‘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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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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