Today's featured honoree from our 2009 "School Days"–themed Out 100 -- our pick of the 100 gay, lesbian, and trans people who have made an impact in their communities and on mainstream culture in the last 12 months -- is Tony Kushner, voted "The Rebel."
A new Tony Kushner play is always an event. His latest -- The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures, in which a 75-year old man gathers his offspring to announce that he’s killing himself -- is destined for Broadway next spring following a preview in Minneapolis last April. Also next year, his opus Angels in America -- “a gay fantasia on national themes,” in his words -- gets a much-anticipated off-Broadway reissue. The director, who in 2008 won the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, lives with his partner, Mark Harris, whom he married in 2003, complete with rings from Tiffany’s in New York and then again, legally, in Massachusetts in 2008. “One cake designer I called said, ‘We specialize in elaborate beautiful white flowers all over the cake,’ ” Harris told a reporter for the New York Times Vows section in 2003. “So I said, ‘I should tell you, this is for two men.’ There was a slight pause, and she said, ‘I can put little baseball players all over it?’ ”
Monday we'll reveal the full 2009 Out 100 portfolio, shot by Jason Bell, in stores and online at Out.com.
Who's that hunk on a horse? Oh, it's just breakout Broadway star Cheyenne Jackson, who's making his prime-time debut on 30 Rock tonight.
In honor of the occasion, Out's editor in chief Aaron Hicklin sat down with Jackson for a Q&A in which we learn where this multitasker -- who's also starring in the current revival of Finian's Rainbow and just released an album -- got the nickname "the human ThighMaster" and why he thinks he must've been married to Jane Krakowski (Xanadau's Kira and 30 Rock's Jenna Maroney) in another life.
This week it's the quarterfinals of Dancing with the Stars, which means only two more weeks of having to bear with Tom Bergeron's unfunny attempts at banter and Samantha's unfashionable attempts at hair. But we accept such inane hosting skills because of the excitement of the live dances, and last night, the second hour of dancing had enough amazing moments that let me forget their aforementioned annoying presence.
The inevitable finally occurred on Monday: Mya received a perfect 10. She actually almost did it twice, getting a 29 for her quickstep (which was technically nice but creatively boring), then nailing the coveted 30 for her '70s style samba. Carrie Ann has said she doesn't believe that Mya wants the trophy, but this dance finally convinced her and is almost convincing me. Picking Donna Summer's "Bad Girls" is never going to be a bad idea.
This was the highest scoring dance of the night, but the two Paso Dobles that followed brought in even more entertainment points. Now, if you watched the show live, you know that Joanna and Derek danced first and Donnie and Kym danced second, with the former couple being called genius and the latter couple, doing an 80s Adam Ant style Paso Doble, deemed a mess. And the judges were right: the outfits, the makeup and hair, not to mention the performance of the Dead or Alive song. Bruno said it had more camp than a drag queen convention, and as usual he's hyperbolic, but not entirely wrong. However, I still loved every second of it.
Maybe I'm just a sucker for a performance in a cape.
But the big surprise for the night was Derek and Joanna with their Paso Doble from the future. No, they didn't score three 10s (only a 29, damn Carrie Ann's eagle eyes for spotting a misstep!), but the combination of song choice, theme, choreography, outfits, and lighting came together brilliantly. That lascivious golden Mormon boy Derek is definitely talented.
> No Doubt has filed a lawsuit against Activision -- makers of the same Guitar Hero video game that famously riled Courtney Love a few months back -- because a new Band Hero game allows players to take too many liberties with the band members' avatars. Specific complaints include that the "the Character Manipulation Feature results in an unauthorized
performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about
having sex with prostitutes," and that "bassist [Tony] Kanal’s likeness can be manipulated to
sing, in a female voice, one of No Doubt’s signature hits, 'Just a
Girl.' "
Has it occurred to you that, in many ways, our current economic downturn -- with its foreclosed homes, spiking jobless rates and come-uppance of the very rich -- is, in some ways at least, like The Great Depression? That's the link made by The Citizens Band, that motley crew of downtown-type New York actors, dancers and singers who formed around 2004 to do anti-Bush-type vaudeville acts. They're still around, and in their latest gig, "The Debt Rattle", which they performed over the weekend at the Lower East Side's Abrons Arts Center, they channeled the Depression-era, dance-marathon desperation of the classic 1969 flick They Shoot Horses, Don't They? to make a point about how we're all dancing for our lives in post-boom, post-bailout America, with many of us dropping one by one...just like exhausted dancers!
It may sound gloomy, but it wasn't, because Citizens Band's beautiful women wore scanty, flapper-type showgirl outfits, the old-time jazz band was amazing, the aerialist was thriling, and the star power on stage -- supermodel and singer Karen Elson (Jack White's wife), the Cardigans' Nina Persson, Lenny Kravitz's daughter Zoe, and Michael Cavadias (a k a downtown draggy DJ Lily of the Valley), to name just a few -- gave the night a warm glow. Bravo, Citizens Band, hurry up with your next show!
Page Six is reporting that Hair star Gavin Creel is dating Tony–award nominated actor Jonathan Groff. Creel actually took over the role of Claude from Groff in the revival of the hippie-laden musical currently playing to sold out audiences on Broadway. Groff, who received his Tony nom for his work in Spring Awakening, is gearing up to guest star on another gay fave: Glee.
Neither actor's reps returned calls to the Post but we're hoping that's because the couple is too busy making out in the back of a horse-drawn carriage or sharing a hot chocolate in some cozy West Village cafe or some other equally nauseating newly in love activity to confirm the rumor.
After a three-month run in London's West End and a few
performances in the courtyard of Kronborg Castle near the real-life Elsinore --
it's actually Helsingor -- in Denmark, Hamlet has hit
Broadway.The all-British cast has
some easily recognizable faces, Kevin R. McNally as the usurper Claudius, whom
you might recall from the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and Ron Cook, most
recently seen in BBC's Little Dorrit, as the oblivious Polonius. And, of
course, Jude Law, with his turns in the upcoming Sherlock Holmes and The
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, is the main draw as Hamlet himself.
The story is well-known and so are quite a few of the lines,
but this production does not feel dreary and it's not very brooding either. In
Polonius's words, it's something of a "tragical-comical" take. Despite being a famous tragedy, many of
Shakespeare's wittier lines in the mouths of the actors cause laughter. And you
can't help but laugh when Hamlet energetically mimes a crab or apes a gorilla
or humps Polonius who he's mistaken for a fishmonger in his feigned madness.
Besides the clear and passionate delivery, Law puts in an appropriately
theatrical and very physical performance -- not only does he manage to look charming
even from the mezzanine, he is certainly no slouch when it comes to acting.
The set is sparse and granite gray recalling a dungeon; the
mood of the thing created by strategically beamed white and yellow lights. The
costumes are simple, modern and, aptly, either a depressing black or gray. And it's not all fun and games -- there's also shocking violence and raw
feeling. Actual gasps are heard when Hamlet hurls Gertrude (Geraldine James),
his mother, to the floor and crouches astride her after a spot of murder in her
bedchamber (though that may be caused by the Freudian urges). Then
there's the famous line -- "Get thee to a nunnery!" -- which Hamlet
shouts at Ophelia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) with enough force to set your ears ringing
as she cowers before him. It keeps reverberating even when Hamlet later weeps at her
grave while professing love.
As the lights dim on a scene of slaughter, Hamlet is left
cradled in the arms of Horatio (Matt Ryan), his "good friend." Draw
from that what conclusions you will.
The play's 12-week run at the Broadhurst Theater, 235 W. 44th Street, NYC ends December 6, so you may want to
"make haste." For more info, head here.
Monday night marked the 11th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death. In anticipation of this milestone, the members of New York’s Tectonic Theater Project returned to Wyoming last year to re-interview the people they first met in 1998 when creating The Laramie Project. This week, Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project unveiled an international, web-linked reading of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later An Epilogue at 150 theaters in 50 states and 14 countries (including Spain, England, and Israel). The New York City production, at Alice Tully Hall, was introduced by Glenn Close and Judy Shepard, and the performance was followed by a Q&A session with the company, moderated by NPR’s Neda Ulaby. When author/director Kaufman introduced the after-show, he confessed that an internet-linked show was a leap for someone who had never “twittered.” Or “twitted.” Someone in the New York audience asked if the company planned to go back to Laramie again 10 years from now? “Can we just get through tonight?” Kaufman mock-pleaded. That much, the company definitely accomplished.
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