1973 Off-Broadway Musical: THE FAGGOT

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 12:56am

I was looking through Footlight Records' rare LP section online and came across a cast recording for an Off-Broadway musical from 1973 titled, THE FAGGOT. It ran at the Truck and Warehouse Theater on East 4th Street from June 18th to September 25th, 1973. Music and Lyrics are by Al Carmines, who also directed the piece. Choreography was by David Vaughan.

According to IOBDB, the show is described as, "Vignettes of homosexual lives and attitudes in songs and sketches. Previously produced off off Broadway at Judson Poets Theater."

I'm curious as to whether anyone here either saw the show back then, has heard any of the music, or has any further history about the production.


THE FAGGOT

[Craww]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 1:07am

The name is certainly eye catching.

[G_Schlozinski2]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 2:32am

here's a link to an article by michael feingold about al carmines from 2005.

it probably wouldn't be inappropriate to write to him. there's even a link for letters on the page.

http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0536,feingold,67536,11.html

[dramarama2]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 2:34am

From what I heard, it was a show that tried to be so controversial, it flopped!

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 6:42am

Okay, dating myself here, but *yes*, I saw it. (I used to have the t-shirt as well, which was *really* brave for the early 70s!). I dont remember much, save that it tried so hard to be a gay equivalent of HAIR.

[Parsley]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 6:44am

o/t Faggots and peas - a wonderful British classic dish. Although it still raises a titter even here in the UK.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 7:31am

Totally just won the playbill off eBay, and would like to actually hear it (however I am pissed at Footlight and the way they have handled their closing and pricing and the bitchy letter)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 7:44am

It didn't flop. It ran off Broadway for a respectable time and was recorded.

That was a big deal for gay theater back then--there wasn't any!

I was 17, out as a "bisexual" but I already knew that wasn't really true.

Of all people, my bitchy Aunt Sally took me to see it--she worked part-time in a hair salon in Scarsdale for a gay Italian hairdresser who sold marijuana on the side and took her to a discotheque. So she KNEW gay.

She took me as a way of telling me she was "cool." And she was.

I remember there was a great scene in it between Oscar Wilde and Bosie and another between Gertrude Stein and Alice.

[elmore3003]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 8:40am

I had loved IN CIRCLES and PROMENADE so much that I was looking forward to the show but I thought it was mostly garbage: I still don't know why there was a number for Catherine the Great about the horse she loved. I felt the Oscar Wilde number suffered from Carmines' inability to write a well or wittily as Wilde, but the Alice Toklas-Gertrude Stein duet was quite lovely, with none of the convoluted language that one considers the style of Ms Stein.

I found it a major disappointment.

[Arthur Moscato]

Posted: 1/1/14 at 4:27am

I saw this and loved it. As it was explained in the show's prologue the term "faggot" was being used not only as slang for gay but to describe anyone that dared to live outside of Society's perceived norm. Thus the Catherine the Great scene made sense. The scene with Marilyn child was a hoot. A straight woman who opened a gay bar named after her abusive longshoreman father, singing a torch song parody!

[SweetLips]

Posted: 1/1/14 at 5:35am

My goodness PalJoey,you had your own 'gay' Aunty Mame-lucky you.Who needs Broadway when people like yourself have such wonderful true life tales to tell.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 1/1/14 at 4:26pm

Pal Joey needs to write a book about his theatre experiences...or at the very least write a very long blog. Ponder that thought. from RC in Austin Texas

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/1/14 at 5:59pm

PJ, I love everything about that post!

[ARTc3]

Posted: 1/1/14 at 7:38pm

I too was disappointed and I was a huge Al Carmines fan, still am.

[jayinchelsea]

Posted: 1/1/14 at 10:11pm

I saw it too, was already on my second husband (I was 24) and I thought it was just great. I was a big Al Carmines fan, and as someone mentioned, there wasn't that much gay theatre at the time, so this seemed special. In the early 90s, when I had my own theatre company in New York, we considered doing a revival of it. When we read it again, we were surprised at how apologetic and negative it was about homosexuality, and how dated it had become. Thankfully, the world had moved on, and THE FAGGOT was only a product of its time.

[ARTc3]

Posted: 1/1/14 at 10:34pm

Your post reminded me early gay theater, and as such struck a chord. Thank you. Off and Off-Off-Broadway had their fair share of gay themed shows. Not too much later than, The Faggot, the Glines forms and soon Meridian and The Shandol Theater are formed. The performances were of varying degree of professionalism and the production values were often pretty low, but there was a real gay "experimental" theater movement. I remember it well.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/1/14 at 10:45pm

I think we finally have a viable candidate for next Christmas's live broadcast.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/1/14 at 10:47pm

Starring Taran Killam as Jedediah Atkinson.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/1/14 at 10:49pm

I like it, I like it.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/2/14 at 10:36am

He hates it, he hates it.

NEXT,

[goldenboy]

Posted: 1/3/14 at 3:19pm

i saw it at 18 and can't remember anything about it except that it was ho hum.
That can't be good. Love Al Carmine's music though..Promenade rocks.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/4/14 at 10:31am

[SweetLips]

Posted: 1/5/14 at 1:57am

Lesbian Faggots? Is there such a thing? Those 2 could be either.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 1/5/14 at 6:10pm

I've often wondered about the gay Off-Broadway theatre of the '70s. Sometimes I'll pull out my "Theatre World"s from that era to look at how many shows that had all, or predominantly, male casts would have a shirtless picture of one of the performers in their "Theatre World" listings. And I'm not complaining.

[ARTc3]

Posted: 1/5/14 at 6:47pm

sondheimboy2 There were lots of Off and Off-Off Broadway gay themed plays in the 70s. There were even a few really good ones. I remember Boy Meets Boy very fondly, as I do, Stray Dog Story. I worked for The Glines and later directed at The Shandol Theater. It really was sort of a golden age.

Updated On: 1/5/14 at 06:47 PM