LOCAL LIFE

Theater
Gay actors and themes abound on local stages this fall

PATRICK FOLLIARD
Friday, August 22, 2008

A “West Side Story” revival, a one-man show about Tennessee Williams and an all-male take on the Bard are just a few of the gayer theatrical offerings slated for fall.

Studio Theatre (www.studiotheatre.org) is spotlighting women this fall. Things kick off with South African playwright Athol Fugard’s “The Road to Mecca” (Sept. 3-Oct. 12), a probing drama featuring elegant Tana Hicken opposite three-time Helen Hayes Award winner Holly Twyford, who’s gay. Fugard’s modern classic concerns an older widowed artist and a young teacher — both determined women — and the transcendent power of art.

Then it’s the much-anticipated D.C. premiere of “Grey Gardens” (Nov. 12-Dec. 21), directed by Studio’s associate producing artistic director Serge Seiden. Based on Albert and David Maysles same-titled, extraordinary 1972 documentary, this funny, incredibly poignant hit Broadway musical spotlights a fabulously eccentric mother and daughter living out their lives with a dozen or so cats and raccoons in a derelict mansion by the sea in tony East Hampton; and by the way, the pair just happens to be the aunt and first cousin of Jackie Kennedy Onasis. The show’s gay Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist is Doug Wright (“I Am My Own Wife”).

James Davis as Juliet in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s all-male production of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ (‘Romeo & Juliet’ photo by Scott Suchman)

Studio 2ndStage — the company’s slightly more experimental wing — is featuring “A Beautiful View” (Oct. 8-Dec. 2), the story of two women struggling to define their lifelong romantic relationship, written and directed by gay Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor. Excellent local actors Jennifer Mendenhall and Kathleen Coons play the women.

In January, Holly Twyford can be seen in Signature Theatre’s (www.signature-theatre.org) production of gay playwright Douglas Carter Beane’s comedy “The Little Dog Laughed” (Jan 13-March 8). Twyford plays “Diane,” a hardcore press agent with a pressing problem — keeping her movie star client Mitchell Green (played by hunky gay actor Matthew Montelongo) in the closet and away from hot call boys. He and Twyford were successfully paired several seasons back in Studio’s “Black Milk.”

On Sept. 26, the Ganymede Arts’ fall festival (ganymedearts.org) kicks off with an evening featuring both Warhol transgender superstar Holly Woodlawn and New York performer Justin Bond (best known as Kiki in “Kiki & Herb”). The 10-day gay arts celebration also includes Ganymede Arts’ artistic director Jeffrey Johnson performing as his drag creation Special Agent Galactica in “Singing … with Tongues” (Sept. 27).

The Eisenhower Theater will reopen its doors with “Broadway: Three Generations” (Oct. 2–5), a three-act evening featuring condensed versions of “Girl Crazy,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” and “Side Show” featuring a top-flight cast including hot singer/actors like Max von Essen and Michael McElroy, who is gay and made a big impression in Ford’s Theatre production of “Big River” in 2005.

Richard Thomas — aka John-Boy Walton — stars in “Blanche and Beyond” (Sept. 24-26) at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater (www.kennedycenter.org). Adapted by Steve Lawson from the personal letters of gay playwright Tennessee Williams, this one-man show delves into the life of one of America’s greatest dramatists.

Shakespeare Theatre Company (www.shakespearetheatre.org) opens its season with an all-male cast of “Romeo & Juliet” (Sept.9–Oct.12) featuring James Davis as the fairer of the young star-crossed lovers. David Muse directs.

Holly Twyford, (left) and Tana Hicken in Studio Theatre’s ‘The Road to Mecca.’ (‘Road to Mecca’ photo courtesy of Studio Theatre)

Next up, it’s the company’s gay artistic director Michael Kahn staging William Congreve’s Restoration comedy “The Way of the World” (Sept. 30–Nov. 16) featuring Veanne Cox and Christopher Innvar, a splendid pair of New York-based actors not unfamiliar to local audiences.

Season openers for both Arena Stage (arenastage.org) and Theater J (theaterj.org) feature a couple of funny dames — Carrie Fisher and Sandra Bernhard respectively. In her one woman show titled “Wishful Drinking” (Sept 5.–28), Fisher waxes on mom (’50s movie star Debbie Reynolds), movies (“Star Wars”) and men (including the father of her daughter who left her for another man). And lesbian powerhouse performer Bernhard is restaging “Without You I’m Nothing” (Sept. 9–28), the show that made her famous 20 years ago.

In November, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (www.woollymammoth.net) presents gay playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s dark comedy “Boom” (Nov. 3-30), the tale of a graduate student who studies fish sleep cycles for signs of the apocalypse. Wonderfully quirky local actor Sarah Marshall is featured and John Vreeke directs. Both are gay.

And a new Broadway production of the musical classic “West Side Story” (Dec. 15 – Jan. 17) is set to be directed by the show’s gay librettist Arthur Laurents. Before opening on Broadway sometime early next year, the production will have a pre-Broadway run at National Theatre (www.nationaltheatre.com) the same venue where the musical made its premiere in 1957.

The indefatigable, ...

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