NEXT FALL

This season in New York we are seeing an unusual number of gay themed plays in commercial venues. There are always a number of them in the Fringe of Off Off Broadway, but the topic is rarely handled with much force on Broadway. Even Off Broadway, where the gay play could show up more often, it really doesn’t. However, now we have THE PRIDE and a revival of BOYS IN THE BAND Off Broadway, as well as LA CAGE AUX FOLLES coming over from London and a new play, NEXT FALL. The really impressive thing about Geoffrey Nauffts’ new play is that it tackles contemporary gay life in a fresh way. Two key issues serve as the play’s main point of discussion: gay people rectifying their lives with religion and that still relevant age-old problem of what happens when one in a gay couple is hospitalized and the other is shut out by his family as not being a true member of the family. The partner has no say over what happens to his spouse as the family moves in to do what they think is best. This situation is ripe for all prejudices to rear their ugly heads and devastate the partner and friends of the sick gay person. Though marriage is never discussed in the play, it is implicit that this very case is the chief reason gay couples should be able to be married. Quite simply, they need to be protected against the prejudiced families “doing what is best” for the children they don’t really know and certainly don’t understand. So, we have one member of the gay couple nursing in the hospital and as his redneck Republican divorced parents show up, having no idea that he’s gay or that he has a partner in life, the partner and two friends hang out in the waiting room for a chance for non-family members to visit the patient. From this position, in flashback, we get scenes of the couple meeting, moving in together, going through ups and downs and building a life. This is a rich depiction of a gay couple, without any of the usual stereotypical trappings that are accepted in many other plays and films. We get to see how their individual family experiences formed their character, how they identify with and reject their parents’ values to form their own person. Although the topic is essentially serious, Nauffts infuses his play with gems of comedy and the combination is wholly entertaining, relevant and puts forth important questions without soap boxing. We know where the author stands for sure, but the ideas are put forth in a way that simply ask the audience to think about what has occured––what occurs every day right at home.

NEXT FALL started last season Off Broadway with an unknown cast of very good actors, who luckily moved with the show to Broadway. All of the roles are so good, that any number of appropriate stars could have been lured to play the roles on Broadway. Perhaps, if the show can run long enough, we will get some interesting celebrity casting with replacements. Not that the show requires stars, but we all know a star or two could keep the show running and bring in new audiences that might not normally go to see a gay play. Whatever the future may be, the very good cast of the moment is headed by Patrick Breen and Patrick Heusinger as the couple. Connie Ray is the mother and Cotter Smith is the father. Maddie Corman and Sean Dugan are the friends. They are, one and all, superb. Sheryl Kaller has directed the production with a lovely sense of pace––taking the time needed in the emotional scenes and guiding the comedy moments to elicit all the right laughs. Wilson Chin has designed a useful unit set of a stylish hospital waiting room that can quickly transform into the couple’s apartment, a park setting and a rooftop party. A gaggle of producers are listed over the title, but topping the list is Elton John and his partner David Furnish, who saw the worthiness of moving this substantial work to the Broadway stage where it could be seen by a wider public. Here’s hoping for the full treatment––Tony Award, movie version, Oscar.

The Pride

Hugh Dancy stars in THE PRIDE

Off Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, MCC produced a gay play made successful by London’s Royal Court Theatre in 2008. Now directed by Joe Mantello with a stellar cast headed by Hugh Dancy, Andrea Riseborough and Ben Whishaw, with additional roles played by Adam James, this first play by Alexi Kaye Campbell doesn’t offer the audience anything new, but it allows for the cast to give beautiful performances. The material is well written and rich, but what it covers––mainly a then and now comparison of what it means to be gay––has all been done before. There is absolutely nothing new about this new play. Every single issue has been covered long ago, and many times over since the days of BOYS IN THE BAND or TORCH SONG TRILOGY. What is different this time around is that movie stars are at the helm and a broader audience will attend and hear the message with fresh ears. The topics of sad homosexual repression, or the deconstruction of contemporary stereotypes and a kind of demand for social acceptance once and for all may still be mind expanding the way Campbell has handled it. The audience that needs to hear the message might actually visit the Lucille Lortel on the lure of a Hollywood leading man, but they will get a lot more. They may not know the wonderful Ben Whishaw, unless they happened to catch the remake of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED or the dozen or so other UK films in which he has appeared. He is a recently celebrated Hamlet as well. Here he is fantastic, lucking out with the most colorful material and the most deeply drawn two characters to play. He is barely off stage, where as the more famous Hugh Dancy seems strangely absent from the play by comparison. However, when Dancy is on, he is stunning. He has the less flashy roles, but perhaps the more difficult ones, for he has the less entertaining and dare I say, more straight-laced characters, but Dancy makes his people compelling. Riseborough’s two characters are individually distinctive and she is both a delight and a picture of sadness, yet always mustering the strength to go on. Adam James gets the funniest bits with a magazine editor and a call-boy in Nazi drag, but then handles a serious doctor character’s ludicrous sequence with complete believability. The production is an acting triumph, even if it is topically antiquated, though the message of equality still needs to be said. We’ve come a log way with gay rights, but the work isn’t over. Thanks to the high level of production, THE PRIDE, can only help the cause.