Strickland Talks Sexuality, TARZAN & PEEPSHOW

Josh Strickland opens up about his PEEPSHOW role, working for Disney, and discusses (for the first time) his sexuality in a new interview with Advocate.com.

Selected Excerpts from Strickland's interview:

During Tarzan there was a lot of speculation about your sexuality on various blogs and Broadway chat rooms. Were you aware of that?
I did know that was going on, but I tried not to look at blogs because some of it was so nasty. It's fine that people were talking about it, but I was never asked, like, "Are you gay? How does it feel being gay and playing a character like Tarzan?" It never came up. Now I'm happy to be open and out about it. If people are going to speculate anyway, why not wash all that speculation away? I am who I am.

There were rumors floating around that Disney tried to keep your sexuality a secret by preventing you from speaking too much and by limiting your interviews.
Disney's one of the best companies to work for, and I never had any complaints. What they did for me was put me in a class for media training. They gave me talking points about the show, but they didn't tell me what I couldn't talk about. I was never held back from being who I am. The questions people asked were just never about my sexuality.

What did you think of Ramin Setoodeh's recent Newsweek article?
Whenever somebody writes an article like that, it's just one person's opinion. It's just too bad it was in a big, international news magazine like that. It's disheartening because you don't want to go backward when you're moving forward. Especially for people in smaller cities who aren't used to being out and around gay people like we are, that stuff makes them fall back in the hole a bit farther.

To read the entire Advocate.com interview, click here.

Strickland appeared on season 2 of Fox TV's American Idol has guest starred on All My Children.
He most recently starred as Tarzan in Disney's production of Tarzan, as Tarzan, on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, which closed in July of 2007.

PEEPSHOW, Las Vegas' hottest show and striptease spectacular, brings sexy back to The Strip. Holly Madison stars as "Bo Peep," a modern woman who discovers her newfound sexuality, alongside Broadway vet Josh Strickland (Tarzan). On April 18, PEEPSHOW celebrated its one year anniversary on the strip with a cake and champagne celebration.

Madison is now the darling of Las Vegas after starring in the hit TV show, "The Girls Next Door," on E! for five years and will soon star in her all-new show, "Holly's World," on E!, which season premieres in May. Madison will star alongside a sizzling ensemble of sexy PEEPSHOW GIRLS, showstoppers from film, TV and Broadway who were handpicked to perform in this enormous production.

The highly-stylized, intricately choreographed, over-the-top PEEPSHOW combines sexy striptease and celebrity with high-level production values. The production was conceived and created by Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde, Hairspray) and produced by Las Vegas entertainment pacesetter Base Entertainment (Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular, Jersey Boys, and Wayne Brady: Making it Up!).  Veteran Broadway composer, who is currently represented on Broadway by The Addams Family served as composer/musical supervisor and arranger.

The production team includes David Rockwell (scenic design), Gregg Barnes (costume design), Chris Lee (lighting design), Acme Sound Partners (sound design), Zachary Borovay (video design), and Josh Marquette (hair design).

Tickets for PEEPSHOW can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000 or online at Ticketmaster.com. For groups of 10 or more, please call 702- 785-5394 / 866-633-0195 or Groups@BASEentertainment.com. For more information visit www.LasVegasPeepshow.com.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride