‘TORCH SONG’: Ward Horton & Michael Urie. Photo: Matthew Murphy

TORCH SONG
Written by Harvey Fierstein
Directed by Moises Kaufman
Through February 24, 2019
The Helen Hayes Theater
240 West 44th Street
(212-239-6200),www.torchsongbroadway.com

By David NouNou

The original gay fantasia—set in the early 1970s and 1980s and every gay Jewish boy’s dream of being able to have the gorgeous hunk WASP lover and living happily ever after—is back. But as we all well know, that fantasy is not always the case even if we attain the unattainable. Originally known as Torch Song Trilogy, Harvey Fierstein wrote a play with a tailor-made role for himself. It was first produced Off-Off-Broadway, then moved to Off-Broadway at the Actors’ Playhouse, and finally came to Broadway in 1982 at the Little Theater, now the Helen Hayes, where it has landed in a most triumphant revival. Torch Song has come back home to its original theater with a shorter title and all the humor and pathos that made it a groundbreaking gay classic.

Upon second viewing what stands out the most is how pertinent and relevant the subject matter is now, even more so than it was in 1982. Back then, it had a certain voyeurism to gay culture and was titillating to see gay life explored so openly.

Act I entitled “International Stud” is set in a real backroom bar that existed in the ‘70s and ‘80s. We meet Arnold Beckoff or Virginia Hamm (Michael Urie), that being his drag name and a torch singer living in New York City. He encounters Ed (Ward Horton), the unattainable bisexual stud at the bar. He leaves with Ed and his real problems begin.

Act II, entitled “Fugue in a Nursery,” takes place three years later, 1974. Ed is with Laurel (Roxanna Hope Radja) and Arnold is invited by Laurel for a weekend in the country. Arnold is now with a former hustler, now model Alan (Michael Hsu Rosen). Needless to say, all that ensues is a kind of mixed doubles.

Act III “Widows and Children First” is the money-shot act and the most solid of all. It is now 1980 and we get to meet Mrs. Beckoff (Mercedes Ruehl), the role that was originated by Estelle Getty. It is here that we discover how the proverbial apple does not fall far from the tree. We learn about Arnold adopting an orphan, David (Jack DiFalco), and we find out that Ed has left his wife and is staying with Arnold. Most important is the battle royal that ensues between mother and son. Both have lost loved ones and both deal with their losses in different ways. Both demand love and respect on their own terms.

The third act shows how ahead of its time Torch Song really was. What we take for reasonable expectations now of having unattainable relationships and marriage, a family, and respect from loved ones was really once a fantasy. Although we have come a long way, certain dogmas remain constant.

Michael Urie has made the role of Arnold Beckoff his own. He has placed his own stamp and his own original contemporary take on Arnold. Mercedes Ruehl as his mother is electrifying. Their blow-up with each other is theater magic. Moises Kaufman’s direction gives the proceedings a feel of the present, although they are set in the not-so-distant past. The one flaw in this otherwise flawless revival is the casting of Jack DiFalco as the son David (who is supposed to be a 16-year-old teenager). This is the role that introduced the public to a young Matthew Broderick and later to Fisher Stevens; they were teenagers, Mr. DiFalco now is David. He is not a teen and does not even look like one. The head-scratcher here is didn’t anyone in casting or the production team see this as an obstacle? Regardless, Torch Song still holds up more than 36 years later as an epic of LGBTQ life that has a lot to say about sexuality, family, gender roles, love and acceptance to a new generation.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published November 5, 2018
Reviewed at November 4, 2018 press performance.

‘TORCH SONG’: Mercedes Ruehl & Michael Urie. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘TORCH SONG’: (left to right) Roxanna Hope Radja, Ward Horton, Michael Urie & Michael Hsu Rosen. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘TORCH SONG’: Jack DiFalco & Michael Urie. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘TORCH SONG’: Michael Urie. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘TORCH SONG’: Michael Urie & Jack DiFalco. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘TORCH SONG’: Mercedes Ruehl. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘TORCH SONG’: Michael Urie. Photo: Matthew Murphy

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‘THE BOYS IN THE BAND’: (left to right) Robin de Jesus, Michael Benjamin Washington, Andrew Rannells & Jim Parsons. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE BOYS IN THE BAND
Written by Mart Crowley
Directed by Joe Mantello
Through August 11, 2018
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
(212) 239-6200, http://boysintheband.com/

By Scott Harrah

My first encounter with Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band was back in college, decades after it was originally produced in 1968. I read the play one evening in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down because I’d never read anything that had so many gay-male characters, speaking in such crisp, rapid-fire bitchy dialogue.  As engrossing as the play was to me in my early 20s, I also found it completely offensive, particularly the lead character Michael, a reprehensible man who is full of self-loathing and makes racist and anti-Semitic comments and jokes to his friends. Seeing the show in its first-ever Broadway revival, with a stellar cast under Joe Mantello’s tight direction, has taken much of the insolent sting out of Mr. Crowley’s classic.

It’s still a flawed play, dated and inherently off-putting by 21^st century standards, but if one looks beyond the now “politically incorrect” content, the show remains a curious masterpiece, and was groundbreaking for being the first drama to show a microcosm of the gay-male subculture. Before Boys, gay men were mostly portrayed in films for comic relief as effeminate, stereotypical characters (hairdressers, florists, interior designers, etc.). As a vehicle for Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Robin de Jesus (all openly gay, by the way) and others, this ebullient revival is certainly an event. For millennials and anyone too young to remember the dark days of gay life before and after Stonewall and the horror of the AIDS pandemic, it is an historical reminder of how far gay men have progressed.

The plot revolves around Michael (Jim Parsons), an unemployed writer who somehow can afford a posh, two-level Upper East Side Manhattan apartment (David Zinn’s scenic design is gorgeous, but seems too modern for the 1960s). Michael is a high-strung, well-educated man from the South and was raised in an affluent Catholic family. As the story opens, he’s preparing to host a 32^nd birthday party for his friend Harold (Zachary Quinto), a man he derisively refers to as a “pock-marked Jew.” His friend Donald (Matt Bomer), an easygoing “underachiever,” arrives after a canceled session with his therapist and is helping Michael with party preparations. The phone rings and Michael learns his supposedly straight college roommate from Georgetown, Alan (Brian Hutchison), is in tears and desperately needs to see him. Michael hesitantly invites his old friend over.

Guests start arriving. There is Emory (Robin de Jesus), the swishy interior decorator; “Cowboy” (Charlie Carver), a mentally vapid, pretty-boy blond male hustler and Emory’s “birthday present” for Harold; Hank (Tuc Watkins), a schoolteacher in the process of divorcing his wife; Hank’s lover, Larry (Andrew Rannells), a fashion photographer with monogamy issues; and Bernard (Michael Benjamin Washington), a bookstore clerk, the only African-American in the group and the butt of many cruel, unfunny racist jokes and “n” word slurs by Michael.

The play has been referred to as an anachronistic “Auntie Tom” story for gays because it depicts gay men as victims of both society and their own self-abasement.  Granted, Boys was written in an era when most gay men had no choice but to stay in the closet, but have supposedly close friends (gay or straight) of any time period ever been so vicious to each other? Then again, the premise of friends being catty to each other is the foundation of all the puerile, sophomoric TV reality shows nowadays, so in that sense The Boys in the Band was decades ahead of its time.

As the drinks flow, the guys’ true feelings come out and one of the narrative highlights is a “truth” game and Michael insists that each guest pick up the telephone and call someone from the past or present to proclaim their love. Painful secrets and pathos are revealed with each telephone call, but discussing them further would spoil much of the story.

Joe Mantello directs the amazing ensemble of actors beautifully, but the biggest disappointment is Jim Parsons as Michael. Mr. Parsons, a TV superstar in his own right as nerdy genius Sheldon Cooper on the megahit series “The Big Bang Theory,” is no stranger to the Broadway stage, appearing in everything from winning revivals of Harvey and The Normal Heart to the lead in An Act of God. Unfortunately, Mr. Parsons is miscast as Michael, because he exudes too much charisma and likability for the despicable character of Michael. Michael is a man who says mean-spirited, repulsive things like “Oh, you really gotta figger, it’s tough to be a n****r, but it’s tougher to be a Jew” and self-deprecating zingers such as “You show me a happy homosexual and I’ll show you a gay corpse.”  However, Mr. Parsons is too charming, guileless and—dare I say it?—too much like TV’s Sheldon Cooper when he should simply be vile. As Harold himself says, “Michael doesn’t have charm. He has counter-charm.”

Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesus, Brian Hutchison, Michael Benjamin Washington and Tuc Watkins are all outstanding. This production’s biggest standout is Zachary Quinto as Harold. Mr. Quinto, first known for playing Spock in several Star Trek film sequels, is also a Broadway stage veteran, but here he gives one of his most memorable live performances ever. Although Mr. Quinto is perhaps too handsome for the role of Harold, he is nonetheless a revelation of wit and venom in his tinted glasses and outrageous mod 1960s garb, delivering his acerbic lines with zeal. However, in this case, he would have had greater impact on the show had he played the character of Michael. One can imagine how great he might have been in the role. Perhaps he might have evened out this production a bit and given Michael the hateful edge that’s necessary for the part.

Some have said that, without The Boys in the Band, there would never have been Angels in America and the countless gay-themed plays that followed, such as Terrence McNally’s Love! Valour! Compassion! Love it or dismiss it, Mart Crowley’s 50-year-old drama shows the dark, unsettling roots of LGBT life in the 1960s, and there is certainly a lot to ponder with these complicated “boys” back in town on the Broadway stage.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 31, 2018

‘THE BOYS IN THE BAND’: Jim Parsons (left) & Zachary Quinto. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE BOYS IN THE BAND’: Jim Parsons & Matt Bomer. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE BOYS IN THE BAND’: The cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE BOYS IN THE BAND’:Zachary Quinto & Charlie Carver. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE BOYS IN THE BAND’: The cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE BOYS IN THE BAND’: Matt Bomer (left) & Jim Parsons. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE BOYS IN THE BAND’: The cast facing Brian Hutchison. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE BOYS IN THE BAND’: The cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE BOYS IN THE BAND’: (left to right) Tuc Watkins, Michael Benjamin Washington & Matt Bomer. Photo: Joan Marcus

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UNSYMPATHETIC CHARACTER: Tyne Daly as Katharine. Photo: Joan Marcus

MOTHERS AND SONS
By Terrence McNally
Directed by Sheryl Kaller

John Golden Theatre

252 West 45th Street

(212-239-6200), www.MothersAndSonsBroadway.com

By David NouNou

Set in a spacious, comfy Upper West Side apartment, we learn soon enough that Terrence McNally’s new play Mothers and Sons (a sequel to his 1990 PBS TV drama Andre’s Mother) will turn into a battleground. Everything from past and present, mothers and sons, denial vs. reality love vs. hate, closure vs. open wounds, fidelity vs. promiscuity, lovers vs. husbands, couple vs. family, are all headed for a collision course.

Katharine Gerard (Tyne Daly) has unexpectedly shown up at Cal Porter’s (Frederick Weller) apartment for no apparent reason. For what ex mother-in-law shows up at her dead son’s lover’s new apartment 20 years after his death? The talk is about Andre; the dead son. This premise reeks with touches of Vi and Sebastian Venable from Suddenly Last Summer. Andre died of AIDS and Cal was there for him till the last minute, Katharine never was, because she had issues. This sets the conflict in motion. To add to the mix, Cal has been married to Will Ogden (Bobby Steggert) for the last 11 years and they have a biological six-year-old son, Bud Ogden-Porter (Grayson Taylor). Cal, Will and Bud live the idyllic, gay married family life with nary a problem.

Well, at least till Katherine shows up, for she is the past, mother, in denial, hater, openly wounded, currently widowed and all alone. Cal is blissfully married with a husband and son, has closure, moved on, enjoys total fidelity with the new marriage laws, something that was denied to he and Andre when they were together back in the 80s, and is a living saint. If only it was that easy to meet a saint like that online? No spoiler alert, but that’s how Cal and Will met, the modern way. All the points that Mr. McNally makes are valid and make a strong case for people living in the past vs. the people who have moved on and are living in the present, but the premise is totally unbelievable. For who would ever let a mean-spirited, ex mother-in-law stay as long as she does and risk upsetting this Utopian lifestyle that is currently enjoyed by Cal and Will?

The characters as written have their hurdles to cross. Tyne Daly delivers the goods as Katharine, the mother-in-law from hell and spews every venom-filled line with gusto. Frederick Weller is saddled with a martyred character that is difficult even for a real saint to pull off. Grayson Taylor comes across as a cloying child actor that makes one yearn for any one of the kids in “The Partridge Family.” Bobby Steggert as the stay-at-home dad/writer has the balls to speak his mind and has the best line in the play; about AIDS in the 80s and all the victims it claimed all too soon will sadly be only a footnote in the future.

In this case, unfortunately and very sadly for all of us who remember those horrific times, it has already become a footnote. Had Mr. McNally written this play in the 90s, it would have been a strong and provocative play, but like all the plays that were written about AIDS in the 80s and 90s, they have already and very sadly become dated and a footnote. I wonder how many of the millennials actually know what the horrors and ravages of AIDS actually were? Alas, again only a footnote.

Nominated for 2 Tony Nominations: Best Play and Best Dramatic Actress, Tyne Daly

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 27, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on March 26, 2014

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