Seven of the Tony nominated performances involve drag or trans

[chanel]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 12:04pm

Amazing.

Also, Wigstock (the drag fest that used to rock NYC) might become a stage show.

[chanel]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 12:04pm

The link.

http://www.out.com/entertainment/michael-musto/2014/05/05/wigstock-musical-let%E2%80%99s-call-it-tuck-everlasting

[Kad]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 12:08pm

Calling the performances in Twelfth Night and Gentleman's Guide "drag" or "trans" seems a bit inaccurate, no?

Updated On: 5/5/14 at 12:08 PM

[haterobics]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 12:16pm

I'm blanking on any drag in Gentleman's Guide, was one of Jefferson Mays's deaths as a female? The gay press always stretches these numbers a bit... well, unless they were making a point of underrepresentation, then they use the opposite metrics on what counts.

[Emmaloucbway]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 12:48pm

2 of Mays's deaths are as a female.

[Rainbowhigh23]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 1:28pm

I was just commenting to a friend how I saw John Cameron Mitchell drunk and dancing at Squeezebox back before he created Hedwig, and how it only cost $5 at the door to get in. Now I have to pay $150 to see the same thing on Broadway!

I don't know how they would bring Wigstock to the stage - it was so perfect as an all day festival. I loved seeing Leigh Bowery give birth to his wife onstage in Tompkins Square Park!

[haterobics]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 1:36pm

"2 of Mays's deaths are as a female."

That seems to fall under Kad's comment where a man playing a female character isn't drag or trans.

"Now I have to pay $150 to see the same thing on Broadway!"

You don't have to.

[Rainbowhigh23]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 1:49pm

^ But I want to. Loud music, drag kings and queens and the theater makes me so giddy, and I got my money's worth Saturday night. I have my memories of Squeezebox to keep me warm.

Updated On: 5/5/14 at 01:49 PM

[haterobics]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 2:10pm

"But I want to."

Well, that is a separate issue from "have to"

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 2:34pm

Did GLAAD approve the terminology used in this article? If not, then it's probably homophobic.

[GreatWhiteGay]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 2:50pm

Cross-dressing might be a more appropriate term, since some of the instances involve the actor playing a female character, rather than a male character in drag or a trans character.

[Rainbowhigh23]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 2:51pm

"But I want to."

Well, that is a separate issue from "have to"

There was no way I was going to miss the show so wanting to or having to aren't so separate. I loved the seat and didn't mind paying full price for it. It was staged so accurately that I felt like I was back at Squeezebox, hence the memory of the $5 cover charge to see the birth of Hedwig! I think of it as, wow! Drag has come a long way.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 3:05pm

On a related note, somebody (the Times, I think?) pointed out that, while plenty of people have won awards for drag roles, only two people have ever won Tony Awards for playing a character of the opposite sex: Mary Martin (PETER PAN) and Harvey Fierstein (HAIRSPRAY). There is a good chance of another name getting added to that short list this year, between Mays and the Shakespeare boys.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 3:20pm

I don't see that there's anything inaccurate about calling any of these roles "some form of drag or trans." (Musto's apt words here). That's a.... er.... pretty broad modifier.

Updated On: 5/5/14 at 03:20 PM

[chanel]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 4:27pm

"Involved some form of drag or trans" is definitely true.

They are:

Neil Patrick Harris
Lena Hall
Reed Birney
Jefferson Mays
Mark Rylance
Samuel Barnett
Paul Chahidi

[Kad]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 4:35pm

I wouldn't call any of those "trans."

[haterobics]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 4:38pm

Hedwig is definitely trans.

[Kad]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 4:44pm

Arguable. Hedwig identifies as a woman out of necessity, not out of choice.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 4:46pm

John Cameron Mitchell says Hedwig "doesn't speak for the transgender community in any direct way.... Hedwig is brought to a place where she's more than a woman or a man. She's almost a gender of one in a strange way, [but] chooses to make something beautiful from the accidents of fate."


'Hedwig And The Angry Inch' Hits Broadway: John Cameron Mitchell And The Creative Team Look Back

Updated On: 5/5/14 at 04:46 PM

[JayG 2]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 4:48pm

And don't forget the holdover Drag-fest at Kinky Boots. And people complain when I say that the theater has become a self-imposed ghetto of gay culture.

[haterobics]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 5:28pm

"Arguable. Hedwig identifies as a woman out of necessity, not out of choice."

There are five inches in my favor, and only one in yours, no?

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 5:30pm

Since when does "trans" nec. mean choice?

Trans means a variety of things including cross-dressing (transvestititism, a word many might object to but which illustrates the semantic proposition), some stage of transitioning of gender (whether hormonal, pre-operatic, post-operatic, etc.), or any form of non-cisgender identification. Drag means various things to various people. For some it means a particular style of performance, i.e. drag queen or drag king, usually involving either an element of burlesque or of holding up a playful lens to customary gender differences. For other it simply means a performance in which an actor who identifies with one gender takes on the role of a character who identifies with (and dresses in the style of) another gender (e.g., the stage direction, whether actual or fabled: "drag - dressed as a girl").

[Kad]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 5:58pm

"Trans" today refers almost exclusively to "transgender"- meaning that one's gender identify does not match their biological/assigned sex. Hedwig presents herself as a woman not because she prefers it, not because she identified as a woman even before her surgery- she does it because she's not really left a choice. Her emigration to America was built solely on the fact that she, legally, is a woman. She is more able to pass convincingly as a woman than a man. That's what I mean by necessity and not choixe- she is put into a situation.

The point of the character is arguably to point how narrow and exclusive such labels are- hence a character that is difficult to define in such ways.

There was a minor flap over NPH being cast in this role in trans community- another trans role taken by a non-trans actor etc. But in reality, Hedwig is no more trans than the actor playing the character. Not by the current understanding of the term, at any rate.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 7:11pm

There is a good chance of another name getting added to that short list this year, between Mays and the Shakespeare boys.

Well if you're going to count what Jefferson Mays is doing this year, then you also must count the role he won his Tony Award for in 2004. In I Am My Own Wife, he played both male and female characters. Same thing he's doing now.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/5/14 at 9:12pm

OK, Kad, but Joe and Jerry dress as women in Some Like it Hot/Sugar don't do it because they prefer it, they do it to escape death. Would you say Some Like it Hot/Sugar doesn't deal with a "form of drag or trans."

The same question re: Victor/Victoria. Victoria has no desire to dress as a man; she goes where the work is. Still, the movie/show deals with a "form of drag or trans".

I don't see what choice has to do with it. Even apart from the fact that there may be no such thing as free will.