Gay playwright Robert Patrick once wrote, "A gay play? Is that a play that sleeps with another play of the same sex?" Well, no. And it doesn't matter if the playwright sleeps with other playwrights of the same sex. To qualify for our LGBT theater roster, a play must have a theme or story that speaks to LGBT issues. So doing The Women in drag, dearies, doesn't make it a gay play. Actually, the LGBT theater quotient for the winter months is rather slim, so we're gonna' stretch our rule-of-thumb just about as far as one can stretch a thumb, and also look ahead as far as April.
Spamalot, Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook Terrace, through March 6: This is the very first independent regional production of the fabulously successful Monty Python musical. That is, it's not the national tour of the Broadway show. It's LGBT, you'll remember, because Sir Lancelot ends up saving a prince in distress wearing a girl's dress, then Lance strips down to chain mail and leather and everyone does a disco number. I think it's tasteless but Monty Python didn't build its reputation on taste. Other than that, Spamalot is a funny show.
As You Like It, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, through March 6: Not really gay but Shakespeare up to his old genderfuck trick, with two young women in the cast disguising themselves as young men (because, remember, in Shake's day there were no women actors and pre-adolescent boys played the female roles). And then the manly young hero falls for the girl in disguise-as-a-boy and everyone gets to guess at the Freudian implications.
The Beats, 16th Street Theatre (Berwyn), through Feb. 5: Marilyn Campbell has adapted 1950s and 1960s writings of The Beat authors and assembled them into a play. Several of them were gay, notably Allen Ginsburg, and others just teased them along (notably Neal Cassidy). This version also includes Diane Di Prima and LeRoi Jones (long since Amiri Baraka), the latter an unexpected inclusion.
Three Tall Women, Court Theatre, preview Jan. 13 and runs Jan. 22-Feb. 13: We include this play not because it's by gay playwright Edward Albee (at least two other Albee plays are running locally at the same time), but because it's his most autobiographical play and includes a fictionalized version of his coming-out to his mother when he was in late adolescence. It also happens to be a fine and often-funny play. The three women of the title all are his adoptive mother, seen at three different ages (as is her son, the Albee figure).
Sketchfest 2011, Stage 773 (former Theatre Building), through Jan. 16: The 10th annual edition of the world's largest festival of sketch comedy is decidedly swishy this year with appearances by several LGBT artists and comedy troupes, among them Chicago's very own GayCo Productions, Jan. 15. But also: The Puterbaugh Sisters (Jan. 13), Cell Camp (also Jan. 13) and Over Served: Putting the Rant in Restaurant (Jan. 16), this summer's hit musical revue by Vampeero Productions.
Mary, Goodman Theatre, previews from Feb. 5, runs Feb. 14-March 6: This world premiere by Thomas Bradshaw IS an honest-to-goodness, heavens-to-Betsy GAY play, the result of a commission from the Goodman. It's set in 1983, at the very dawning of the Age of AIDS, and concerns a college student who invites his boyfriend home to his parents' house in Virginia where nothing has changed since the 1800s — including the slave quarters. It's additionally notable because Bradshaw is an African-American playwright. FYI, it's described as an absurdist comedy. Naturally, it's playing at the Goodman during Black History Month.
Hair, Ford Center/Oriental Theatre, March 8-20: A new production of the legendary anti-war, anti-racist, pro-drug, pro-love-and-sex musical that brought rock 'n' roll to Broadway (well, soft rock) along with incense and nudity. And, yes, there's a gay character although it's rather softly-touched-upon. Perhaps it will be less softly so in this new staging.
Dirty Blonde, BoHo Theatre at Theater Wit, April 1-May 1: Another post-Broadway tour Chicago debut production, Claudia Shear's biography of camp icon Mae West is told with music and three actors playing 24 characters. One of them not only is obsessed with Mae West, but obviously gay and into donning Mae West drag (as does the female lead as well). We should remember that before she became camp, Mae West was an outspoken advocate for sexual freedom (and sexual expression) for women, and against censorship. Like her contemporary, Sophie Tucker, she acquired more than a little of her persona and musical style from Black culture.
Pony, About Face Theatre at the Chopin Theatre, April 10-May 29: This one should be interesting, leaping off from the classic story of Woyzzeck with a cast of three female characters and one FTM trans-gendered character. An exploration of the theme of obsessive love (hence, the Woyzzeck connection), it's written by Sylvan (formerly Sally) Oswald. About Face Artistic Director Bonnie Metzgar will direct.
