Peer inside the queer closets of three hot new shows.
Good Boys and True
OMFG! Gossip Girl could learn something from Good Boys and True, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s new play (directed by The Little Dog Laughed’s Scott Ellis) set in an all-boys Catholic school during the ‘80s, in which a closeted football player becomes torn between his secret lover and another scandal. Best known to gay audiences for 2006’s Based on a Totally True Story, the Marvel Comics and Big Love writer cracks open the door on his queer agenda and sexy leads.
HX: What inspired the relationship in Good Boys and True between a closeted jock and a guy who’s out?
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: In grad school, when I was studying playwriting at Yale Drama, I dated a closeted law student at Yale Law from Texas. He was very nice and very handsome, but ultimately — after about three months into our “relationship," and I’m using that term loosely — the situation became untenable. We were only seeing each other late at night, in secret, and neither he nor I could ever sleep over. Truthfully, it was as if I had gone back into the closet, which wasn’t great.
Is Good Boys a cautionary tale for closet cases?
I don’t know if it’s quite a pro-coming out play, but I think the only character who sort of makes it out alive — who’s going to be okay, in the short- and long-run — is Justin, who is, not coincidentally, the character who’s truest to himself.
How important is it to include gay themes and characters in your work? Are you concerned about being labeled a “gay playwright”?
I never set out to write a “gay play,” but I do believe inclusion and representation are important, so if I can make a character gay without it altering the story I want to tell, I’ll tend to do it. In the cases of Based on a Totally True Story and Good Boys and True, which are both autobiographical plays — the former more than the latter — some of the characters were obviously going to be gay.
What makes Brian J. Smith and Christopher Abbott perfect to play the couple? And, most importantly, does your script require them to remove their shirts?
They’re perfect for their respective roles because of their intelligence, their chemistry, and their openness. They’re both extremely winning, too, which makes you want to root for them. And they absolutely take their shirts off — this wouldn’t be a prep school play if they didn’t.
Glory Days
The omnipresent posters around town ask, “What happens when two 23-year-old writers create a show about four 20-year-old guys?” The answer, of course, is Broadway’s Glory Days, a recent success at Virginia’s Signature Theatre, in which a quartet of friends reunite one year after graduation on their high school football field. But what happens when one of the dudes, Jack (Jesse JP Johnson), drops a surprise gay bomb with “Open Road,” a touching “coming out” solo?
It’s a song and subplot that James Gardiner, who wrote the book, says have been major parts of the musical since its beginning stages: “It’s the moment that the show really turns upside down and forces the characters to take stock of what’s changing.”
Jack and the other three characters are based on composer-lyricist Nick Blaemire’s relationship with his own high school pals. “Jack is inspired by Brian, who I grew up with in D.C. and who is still one of my best friends in the world,” Blaemire says. “He’ll be sitting next to me on opening night. He’s also a writer, so we’ve had a lot of talks about finding the right way to do this character justice, which is extremely important to me considering how much I respect him as a person.”
A roommate who came out to Gardiner in college also inspired the script. “It was interesting to watch him become more comfortable with who he was, but also try to prove to us that he was still one of the guys,” Gardiner recalls. “That experience was extremely instrumental in how I approached the character of Jack. We’re part of a generation that is more accepting of gay men and women, but it still takes a tremendous about of courage, especially if you’re coming out to a group of heterosexual men.”
SIDEBAR: Truly Inspirational
Brian Spitulnik, on whom gay character Jack in Glory Days is based, currently appears in Chicago, just one block south of where Jesse JP Johnson does him justice.
Saved
Whether or not you’re filled with Christ’s love, chances are you’re familiar with Saved!, the satirical 2004 film on which this world-premiere musical is based. Though his sexual confusion ultimately leads to his girlfriend’s plot-centric conception, Dean is a rather minor character in the movie compared to his Christian high school classmates; however, thanks to out composer-lyricist John Dempsey and “married hetero mother” Rinne Groff, the role of Dean has been beefed up for the stage.
“As we translated the story from one medium to another, focusing on Dean’s choices and giving them more space felt like the right thing to do,” Groff explains. “Certainly what Dean goes through in the story of Saved is intense and emotional, and it felt right that in a musical version he would express that in a song.”
In said act-one ditty, “Dean plays basketball and confronts his sexuality,” Friedman says. Groff elaborates: “It’s a beautiful number where he tries to reconcile his Christian faith with his carnal longing.”
The attractive Aaron Tveit, last seen haunting Second Stage’s Next to Normal, seems heaven-sent for the part. “Above and beyond being a great actor with a great voice, Aaron has a dynamic stage presence that’s quite necessary for the role,” Dempsey says. Adds Groff, “Dean is a golden child, gifted, sweet, and handsome, and Aaron embodies all these qualities.”
HX, May 2008.