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‘Lewd’ vs. ‘mainstream:’ Whadaya think?
January 13th, 2009
The DMN’s arts blog has a post from Joy Tipping in which she laments that Uptown Players’ “Broadway Our Way” fundraiser was, if not too “gay,” at least not “mainstream” enough. Tipping attacks the show, calling it “lewd” and bemoaning the skin showed by John de los Santos, above. “I’m pretty liberal,” she says, then wonders why Uptown would not aim for a “broader audience” and get rid of the gay cliches.
Uh. Huh.
I have a rule of thumb that has served me well: Whenever someone begins a sentence with a statement such as “I consider myself pretty liberal…” what he really means is, “I am, deep down, a prude, but ashamed to admit it.” (I saw it during the run-up to the election, when in a week I heard two people — one on TV, one on the radio — say exactly the same thing: “I’m not a racist, but there’s no way I would ever vote for a black man.” Um, pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but I think that is the definition of a racist.)
DMN theater critic  Lawson Taitte added a comment in which he defended Uptown for doing some shows that do appeal to “wider audiences.” One of his examples: “Hair.” Let’s see… isn’t that the hippie musical with nudity that was a scandal in 1968? How, then, is it evidence of “mainstream” in 2009?
Because that’s how culture works, especially the theater: Prudes cluck their tongues one year, complaining about “lewdness” … then whine five years later that no one does anything daring, once “lewd” has become “edgy.” In the case of “BOW,” the gay jokes (and the flesh) were not only fun, funny and sexy — and, I’ll add, the product of writer-director Andi Allen, a straight middle-aged woman and anything but a prude — but they got terrific reactions from the opening night audience.
What do you think? Are sex toys in a comic song “gay cliches” and “lewd” or a savvy way to target a younger, hipper audience that appreciates entertainment that doesn’t bend over backward not to offend?Â
There’s no accounting for taste, of course, and I’m not saying Tipping should like the show if she didn’t. But to chastise Uptown for not appealing to a “broader audience” seems to miss the point. While most theater companies struggle to maintain (not to say grow) their subscriber base, and find their audiences graying into their graves, Uptown has nearly 1,000 subscribers. On opening night, fully half the audience was made up of first-timers to “BOW” and many of them probably were born since I graduated high school. In fact, “Broadway Our Way” has virtually sold out every seat for the entire run already.
So let Tipping wonder why no one does enough Neil Simon anymore; Uptown Players will be too busy selling tickets to care.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Not to mention that BOTH the emcee/hosts are straight! Yeah, it was “witty and pretty and gay!”, but since when is good theatre supposed to leave you undisturbed in your own personal comfort zone? Maybe Joy should start a new theatre group: Sesame Street Players!
January 13th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Bravo, AWJ! Bravo.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I consider myself is prude. As a person who openly has many heterosexual friends, and even have attended some “straight” marriages, I would suggest should attend only productions that are mounted at Plano Baptist Church.
You have to remember that the DMN and ARTS, in my mind go together like George W. Bush and at Think Tank.
The very existance of Rod Dreher and his extremist religious belief system would be the cause for any employee to find any theatre that was slightly gay to be considered lewd.
The face of Rod Dreher, to me, is in and of itself lewd.
Thanks Arnold for having a scrotal sack big enough to report this. .
January 13th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Joy Tipping would be happier if she stuck to the Dallas Summer Musicals. Unless she attends Rent, she will find shows like “Bob the Builder” and (God forbid) “The Pajama Game” more to her liking.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
With a name like Joy Tipping, what do you expect?
The last time I actually bought a Dallas Morning News (other than the day after the election) was in 2007.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Hardy
I think Chitty Chitty Bang Band is coming to town. The story of a many who picks up children in a car that he claims can fly.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Hold on. Wait a second here, Arnold… what have you got against Neil Simon?
Love,
TONY
January 13th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Tony, I have nothing against Neil Simon — I like a lot of his stuff. But I doubt Uptown Players will do any of his plays — not what you’d call edgy.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
What is Dallas Morning News? Is that a newspaper? Do those still exist? Mr. Jones nailed it with his editorial perfectly.
I saw the show Friday because I’m a subscriber to John Garcia “the column” and I had to see what this guy is like on stage. I was not dissappointed whatsoever. He had my partner & I laughing non-stop. Plus my partner adores Denise Lee ! ALL the other performers were just wonderful to watch. Some performances made us hold hands in the dark, others had us laughing so hard. That was our first ever visit to Uptown.
Mr. Jones really made sense of it all. I just hope someone sent Ms. Tripping a copy. She proberly doesn’t know about the internet. Send it via carrier pigeon!
January 13th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I’m gonna play Devil’s Advocate.
Edgy is fine. Controversial is fine. Shocking is fine.
But, in theatre, all those things matter and have power when there is a purpose to them.
Being shocking just in order to be shocking could be said to be lewd. But if it has a specific artistic point, if nudity, for example, serves a higher artistic purpose, that is fine. That is what art is about.
But perhaps part of the point here is that skin just for skin’s sake doesn’t really a piece of great theatre make.
Many of Ms. Tippings comments are absurd, but this one point I think warrants valid discussion.
And I feel a need to say that I cannot give an opinion on BOW:DA, because I have yet to see it. My comments are meant for a broader discussion.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:20 am
A Thought,
Let me clarify one thing: There is no “artistic purpose” to BOW other than to entertain. It is a revue (without actual nudity, at least not full-frontal, just some “skin” as in the picture above) and the point of the show is to raise money for Uptown Players so they can DO the artistic shows like BENT. Great theater? Nah. I don’t think all theater has to have a point beyond escapism, which BOW certainly fulfills; but Uptown — and many other theaters in town; indeed, all of them at one time or another — has the ability to do something greater when they get butts into the seats for a fun evening. I don’t think shocking for shocking’s sake was the point; a laugh was.
January 14th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I sat one seat away from Ms. Tipping at “Broadway Our Way.” She was laughing her ass off through the entire show, like, rocking her chair with laughter. So when did she get all offended-y? When she got back to the uptight environs of the DMN. Methinks me smells a hypocrite-ic.
January 15th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Arnold, dahling, thank you for your eloquent defense of BOW’s honor, but did you have to use the words “Middle aged”?!!! I spent thousands of $$$ to NEVER look my age and now you’ve outed me in public
And as the writer/director of our little Uptown ’skit,’ I don’t do skin for skin’s sake or shock value, I do it because it will get laughs, which is how I approach many of the songs in BOW. Besides, I can see John dela nekkid any ol’ time, because he’s my Evil Twin, so why do it onstage except for laughs.
January 16th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Andi, Thanks. I considered whether to use “middle aged,” but being over 40 myself (by a hair!), I decided it was not a term to run away from. I am often reminded of a line from “Postcards from the Edge” where Shirley MacLaine’s character says, “I’m not old; I’m middle aged.” “Oh yeah?” Meryl Streep replies. “How many 124 year olds do you know?” So I start middle age at 38!
January 17th, 2009 at 12:26 am
LOL – I have a friend who stopped his ‘aging’ at 29 and with each subsequent year added a decimal point number, as in 29.1 (i.e. 30), 29.2 (31) Of course when you start getting into double decimal digits…well…