Queer stages, coast to coast: planning a winter or spring getaway to New York or San Francisco? Both cities offer a terrific early harvest of gay and lesbian theater.Gay and lesbian theater-goers can find stage fare of interest all year round in any major American city. For early 2004, however, we found particularly strong lineups in the two cities that have been the historical centers of American queer activity--and queer theater. Our preview here reflects what's scheduled to go on the boards in New York and Sail Francisco (and the Bay Area) from now into June. Also check our Web site, www.advocate.com, for theater offerings in other cities, including a Marga Gomez premiere; the Tennessee Williams celebration in Washington, D.C.; and a brand-new Edward Albee play debuting in Hartford, Conn. New York: Long Runs GREAT WHITE WAY is already quite lavender for 2004. The two musical bios that opened on Broadway last fall--The Boy From Oz (about flamboyant Australian performer and songwriter Peter Allen, magnificently portrayed by Hugh Jackman) and Boy George and Charles Busch's Taboo (about George mid performance artist Leigh Bowery--another Australian performer who, like Allen, succumbed to AIDS) are playing alongside director Joe Mantello's production of the musical Wizard of Oz Wizard of Oz reaches and departs from Oz in circus balloon. [Children’s Lit.: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz] See : Ballooning Wizard of Oz false wizard takes up residence in Emerald City. [Am. Lit. prequel pre·quel n. A literary, dramatic, or cinematic work whose narrative takes place before that of a preexisting work or a sequel. [pre- + (se)quel.] Wicked, the queer-positive puppet delight Avenue Q, last season's gender-bending hit Hairspray (with Harvey Fierstein), and of course, The Producers (now rejuvenated re·ju·ve·nate tr.v. re·ju·ve·nat·ed, re·ju·ve·nat·ing, re·ju·ve·nates 1. To restore to youthful vigor or appearance; make young again. 2. by the return of Nathan lane and Matthew Broderick). There's also this season's strong contender for the Tony for Best Play, I Am My Own Wife I Am My Own Wife is a play by Doug Wright which examines the life of German individual Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, born Lothar Berfelde, who killed his father when he was a young boy and survived the Nazi and Communist regimes in East Berlin as a transvestite. , Doug Wright's fascinating fact-based tale about a German cross-dresser. Keep an eye out also for the expected Broadway transfer of George C. Wolfe's Public Theater production of Caroline, or Change, a new musical set in civil rights-era Louisiana coauthored by Angels in America Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is an award winning play in two parts by American playwright Tony Kushner. It has been made into both a television miniseries of the same name and an opera by Peter Eötvös. playwright Tony Kushner and composer Jeanine Tesori. New York: New Shows Valhalla By Paul Rudnick The latest from the author of Jeffrey, In & Out, and the forthcoming Nicole Kidman remake of The Stepford Wives involves a notorious historical figure, gay king Ludwig II of Bavaria Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Bavaria (August 25, 1845 – June 13, 1886) was king of Bavaria from 1864 until shortly before his death. His nicknames include "der Märchenkönig" ("the Fairy tale King") in German and the "Swan King" in English, but Ludwig is perhaps best (played by out actor Peter Frechette), and a sexually precocious 1940s youth from Texas. Rudnick's longtime collaborator Christopher Ashley directs, and William Ivey Long William Ivey Long is an American 5-time Tony Award-winning costume designer for mainly Broadway plays and musicals including his most notable work on The Producers, Hairspray, Nine, Crazy for You and his newest Tony-winning work on Grey Gardens. (Tony winner for Hairspray last year) designs the costumes. New York Theatre Workshop New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) is an off-Broadway theatre noted for its acclaimed and innovative productions of new works. Located in New York City’s East Village, it houses a 188-seat theatre for its main productions, and a 75-seat black-box theatre for staged readings and : opens February 5 The Stendhal Syndrome By Terrence McNally Two famous works of art--Michelangelo's statue David and Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde--play central roles in a new one-act double bill (Full Frontal Nudity The term "full frontal nudity" may refer to:
Small Tragedy By Craig Lucas The author of The Dying Gaul and Prelude to a Kiss examines our threshold for experiencing tragic events in a multilayered backstage drama set during a production of Oedipus Rex. Playwrights Horizons: begins previews February 17, opens March 11, runs through March 28 Beautiful Child By Nicky Silver A troubled teacher returns to his family in this new work by the author best known for his black comedies about family dysfunction, Pterodactyls and Raised in Captivity. Vineyard Theatre: begins previews February 4 The Roaring Girle By Alice Tuan A satire based on the 1611 comedy by Middleton and Dekker, in winch London's most notorious cross-dresser is transformed into a guerrilla grrrl for the new century. Foundry Theatre: February 20-March 21 Big Bill By A.R. Gurney gurney /gur·ney/ (gur´ne) a wheeled cot used in hospitals. gur·ney n. pl. gur·neys A metal stretcher with wheeled legs, used for transporting patients. A drama based on the life of Bill Tilden, the theatrical tennis champ who revolutionized the sport in the 1920s and was eventually ruined because of his well-known fascination with young men. Directed by Mark Lamos. Lincoln Center Theater: opens February 22 The Normal Heart By Larry Kramer return to New York of one of the earliest and most influential dramas about AIDS by the novelist, screenwriter, and messianic activist who co-founded New York's Gay Men's Health Crisis The Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) is a non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization that has led the United States in the fight against AIDS. and subsequently created ACT UP. Public Theater: February (dates to be announced To be announced (TBA) A contract for the purchase or sale of an MBS to be delivered at an agreed-upon future date but does not include a specified pool number and number of pools or precise amount to be delivered. ) Well By Lisa Kron Five Lesbian Brothers alumna Kron's last show at the Public, 2.5 Minute Ride, was an autobiographical tour de force that focused on her father. Her new work is a multicharacter drama that back at her childhood in Lansing, Mich., where the central figure is her controlling yet heroically activist mother. Public Theater: begins March 16 Homebody/Kabul By Tony Kushner Kushner first unveiled in a wounded New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , just months after 9/11, this politically complex drama that juxtaposes an English woman's romantic obsession about Afghanistan with the nightmare of life under the Taliban. Just as relevant today, the epic returns in the revised version that was presented in Los Angeles last year. Brooklyn Academy of 11-30 Assassins By Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman Who else but Sondheim, our greatest living composer, would bring together likes of John Wilkes Booth, John Hinckley, Lee Harvey Oswald Noun 1. Lee Harvey Oswald - United States assassin of President John F. Kennedy (1939-1963) Oswald , and Squeaky Fromme in a provocative vaudeville show about America? The long-awaited revival for Broadway is directed by Joe Mantello. Round-about Theatre at Studio 54: begins previews March 26, opens April 22 Chinese Friends By Jon Robin Baitz Jon Robin Baitz (born November 4, 1961 in Los Angeles, California) is an American playwright, screenwriter, television producer and sometime actor. The son of an executive of the Carnation Company, Baitz was raised in Brazil and South Africa before the family returned to A witty thriller about intergenerational political one-upmanship from the author of The Substance of Fire and Ten Unknowns. (Another new Baitz play is also expected this season: The Paris Letter, an enthralling en·thrall tr.v. en·thralled, en·thrall·ing, en·thralls 1. To hold spellbound; captivate: The magic show enthralled the audience. 2. To enslave. exploration of gay mentorship and friendship, love, and repression played against the seductive and scary backdrop of New York high society.) Playwrights Horizons: begins previews April 30, opens May 25, runs through June 6 Where Do We Live By Christopher Shinn Written in the aftermath of 9/11, gay playwright Shinn examines New York City's social and racial schisms via the interaction of a gay couple with their African-American neighbors in a downtown apartment building near the World Trade Center. Vineyard Theatre: spring (dates to be determined) San Francisco and the Bay Area A Midsummer Night's Dream A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare written sometime in the 1590s. It portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta, and By William Shakespeare Visionary lesbian theater artist Anne Bogart and her SITI Company engage in Shakespeare for the first time with a new and imaginative interpretation of the classic tale of mismatched love. San Jose Repertory Theatre The San Jose Repertory Theatre (or San Jose Rep, SJ Rep or, locally, just the Rep) was founded in 1980 as the first resident professional theatre company in San Jose, California, and is currently the largest non-profit, professional theatre company in the : January 24-February 22 The Last Sunday in June By Jonathan Tolins Front the cowriter and producer of the first season of Queer as Folk Queer as Folk may refer to:
Flaming Iguanas By Erika Lopez Lap Dancing for Mommy writer and cartoonist Lopez brings her raunchy raun·chy adj. raun·chi·er, raun·chi·est Slang 1. a. Obscene, lewd, or vulgar: "[He] story about a road-tripping outlaw on an identity quest vividly to life onstage. Theatre Rhinoceros: April 1-24 A Man of No Importance A Man of No Importance may refer to:
By Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens, and Stephen Flaherty The West Coast premiere of a new musical from the Ragtime ragtime: see jazz. ragtime U.S. popular music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries distinguished by its heavily syncopated rhythm. Ragtime found its characteristic expression in formally structured piano compositions, the accented left-hand team, based on the 1994 British movie about a closeted middle-aged man--obsessed with a hunky young bus drive--who is inspired to come out alter an unsuccessful attempt to stage an amateur production of Oscar Wilde's Salome. New Conservatory Theatre Center: March 10-April 18 The Mystery of Irma Vep By Charles Ludlam First performed by Ludlam and his lover and collaborator Everett Quinton in 1984, the sublime Ridiculous Theatrical Company vaudeville melodrama spoof lives on and on. Berkeley Repertory Theatre: April 9-May 23 Master Class By Terrence McNally Rita Moreno stars in McNally's loving yet candid tribute to the great opera diva Maria Callas, under the direction of Moises Kaufman (Gross Indecency INDECENCY. An act against good behaviour and a just delicacy. 2 Serg. & R. 91. 2. The law, in general, will repress indecency as being contrary to good morals, but, when the public good requires it, the mere indecency of disclosures does not suffice to exclude and The Laramie Project). Berkeley Repertory Theatre: May 21-July 18 RELATED ARTICLE: On the towns. A sampling of some of the best resources to orient your gay touristy self in the Big Apple or the City by the Bay New York ANY NEW YORK CITY guidebook or tourist Web site can point you toward the Big Apple's innumerable sites and attractions, and Time Out New York and The Rough Guide to New York both include indispensible chapters for gay and lesbian visitors. There are also gay USA guidebooks that include New York-specific chapters from Out & About, Damron, Fodor's, Frommet's, mid so forth, but for a bracing dose of irreverent and opinionated New York queen attitude, check out the 2003 edition of Betty and Pansy's Severe Queer Review of New York. Once yon arrive, a good place to get your bearings in New York is the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center at 208 W. 13th St.--located conveniently on the edge of two major gay neighborhoods of Manhattan: the West Village, with historic Christopher Street, and the newer, trendier, and pumped-up Chelsea. At the LGBT LGBT Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center, which has just celebrated its 20th anniversary, you can pick up maps, community fliers, and the invaluable free publications to help you feel like an insider: bar-and-listings glossies HX and Next; gay and lesbian newspapers Gay City News and New York Blade The New York Blade is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) weekly newspaper in New York City, New York, that comes out every Friday. The Blade is a member of the National Gay Newspaper Guild, and was acquired by Windows Media, LLC in 2001. : and exclusively for lesbians, the features and listings magazine GO NYC. Don't forget to check out the joyously phallic phallic /phal·lic/ (-ik) pertaining to or resembling a phallus. phal·lic adj. 1. Of, relating to, or resembling a phallus. 2. Keith Haring mural--originally painted in 1989 in a men's rest room, which has now been converted into a less clandestine kind of meeting room. While in the Village, also visit the nation's oldest gay and lesbian bookstore, Oscar Wilde at 15 Christopher St., which has miraculously bucked the trend of disappearing historic community and neighborhood bookshops. Oscar Wilde and creative visions at 548 Hudson St. (two blocks north of Christopher) both provide a warm and friendly space to browse, shop, socialize, and get oriented. San Francisco THE HUB OF GAY LIFE in San Francisco is still Castro Street, where you will find A Different Light bookstore (489 Castro St.) and can pick up the community newspapers Bay Area Reporter and Bay Times as well as listings mags such as Gloss. The alternate hub (and major leather scene) is SoMa (South of Market), where many of the clubs and raunchier establishments are to be found. A high concentration of gay women may be found in the area surrounding Dolores Park and in Bernal Heights. The city's recently opened four-floor, 4,000-square-foot Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center, located at 1800 Market St., has state-of-the-art facilities for residents and visitors alike, a full calendar of events, plus great views of the city. For guidebook advice, see the New York City section [page 48]--and once again, Betty and Pansy will provide you with their unique take on the city and its attractions in their Severe Queer Review of San Francisco. --Gerard Raymond Raymond writes on theater and film and lives in New York City. |
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