (My Favorite Year); Cheyenne Jackson (Xanadu, All Shook Up); Kerry Butler (Xanadu); Anthony Rapp (Rent); Ann Harada (Avenue Q); Julie HalstonGypsy); Michelle Blakely (Annie Get Your Gun); Aaron Lazar (The Light in the Piazza); Tituss Burgess (The Little Mermaid); David Burtka (Gypsy); Tastiskank (Broadway duo of Kate Reinders and Sarah Litzsinger); Karen Mason (Mamma Mia!); Julia Murney (Lennon, Wicked); Jen Colella (High Fidelity); Jose Llana (...Spelling Bee, Rent); Disney's Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Sierra Boggess; and more.

The show was created and directed by Robert Bartley and this year actually played on Broadway in the American Airlines Theater, which was donated by the Roundabout Theatre Company. Co-chairs for the event were the legendary playwright Terrence McNally and composer John Kander.













Emceed by manic man Seth Rudestsky (above left), twenty-one numbers were performed to simple, yet effective and often quite emotional staging. Some personal highlights:

-Lainie Kazan's (left) torchy The Gal That Got Away, from A Star Is Born.
- Neil Patrick Harris and his boyfriend David Burtka singing Take Me Or Leave Me, from Rent. Funny and very sexy.
- Charles Busch's (above right) lovely rendition of The Music That Makes Me Dance, from Funny Girl.
- Little Mermaid lead Sierra Boggess flipping her own show's Kiss The Girl as A Chorus Line's Jessica Lee Goldyn danced for her. Bonus: simulated muff-diving! From a Disney star!
- Len Cariou's (right) moving take on Send In The Clowns from A Little Night Music, which Cariou revealed was originally to be his number in the show.
- Mermaid's Sebastian The Crab, Tituss Burgess ripping the roof off with Maybe This Time from Cabaret. Liza with a Z, Tituss with a T!
- The male ensemble, lead by the impossibly sexy Danny Beiruti and Kevin Reed stripping on stage to I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair from South Pacific. Shower scene! Ripped almost-nekkid hotties! Also: singing.
- The hilarious Brooks Ashmanskas (think a Nathan Lane/Paul Lynde combo), who wowed me in The Ritz, rocking the house with I Want It All, from Baby. I would see anything Brooks Ashmanskas does.
-The closing number, Suddenly Seymour from Little Shop Of Horrors, performed by Anthony Rapp, Cheyenne Jackson and the full ensemble.

See? Platinum status.

After the show, Broadway Backwards publicist Cathy Renna finagled my entry to the cast and "big donors" post-party (open bar, hello) in the rooftop lounge of the theater where my press pass allowed me to elbow into the crowd of TV crews and print journalists jostling for shots and interviews. So there's me with my digicam and them with their fancy big-boy cameras. Sweet. Uh, except I totally walked into the shot while some network was interviewing Cheyenne Jackson. Big, big oops.

ABOVE: Tituss Burgess and Andrea McArdle.ABOVE: Julie Halston, Ann Harada, Charis Leos, Kathryn Kendall. (In what order, though?)ABOVE: Anthony Rapp and Neil Patrick Harris.ABOVE: David Burtka, LGBT Center executive director Richard Burns (sticking his tongue out at me!) and Neil Patrick Harris.ABOVE: Director Robert Bartley.ABOVE: Terrence McNally and his partner Tom Kirdahy, the chair of the the 25h anniversary committee for the LGBT Center.

Just a wonderful, perfect evening for the LGBT Center. Big thanks to Cathy Renna for schmoozing me, Theater Mania photographer Joe for playing Andrea to my Miranda Priestly by pointing out major players unknown to me, and my elusive buddy, writer Josh Moss (right) for being his usual funny self.

More coverage: Photo recap from Theatre Mania. Photo recap, review, and set list from Broadway World.

Die Mommy Die!

Last night Aaron, Father Tony, Little David and I saw Charles Busch's Die Mommy Die! at the New World Stages. I haven't seen Busch since I saw my very first play in NYC, Vampire Lesbians Of Sodom, sometime in the 80's.

I'd already seen the movie, but I still had a great time, even if I'm not sure that the show lives up to Ben Brantley's rave review in the New York Times. But if you're a fan of the late-career movies of faded divas, the references to Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, and Joan Crawford come machine-gun fast.

By the way, the New World Stages, a former movie five-plex located under a plaza on West 50th, is a great Off-Broadway venue. Cool bar, neat layout, great video art in the lobby. Last night I picked up a signed window card for the show, as part their Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraiser. And my inexorable march to Offical Show Queen continues.

American Fiesta: Love And Logic,Taught Via Ceramic Bowls

Last night Aaron and I attended the New York premier of American Fiesta, a one-man show at the Vineyard Theatre, whose recent big hit was the pre-Broadway Avenue Q. Written by and starring Steven Tomlinson (an Austin native, where the show originated), American Fiesta is an exploration of gay marriage, family, and the neuroscience of politics, told through the metaphor of the narrator's obsession with collecting Fiestaware, the multi-hued Depression-era dinner sets that were sold piece by piece to money-pinched housewives.

Tomlinson, a Stanford-educated college professor, corporate speaker, and lay Episcopal preacher, doesn't act so much as he lectures, using a series of back-lit slides to contemplate his Church of Christ-going parents' reaction to his plan to marry his partner in Vancouver, the 2004 election, and the way the brain functions to excite or pleasure. He unfolds his theories via the show-long metaphor of his eBay-fueled mania to collect the complete, perfect, non-flawed set of Fiestaware, the holy grail of those so obsessed. Tomlinson voices many characters in his performance, his husband, his parents, an antiques dealer, using hand gestures and subtle but effective changes in his Texas twang.

The show has lots of laughs, but most of them are laughs of recognition, of nodding and saying "yes, it IS like that", rather than punchline-driven gags. And listening to Tomlinson recount the insane market for Fiesta collectibles, where a bowl can go for $500, as he continuously moves the bowls from shelf to shelf is a bit nerve-wracking, as I'm sure others in the audience must have worried that he would drop one. I know I did. American Fiesta is a rather quietly contemplative show and while I found Tomlinson often reminded me of motivational speaker Tony Robbins or televangelist Joel Osteen, I enjoyed him immensely.

In the audience last night we spotted Nathan Lane, Terrence McNally, and other theatre notables, so the buzz must be strong already. Interestingly, the main producer of American Fiesta is former U.S. senator and NBA star Bill Bradley. The Vineyard Theatre is a small house, with excellent sight-lines, and is located right off Union Square. Tickets are available here. Highly recommended.

Showbiz Round-Up

Last week I had dinner with Queer Of The Year 2006, Mike Jones, musical superstars Steve Schalchlin and Jim Brochu, and theatrical producer Jerry Wade. Mike had just arrived from a taping of the Montell Williams show, where he tangled with loony Exodus front man Alan Chambers. I'll let you know when the show airs. Mike is also about to put his infamous massage table up on eBay, to benefit Denver's Project Angel Heart, which delivers free meals to people with HIV/AIDS. I'll post the auction when it goes up. Anybody wanna own a real piece of American political history? Will Haggard's DNA be included?

Steve and Jim have cast replacements for themselves in their off-Broadway hit The Big Voice: God Or Merman?, and will be leaving the show March 11th to begin touring their Ovation-winning Zero Hour, a one-Brochu show about theatre legend Zero Mostel. And Jerry Wade hipped me to a couple of his projects: the monthly George Bernard Shaw series, Project Shaw at The Players Theatre, and Spaulding Gray: Stories Left To Tell, at the Minetta Lane Theatre, featuring a five-person ensemble reading Gray's stories. I was always fascinated with Gray, even his Staten Island Ferry suicide was theatrical.

UPDATE: Mike's Montell episode airs Monday, March 12th.
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Tourista!

Apologies for the light blogging the last few days. My ex is visiting for a week and I've been in complete NYC tourist immersion. Last night we hit The Drowsy Chaperone and dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of Times Square. Next stop: foam Statue Of Liberty crowns!