A gay weekend

I think I've used that subject line before.

Friday night we went to see Milk, which goes to show you just how far behind the curve we really are. But I love Sean Penn. Who doesn't, right? Penn and Nicholson are the two all-time greats, and when I watch either one of them I am so inspired.

Amazing work by Penn, but I wasn't that crazy about the movie itself. Sorry. I guess I have to turn in some kind of club card now, huh? It's just sort of the inevitable problem with a movie like that: You know the ship is going to hit the iceberg and you know he's going to get shot. Camera work and special effects can only take it so far. But this is nothing new for me. Everything I've seen in the past couple of years has left me tepid, if not downright cold. Oddly, the only other I saw in the running for any Oscars was Slumdog Millionaire, which I thought was good, but again, if that's the "best", well...

Then last night we headed over to the Machine to see the Gold Dust Orphans perform the Ryan Landry original spoof on Of Mice and Men, Of Mice and Mink. Maybe it's live theater that keeps my juices flowing, because I love this stuff. Part Oscar Wilde, part vaudeville--hey, they're drag queens for God's sake--this is my idea of theater. Ribald, loud, real audience participation. I've always imagined that this is what Shakespeare was like back in the days before we got all snooty in the theater. Anyway, Harvey Milk would have had a grand old time, so I guess everyone's happy, right?

Gold Dust Orphans' Wizzin'

Go see it. It is hilarious. Check your homophobia and go to The Machine, a gay bar over by Fenway Park, and laugh your ass off.

It's great when all of your expectations are met in the theater. So much is crap, or it's just not right up there and you find yourself sitting in the audience making concessions for the actors or the production. And theater isn't getting any cheaper.

First, go. And when you go, check to see if the Sox are playing. I dropped Sue off at the door and went to park. There's a little lot around the corner I figured I'd shoot for if I couldn't find any on-street parking. Nothing on the street and parking was $35 because the Sox were in town. Holy Christ. Those guys are going to burn in hell, it's that simple. 

So, after driving around for awhile and it was getting late, I said to hell with it and parked at the Beth Israel Hospital. (Here's a tip: when you bail your car out, tell the attendant that you were there for a doctor's visit and you get a discount. I can't believe they bought that I had a doctor's visit at 11:00 last night, but they did. Sue was busting a gut laughing.)

I got there about a half hour late, and they let me in. The woman at the door (yes, see: it's a gay bar but women work there...sheesh) showed me where my "wife" was sitting (that's so cute, they think all heterosexuals are married) and in seconds I was laughing.

It's an original script, original music, with social commentary, the usual Orphans' sight gags like little things flying around on a wire, and some of the funniest jokes on the planet. C'mon, instead of ruby slippers Dorothy is wearing ruby panties. Glinda is a coke addict (helps when the poppers put them to sleep: Hey, it's snowing!) The scarecrow doesn't have a brain but that doesn't mean he can't keep talking on his cell phone. Lots of people do . The Tin Man doesn't have a heart and the hard drive on his laptop froze. The Cowardly Lion has gender issues. "C'mon, I'll fight you with my hair tied back." (Now that's funny.) They're all going to see the Wizard of Id and they get around in a giant vagina. I know that' sounds weird, but you just gotta see it and you'll be dying. 

It's campy and it's serious (well, seriously funny) commentary about our lives today, and you just don't see that in so much "serious" theater. I just wonder sometimes just how relevant any of the theater is nowadays. I love the theater, but I have to question why it's so hard to fill seats, at least in the smaller theaters. More and more, small theater companies play to their friends. You hear that the theater is dying and sometimes I wonder if maybe we should just let a lot of it die off and see what grows back, because we're just sort of keeping it on life support. 

A gay old time in Boston

I'm having a gay old time this week...

First, on Wednesday I checked out Love My Life at the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival...actually, the reason I went is because it was advertised for it's indie music and because it's set in Japan...Sue has sparked my interest in Japan since she lived there for so long...

And it's a completely enchanting movie...great story, about two Japanese young woman who are lesbians, and the whole cast of characters that that surrounds them--who knew there were that many gays in Japan...but it's a great story, tenderly and amusingly told, delightfully shot--it's so easy to watch, the cinemaphotorpher just lays it out for you to see...and you love and care for each and every character, rooting for them to get what they want...here's the trailer...even in Japanese it's pretty easy to see what it's all about...

and oh, the opening scene is killer...it's one of the final shots in the trailer where they are kissing and passing a piece of candy back and forth between their mouths...so sensual and playful and funny, I laughed out loud...and the ending scene to the movie is one of the hottest love scenes you'll ever see....



Then tonight I'm going to see the Gold Dust Orphans production of Wizzin'. Ryan Landry and the Orphans are up to their old tricks again, only this time it's Dorothy who flies off to the Land of Id, and the Wicked Witch is after her ruby panties.

From their site:

An adult version of the beloved classic, “The Wizard of Oz”, “Whizzin’” tells the musical story of troubled teenager Dorothy Gale, as she travels over the rainbow, far from the dull, sepia toned trailer parks of Hyannis to the deep, dark recesses of her own VERY colorful mind.

It's a musical, magical place called "The Land of Id" where all your favorite characters reside! There's a pill popping Glinda, some VERY gay Munchkins, an agoraphobic Tin Man, a painfully insecure Lion, a cell phone addicted Scarecrow ... even the sociopathic Wicked Witch of the South End flies in for a spell!

Chock full of terrific new songs, (plus a few standards!) "Whizzin'!" just can't be beat for all out entertainment!

The show boasts an all-star cast of Orphan favorites, including Afrodite, Penny Champagne, Megan Love, Olive Another, Billy Hough, Ryan Landry, Cheri Amour and returning to the Orphan stage, Boston favorite Rick Park! So grab your basket and get on board for the silliest, sexiest sensation of the season!

Enough said...I can't wait...

Whizzin!" opens Thursday April 24

(If I recall, Urinetown is also being spoofed in this show, too, hence the name....)

Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans are proud to announce the Boston premier of their latest hit musical,"Whizzin'!"

An adult version of the beloved classic, "The Wizard of Oz", "Whizzin'" tells the musical story of troubled teenager Dorothy Gale, as she travels over the rainbow, far from the dull, sepia toned trailer parks of Hyannis to the deep, dark recesses of her own VERY colorful mind.

It's a musical, magical place called "The Land of Id" where all your favorite characters reside! There's a pill popping Glinda, some VERY gay Munchkins, an agoraphobic Tin Man, a painfully insecure Lion, a cell phone addicted Scarecrow ... even the sociopathic Wicked Witch of the South End flies in for a spell!

Chock full of terrific new songs, (plus a few standards!) "Whizzin'!" just can't be beat for all out entertainment! The show boasts an all-star cast of Orphan favorites, including Afrodite, Penny Champagne, Megan Love, Olive Another, Billy Hough, Ryan Landry, Cheri Amour and returning to the Orphan stage, Boston favorite Rick Park!

So grab your basket and get on board for the sassist, silliest, sexiest sensation of the season!

As they say in Revere, "Whizzin'!" is a pissah!"

"Whizzin'!" will be presented at the Machine Theater from April 24 through May 24 with performances Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. Advance tickets are available for purchase through Theater Mania 1-866-811-4111 or online www.theatermania.com. Tickets are $28 for general seating, cash at the door. For more information, visit our website at www.GoldDustOrphans.com and now check us out on MYSPACE!

We look forward to seeing you at the show and thank you for your support!!


Gold Dust Orphans
387 Ashmont Street
Dorchester, Massachusetts 02124

Step back and take a DEEP BREATH

So…starting to get a little squeamish?

A co-worker told me that I was a little angry on this blog yesterday. A little? Hmm…darn it, I was going for a lot of angry; guess I’ll just have to work on that.

Another has said to me a couple of times that if I don’t want her to read this blog to just let her know. (K: it’s really okay. That’s what it’s for.)

I believe very strongly in the shared experience of life. That we’re all in this together. Not that we are all actually are connected in some mysterious DNA kind of way. But I think we, us, all of us, white, black, green, red, yellow, purple, old, young, gay, straight, bi, curly, believers, non-believers, male, female, and anything in-between, can lend a hand to one another just by cluing each other in on our personal experience of this reality we call life. That we have a heckuva lot more in common that we thought.

I mean, isn’t this what this Internet thang is supposed to be all about? Connecting? Reconnecting a world gone awry?

The digital world has connected us in so many ways, but the one thing it did was strip away all emotion. We’ll say things in email or respond to a blog in language that we would never say to a person face-to-face. All I’m trying to do is put the person back in the digital world.

I lived in a neighborhood where the woman across the street from me died, and I didn’t even know it. Didn’t know her, had no idea that she died until her son took over the house. Two doors down a man, a husband and father of two girls, slowly died of cancer and I knew about it, but didn’t know about it either. (Why were all these people dying in that neighborhood? Thank God I got out alive!) These momentous life events—death is a life event, we just don’t talk about it—and everyone looked the other way.

We work so closely together, but retain that “professional” distance. But what’s wrong with knowing that the person who you’re riding the elevator with has money problems? Gets depressed at times? Gets angry? Regarding yesterday’s blog, I wouldn’t be human if I wasn’t angry about some of the things that have happened to me and that some people have done to me; there would be something wrong with me if I wasn’t. These really are just regular, everyday, human experiences. As are even the bigger, darker ones that we keep so secret. Shhh...divorce. Adultery. Alcoholism. Drug addiction. Serious mental illness. Nah, just normal human experiences, I'm sorry to say. It's like sex: We really make too big a deal out of things.

I was talking to Ryan Landry this morning, a founder of the Gold Dust Orphans. Ryan is a self-proclaimed 46-year-old queen, and said he doesn’t consider himself male or female. He considers himself human. Now there’s an interesting concept. He and I just this morning were talking about how he tries to show through drag, vaudeville, and burlesque the similarities we all have as human beings.

It’s a risk. I know it is. Not everyone’s going to buy into this. It’s weird, someone might say. Someone else might say, it’s interesting, but I couldn’t lay myself out there like that. I’m too shy. I’m too private. And there’s the inevitable, he’s psycho, run away.

Well, whatever. I repeat: Wasn’t the Internet supposed to bring us all together? One big digital world? Well, what about it? I mean, do you really want to use it for just selling cars and our used crap on e-bay?