West End Performers - It Gets Better

Michele, The Musical Bachumanntary

Now playing in Minneapolis.

Ben Brantley On The Future Of Drag

"How much longer can they continue without a fresh batch of bona fide female stars to draw inspiration from? Since the 1960s, such role models have been scarce. Sure, there have been beautiful-freak performers like Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli, with their surreally emotive song stylings (descended from the patron saint of musical drag queens, Minnelli’s mother, Judy Garland).

"But with the feminist movement and the let-it-all-hang out ethos of the hippies that took hold in the post-Kennedy years, heroines in movies started to look more like natural women (to borrow a title from Carole King). In the 1970s and ’80s, Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda and Jill Clayburgh emerged as strong personalities, but they were not obvious fodder for drag shows. In the so-called postfeminist era, women may have stepped back into high heels and makeup as thick and precise as a geisha’s. But now they wear these identities with quotation marks, as female impersonators had before them." - New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley, in an interesting piece on the future of drag. Read the entire thing.

AGAIN: Threat Cancels Gay Jesus Play

After death threats caused Tarleton University to cancel their single 8am performance of Terrance McNally's Corpus Cristi, a local Texas theater offered to host the student production. Now that venue has rescinded their invitation, citing a threat made to them too.

The board of directors of Artes de la Rosa, which runs The Rose Marine Theater on North Main Street, decided Thursday against offering the venue for the production of Corpus Christi, just one day after saying it would. A March performance set for a directing class at Tarleton State University in Stephenville was abruptly canceled after the school received threatening emails. "The decision was reached by the Board of Directors of Artes de la Rosa to withdraw the offer of the venue, The Rose Marine Theater, which had hoped to host the 4 theatre student directors from Tarleton State University," said a statement posted on the theater's Web site Thursday. "The Rose Marine Theater will not be hosting these 4 students and their casts at any time in the future. We appreciate the public response on both sides of this debated issue." Adam Adolfo, executive director of Artes de la Rosa, said one "violent" threat had been posted on the Rose Marine Facebook page on Thursday.

So far there has been no report of the police investigating any of the threats.

Terrance McNally Marries In DC

While Christianists around the nation protested and rained down death threats on tiny college productions of his play Corpus Cristi, author Terrence McNally married his partner in Washington DC.

On Tuesday, the 71-year-old playwright and his partner, Tom Kirdahy, 46, exchanged vows on the banks of the Potomac River with the new same-sex marriage law in the nation's capital. Never mind their 25-year age difference, he said. They don't feel it, except for their tastes in music. During a small ceremony under a tree blooming with white flowers, Kirdahy read from a scene in McNally's play "Corpus Christi," in which a gay Christ-like figure named Joshua marries two apostles. "It is good when two men love as James and Bartholomew do and we recognize their union," Kirdahy read. "Love each other in sickness and in health." Kirdahy, a lawyer and Broadway producer, choked up as he recalled seeing the play before meeting McNally. "The first time I saw it, I knew that I could love the writer of those words," he said. Once they met, McNally said, it was love at first sight. Since then, they have battled McNally's lung cancer and worked together, as well as apart. After nearly 10 years and a clean bill of health, it feels like a lifetime, McNally said.

Witnesses to the wedding included actors Tyne Daly, John Glover, and Malcolm Gets.

DC's Gallaudet Plans Gay Jesus Play

DC's Gallaudet University is the latest school under attack for planning a performance of Terrance McNally's Corpus Cristi. Last week an 8am private performance of the play was canceled at Tarleton University in Texas after death threats rained in from God's gentle people. Fresh from their intimidation campaign in Texas, the red-caped Catholic loons known as the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property have launched a petition drive against Gallaudet.

"No. Blasphemy does not qualify as free speech," said TFP Student Action director John Ritchie. "Just as everyone is entitled to their own good reputation, Gallaudet University has no right to harm and slander the spotless reputation of the God-Man with blasphemy, then run to academic freedom for cover." Gallaudet University was founded in 1864 by an Act of Congress, and President Abraham Lincoln signed its charter. Since then it has received generous federal tax dollars. In fact, the university now receives approximately 70% of its funding from the federal government according to its web site. Therefore, if the university does not cancel Corpus Christi, it will be using tax dollars to bash the faith of 68 million Catholics. TFP Student Action is inviting its members to contact the president of Gallaudet University with a simple message: cancel the play.

Gallaudet serves a primarily deaf and hard-of-hearing student body. The play is scheduled for April 8-10.

Openly Gay Former Pro Wrestler Chris Kanyon Commits Suicide

Chris Kanyon, the former WWE and WCW pro wrestler who was publicly out during part of his career, has committed suicide in his NYC apartment at the age of 40.

Kanyon had overdosed on medication, with early reports indicating he had taken his own life after leaving a pill bottle and several notes close by. The gay star suffered from bipolar disorder and had previously spoken about killing himself. Jason Powell, of prowrestling.net, said: "Kanyon has battled severe depression issues over the years. "He told one friend as recently as Monday that he was having problems and was contemplating suicide. "The friend is said to have contacted one of Kanyon's family members to express his concern — despite the fact that he and several of Kanyon's friends have heard similar statements over the years. "One friend said this morning that he's expected this type of news for years, yet it was still surprising and clearly painful for this person." Kanyon was best known for his time in WCW in the late 90s, moving to WWE in the Invasion angle after Ted Turner's company folded. He came out as gay after leaving WWE in 2004 with the idea of using his homosexuality in a wrestling angle, although neither Vince McMahon's company nor rivals TNA would hire him in that role.