Masterful acting
keeps three plays by Terrence McNally from becoming
cliché. But not even a porn star can save The Ritz.
You would think
that an elder statesman of the theater like Terrence
McNally would be resting on his laurels and collecting his
royalties from Majorca or Maui. But unlike his
ex-lover Edward Albee or his contemporary Sam Shepard,
who eke out something new every five years or so, the
68-year-old McNally churns out plays like a caffeinated
hotshot fresh out of Yale. The current revival of
The Ritz at Studio 54 is his third show on
or near Broadway this year alone.
First up was
Some Men at the Second Stage, an ensemble
piece in the tradition of Love! Valour!
Compassion! and Corpus Christi. Spanning
eight decades, it investigated the ways gay men have evolved
(or not) in their habits of partnering (or not). All
the scenes you expect from a gay social history are
there. Same-sex wedding? Check. Scene at the baths?
Check. AIDS ward? Check. Gay therapy group? Check. Internet
chat room, gay daddies, elders being interviewed by
earnest/ignorant young students, gay bar the night of
the Stonewall rebellion—they’re all
predictably there. The play might have felt like a string of
clichés if it weren’t so well staged by
Trip Cullman and fantastically acted. In particular,
the ever-great David Greenspan wrung tears and laughter from
some of the most overexposed gay stereotypes, p
including a drag
queen in a Greenwich Village sweater bar who sings
“Over the Rainbow” in a weak but
endearing voice with a thick Long Island accent.
Besides being haunted by actor Romain Frugé’s
astonishingly beautiful bare butt, I came away with
respect for McNally’s stamina for chronicling
gay life. Even if it’s old news to us, mainstream
straight audiences eat it up. And who knows, a play
like Some Men may turn out decades from now to be
the definitive document of the way we live now.
Click here to follow The Advocate on Twitter.
Page 1 of 2