With the Tony Awards this weekend, LuPone’s ‘Gypsy’leads as a sure thing, but this Broadway season has been full of gay-appealing shows

EVERTHING’S COMING UP LUPONE: LuPone’s Momma Rose steals the show in the Tony favorite “Gypsy.” - Joan Marcus

The 2007–08 Broadway season officially ended last month with the announcement of the Tony Award nominees, but that doesn’t means the shows have stopped running — quite the opposite. A lot of productions gear up in the spring to provide something fresh and new before the fall season kicks off with shows like “Equus,” “Shrek the Musical” and “Billy Elliot.”

With Whoopi Goldberg hosting the Tony Awards on CBS Sunday, there’s no better time to consider booking a theater-going trip to New York to see the best and gayest the Great White Way has to offer — or if that’s out of the question, considering buying the cast recordings of the musicals.

We’ve rated some of the major contenders, both in terms of their gay appeal (on a scale of 1 to 10) and for their Tony chances.


Xanadu (Helen Hayes Theatre). There have probably been gayer shows than “Xanadu,” but any would probably be produced by Falcon Video. Douglas Carter Beene has crafted a cheeky adaptation of the 1980 Olivia Newton-John film that helped nail the coffin lid on the disco era (in its unironic first incarnation, at least). He uses its campiness as a preemptive shield against claims of awfulness. “We know its dumb — isn’t that neat?!” the play projects with every warmed leg and roller skated foot.

Like “Mamma Mia,” which employs the music of uber-gay group ABBA as the jukebox source of its silly script, “Xanadu” strings together soft-rock hits of the ‘70s and invites the audience to sing along during the finale. Cheesy and breezy, yes, but “Xanadu” is a pleasure dome of queer delights.

Gay appeal: Cheyenne Jackson in a tank-top and cut-offs? — 10.

Tony chances: Slim. Kerry Butler, for all her perky charms, doesn’t stand a chance on Tony night: All she has to do is skate around for 90 minutes of disco; as the script even points out, “Patti LuPone hasn’t even alienated her first daughter” by then. Which brings us to…

Gypsy (St. James). It is perhaps surprising, perhaps not, that there were more gay male couples in attendance at “Gypsy” than even next door at “Xanadu.” Maybe that’s because camp is one thing; history is another. And with Patti LuPone in the excoriating role of Momma Rose, a domineering and indomitable stage monster worthy of David Archuleta’s dad, history is being made.

With her notorious tantrums and divalicious ego, LuPone has proudly staked a claim as a younger generation’s version of Ethel or Judy or Liza. Given the opportunity to show her audience what they’ve waited a lifetime to see is simply too juicy an event to let slip through the fingers.

So is this production of the Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim classic as life-alteringly terrific as you may have heard? Of course not — nothing could be. The greatest sin of the show is that it overpromises what it can feasibly deliver. Directed by 90-year-old Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book to the musical 50 years ago, it concentrates on the drama of the relationships (perfectly realized by LuPone, Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti) at the expense of pacing. The Baby June scenes trod on interminably, and the Spartan style of the production lacks a wow factor.

But there at the end of each act is LuPone, belting out the two iconic numbers in musical theater. And she is chilling. You might even think she can’t top the Act 1 finale, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” but LuPone does more than sing “and “Rose’s Turn,” she has an actual nervous breakdown in front of our eyes with ferocious, frightening intensity. By the last chord, her face is ashen, fractured and scary … and she hits every note like a marksman. There’s bombshells, and there’s bombshells; LuPone is Hiroshima.

Gay appeal: Sondheim, behind-the-scene theatricality and LuPone — 9.

Tony chances: Even those who detest LuPone admit she’s a lock for best actress … and that a loss would be the upset of the evening. The production, Gaines and Benanti are also well in the running, though something more of long-shots.

Young Frankenstein (Hilton Theatre). Mel Brooks’ last supercharged hit, “The Producers,” was about as gay as mainstream Broadway musicals can get. (One clincher: The song “Keep It Gay,” sung by a man in drag.) His latest musical version of (arguably) his most sophisticated and self-assured spoof plays it more or less straight, so to speak.

But while the show has been a lightning rod for naysayers — it was largely overlooked by the Tony nominators, except for the stellar comic turns by Andrea Martin as Frau Blucher and Christopher Fitzgerald as Igor and Robin Wagner’s elaborate, Tesla-coil sparkler of a set — its thrashing has been largely unjustified. You don’t have to love it to acknowledge its bona fides as a big, funny Broadway show with plenty of good musical numbers.

The weak spot may be Roger Bart as the title scientist — he never seems to be at a level greater than 60 percent. Maybe he knows he’s being upstaged by the fantastically funnier roles of Blucher and Igor, with the best songs belted out by Dr. F’s fiancée, Elizabeth (played by Megan Mullally). It may not run away with audience’s hearts, but it holds its own quite nicely, thank you very much.

Gay appeal: With Mullally and a snarky, camp sensibility, it’s probably an easier sell to gay fans that those who are still waiting for “Blazing Saddles” — 5.

Tony chances: Fitzgerald has a real shot, and even Martin could sneak in.

HE’S ALL THAT: Gay actor Robin DeJesus, left, makes an indelible impact as an ambitious, horny Latino kid living “In the Heights.” - Joan Marcus

In the Heights (Richard Rodgers Theatre). Martin’s chief competition for best featured actress in a musical probably comes not from her younger colleagues but by an old hand turning in the kind of heart-wrenching, emotionally resonant performance you just don’t find often in musical theater.

Olga Merendiz plays Abuela Claudia, the unofficial matriarch of the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan who provides a focal point for the Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and African-Americans struggling to live the American Dream. Lin-Manual Miranda, who wrote the score and lyrics, stars as a bodega owner, but even he is upstaged by Merendiz and Robin DeJesus, who are both humorous and touching in the most exciting musical to hit Broadway since “Spring Awakening.”

Gay appeal: Out actor DeJesus (who co-starred in the North Texas-shot “Fat Girls”) is memorable playing a straight kid, but who cares when a show is this good? — 3.

Tony chances: The one to beat for musical, score, featured actress and many design nods. Its chief competition comes from …

Passing Strange (Belasco Theatre). A musician known as Stew stands among a small combo playing pop songs. You might think it was just a rock concert, except Stew also narrates a coming-of-age story (based on his own life) in which he experiments with drugs, bisexuality and the meaning of art while the story is acted before us.

Part rock opera, part musical, “Passing Strange” is a tidal wave of sound that you’ll either love or hate — and which I loved. Loud, abstract and minimalistically staged, its heady discussions about the creative process make it almost the opposite of “In the Heights” — and provides Tony voters a clear choice in several major categories.

Gay appeal: Inspirational quotes from James Baldwin and some gay characters played by an out actor — 6.

Tony chances: Could be a spoiler for best musical or its book or score, and the orchestrations are mind-blowing.

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ALSO IN THE RUNNING...

Some other show are also favorite for gay audiences — and Tony voters.

So enthusiastic is the buzz for Lincoln Center’s mounting of South Pacific — the Rodgers & Hammerstein hit’s first appearance on Broadway in half a century — that even an out-of-town critic couldn’t snag tickets. Ah well, at least the production, originally slated for a limited run, will be around at least two years … although you’ll need to get to New York City fast if you expect to see gay Brazilian baritone and swoon-inducing heartthrob Paulo Szot (the likely Tony winner for best actor in a musical) in it. (He leaves the run later this summer). Gay appeal: 3 (mostly from Szot and the gender-bending number “Honeybun”).

Harvey Fierstein and John Doyle’s anti-musical, the dramatic, John Bucchino-scored and John Doyle-directed A Catered Affair, snagged only nods for its stars and in one design category, which may well torpedo its chances for a decent run, especially if it ends up a loser in both categories on June 15. Gay appeal: 6 (Fierstein as a gay uncle and wedding planning are its principal claims).

While reviews for “A Catered Affair” were respectfully unenthusiastic, the response to Cry-Baby did not foreshadow its unexpected inclusion in the major categories, including best musical. But with gay icon John Waters providing the hit cred of “Hairspray,” it’s probably the sure-to-tour hit of the season — a sanitized bit of Amerikitsch. Gay appeal: 4 (Waters aside, this is pretty mainstream stuff).

The Little Mermaid, Dallasite Doug Wright wrote the book to this latest in the Disney movie-to-stage machine. Gay appeal: 7 (an evil octopus? Those Menken and Ashman songs? C’mon!).

The imported British restaging of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George was heralded early on, but hasn’t generated the kind of buzz you’d expect of a Tony winner. Gay appeal: 3 (Sondheim).

The screwball comedy The 39 Steps is both an adaptation of an homage to Hitchcock films, although it never quite achieves the madcap energy it’s aming for. Gay appeal: 5 (lots of Monty Python-esque cross-dressing).

— A.W.J.




This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition June 13, 2008.