What makes a gay play truly gay?
Some people insist on a major or supporting character who fits somewhere in the LGTBQ spectrum. For others, the sexual orientation of the playwright is a major factor.
Then there's the sensibility of the piece. Can a gay show ever be too campy?
Or should serious queer theater eschew fluff and examine historical struggles when it comes to today's fight for progressive equal rights?
Luckily, there's a bit of all of the above in many upcoming shows this fall season.
—About Face saved: We should be thankful that About Face Theatre dodged the bullet of economic failure. Its ongoing "Face the Future" fundraising campaign brought in more than $200,000, and helped Chicago's only professional Equity company dedicated to LGTBQ theater to stay afloat.
Continue your support of About Face by attending its xyz festival of new work, running Sept. 21-Nov. 15 according to its Web site. On the docket is the world-premiere play The Flowers by Obie Award-winning playwright Adam Bock ( The Thugs ) at Stage Left Theatre. Also in the mix are showcase productions like Float by Patricia Kane ( response for About Face's hit Pulp ) , plus an interactive wedding project called Let Them Eat Cake by legendary performance artist Holly Hughes ( one of the notorious NEA four ) and About Face's artistic associate Megan Carney. For more details, visit www.aboutfacetheatre.com .
—The "Next" smash?: Jason Southerland makes his mark as Next Theatre's artistic director by opening the 2009-10 season with Boom. It's the Chicago premiere of Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's quirky comic drama involving the end of the world.
Just when everyone should be panicking, a scientist is actively seeking out dates from personal ads in Boom. See what sort of cataclysmic coupling occurs up at that Evanston venue now through Oct. 11; see www.nexttheater.org .
—Sister Suffragette: With a company name like ShawChicago, you know that this professional Chicago theater company will be dedicated to works of critic/playwright/essayist George Bernard Shaw.
But ShawChicago also produces works by Shaw's contemporaries. Get to know the dynamic American ex-patriot actress and author Elizabeth Robins ( 1862-1952 ) when ShawChicago produces her 1909 drama Votes for Women!
Robins offers a dramatized look at the suffragette movement from her own perspective as a suffragette herself. Hopefully, it will help inspire a few more activists to take up LGTBQ causes.
Votes for Women! runs Oct. 17-Nov. 9 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. Find more information at www.shawchicago.org .
—Holding Court: The late August Wilson's only Chicago-set play is his award-winning drama Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. So it's natural that Court Theatre would capitalize on its previous Wilson successes with Fences and The Piano Lesson by producing Wilson's 1920s entry in his ambitious 10-play cycle documenting African-American life in the 20th century.
The real-life blues pioneer Ma Rainey was openly bisexual, and Wilson doesn't shy away from this fact in this compelling drama set entirely in a recording studio. There, Ma Rainey holds court and clashes with record label executives and members of her own band ( particularly a hot-headed trumpeter named Levee ) .
The drama of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom ( Sept. 17-Oct. 18 ) is followed at Court Theatre by pure comedy with Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep ( Nov. 12-Dec. 13 ) .
Mystery is a two-actor cross-dressing tour de force that spoofs all things gothic in horror novels. The show is the only work by the late gay founder of the influential off-Broadway Ridiculous Theatrical Company to enter the standard theater repertory. Find out more at www.courttheatre.org .
—Sophisticated lad: Actor/playwright/song writer Noel Coward epitomized British class, wealth and sophistication throughout most of the 20th century ( an image he constructed despite his middle-class upbringing ) .
And though Coward never officially came out as gay during his lifetime ( not wanting to disappoint the elderly matinee ladies who still fancied him ) , his sexuality was plain to see by many in the know. ( How else to explain his hit song title "Mad About the Boy?" )
Writers' Theatre in Glencoe gets cozy with the wit and brilliance of Coward in a new revue playing Nov. 17-March 21 in the intimate Books on Vernon backroom. Oh Coward! is devised by Roderick Cook and features direction by Jim Corti ( responsible for Drury Lane Oakbrook's current smash hit Cabaret ) . Visit www.writerstheatre.org .
—Wonderful and off-key: The first two shows of Northlight Theatre's season don't feature gay characters per se, but their camp quotient rates high on the lavender scale.
First up is the Chicago premiere of the off-Broadway jukebox musical The Marvelous Wonderettes ( Sept. 17 to Oct. 25 ) . The show's premise is simple: a high-school girl group performs Top 40 hits at its 1958 prom. The members' Eisenhower-era optimism matures by the second act, when '60s pop hits reflect their own life's disillusions when they reunited for their 10-year class reunion.
Go for the frilly fashions and a beautifully harmonized trip down memory lane. But don't expect much lovely singing with Northlight's next show, the Chicago premiere of Souvenir ( Nov. 12-Dec. 20 ) .
—Camp, plain and simple: There are only a few more weeks to catch Hell in a Handbag Productions' Poseidon! An Upside Down Musical at the Chopin Theatre ( closing Sept. 27 ) . But there are two other similarly campy and over-the-top musicals arriving soon on the scene.
The Scooty and JoJo Show is reviving Carpenters Halloween again at Mary's Attic ( Oct.14-Nov. 7 ) . It's Scott Bradley and Jonny Stax's truly scary coupling of John Carpenter's classic 1978 horror flick interspersed with classic songs by The Carpenters. See www.scootyjojo.com .
Then there's the world premiere of Jason Dabrowski and Calidonia Olivares' sick and wrong spoof of the musical Annie called Annee Pocalypse! for Hubris Productions ( Sept. 18-Oct. 24 ) .
It's all about "Little Whorin' Annee" singing and dancing her way through a nuclear apocalypse in order to find her sugar daddy. Thankfully, only audiences 21 and older will be able to see Annee Pocalypse!, since it plays in the bar Hydrate. Visit www.hubrisproductions.com .
Pick and choose from the above shows to find whatever floats your boat when it comes to seeing "gay theater."
Find out about upcoming so-called "straight plays" next week in Windy City Times.
