While Michael R. Jackson's 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop is enjoying a hit run on Broadway—and is deservedly the most Tony-nominated production of the season—downtown at the Public Theater a 2022 Pulitzer-winner, James Ijames' Fat Ham officially opened last night, with its original run already extended twice until July 3rd (extended again until... Continue Reading →
GLAAD Awards Exclusive Interview: Michael R. Jackson on writing A Strange Loop “I felt misunderstood, unseen & unheard”
A Strange Loop became the most Tony Award-nominated production of the season today, receiving 11 nominations including Best Musical. On Friday night the show's Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, composer and lyricist, Michael R. Jackson, gave a powerful and moving performance of Memory Song from the musical on stage at the 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards. Ahead... Continue Reading →
Bases Instinct – Theatre Review: Take Me Out (Hayes Theater, New York) ★★★★1/2
As a little budding gay growing up in a small town, I surprised even myself by really being into baseball. I knew everything about the players and their stats. I collected the baseball cards and even rooted for the Pittsburgh Pirates despite being an Ohioan who should have supported the Cleveland Indians. Even as a... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Cock (Ambassadors Theatre, London) ★★★★
Mike Bartlett’s Cock, last seen in London in 2011, is not just a source of endless childish sniggers in the West End—though we are grateful for that—it is an innovative revisiting of an important queer play, directed by Marianne Elliott. Barlett was inspired by cock fighting in Mexico, mashed up with questions about sexuality and... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Steve (Seven Dials Playhouse, London) ★★★1/2
The tale of a middle-aged white gay New Yorker having romantic issues might not be the story the world is desperately crying out for at the moment, but Steve—now playing at the newly renamed Seven Dials Playhouse in London—is brisk, bright, and funny. There’s a sense of new beginnings about this production bringing Mark Gerrard’s... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Australian drag superstar Courtney Act on her Sydney Theatre Company debut “this feels like a whole level jump”
Australia has never been shy of drag. From the legacy of Sydney’s Les Girls and Carlotta, to Barry Humphries' iconic Dame Edna and Stephan Elliott's classic 1994 movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, drag has long been part of nation's cultural mix. But things changed when Courtney Act rose to fame in... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Lizzie (Hayes Theatre/Sydney Festival) ★★★1/2
Lizzie, an early 00s power punk-pop musical about Lizzie Borden—the turn-of-the-century axe murderer—has been ripped apart and put back together for the Sydney Festival. Dial down the history, turn up the lesbian rage. “Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks; When she saw what she had done, She gave her father... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Triple X (Sydney Theatre Company) ★★★★1/2
Glace Chase’s play, Triple X, has finally hit the Sydney Theatre Company mainstage and it has been well worth the elongated wait. Fresh, complex, and hugely entertaining, this exploration of the love between a cis man and trans woman quickly demolishes your expectations and takes you on a ride filled with ethical backflips, emotional diversions,... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: The Normal Heart (National Theatre, London) ★★★★
The Normal Heart has returned to the UK in its first major production since the original, and taking over the National Theatre's Oliver stage, directed by Dominic Cooke (in a co-production with his Picturehouse production company) it is quite the return. In many ways, Kramer’s is a time capsule of that time of dark desperation... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Dead Skin (Kings Cross Theatre, Sydney) ★★★★
Watching Dead Skin—which won the State Theatre Company of South Australia’s Young Playwright’s Award and had its world premiere at the Kings Cross Theatre Sydney this week—I was impressed by the complexity of the narrative structure, the ease and flow of dialogue that authentically captures the energy and angst of youth, as well as the... Continue Reading →