Circle Theater, in Forest Park, Ill., opened its 2002-2003 theater season with a production of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party. They must be very fond of LaChiusa's work, because the acclaimed and award-winning playwright's Hello Again will be closing the season when it opens June 11. After speaking with the prolific playwright, whose The Little Fish is currently running in New York, I can understand why Circle Theater would want to work with him. LaChiusa is funny and easygoing and was a pleasure to speak with.
Gregg Shapiro: Do you have an idea of the average number of productions of your work running at any given time?
MJL: No, I don't. I'm serious about that, I really don't. I know that Hello Again, for instance, is playing some place at some point. The Wild Party is always playing someplace. There is always a production here or there of The First Lady Suite, someplace. Marie Christine's not getting produced as much because it's such a large-scale work. But I think they're always in circulation out there at some point, I don't know how many. It's not like Roger and Hammerstein where it's in every single high school.
But I know that they are out there. The 'children' are OK, let me put it that way (laughs).
GS: Do you make an effort to attend productions when you can?
MJL: I enjoy it, actually. I enjoy going to see the stuff. I've enjoyed going out to Chicago, for instance, only because I'm very intrigued by regional theater and people out there doing new musicals. To me, that's first and foremost, a very brave commitment to their audiences as well as to their creative companies and themselves to do a new piece. It's tricky as opposed to bringing out the old favorites. So, I want to show support for that. Secondly, I also enjoy seeing the work in its various incarnations. I'm going up to Princeton, for instance, to see The Wild Party which is being done there at the University and they have a new, different concept for the show which I'm very intrigued by seeing. I don't think a musical is ever finished, so you can always go and see something and someone's take on it might give you an idea as to, 'Oh, I could do this with this or trim this next time it comes around.' It's always fascinating to check it out. I've loved working with various theaters across the country too and establishing relationships with them.
GS: Hello Again is about to be produced at the Circle Theater in Forest Park. Circle also did a production of The Wild Party in the fall.
MJL: I was really very enamored with their Wild Party. I thought their company was terrific. I loved the theater space itself. It was shoe-string budget obviously, but it was really terrific energy coming from it and a very young youthful cast. Terrific director Kevin Bellie. I was just really delighted with what I found there, in Chicago. I think Chicago is probably, right now, the theater city. It really is, it's got an edge far over New York right now.
GS: You also have some Chicago connections.
MJL: Lovers And Friends at Lyric Opera Chicago.
GS: Was that a good experience, as well?
MJL: I had one of the best times of my life working there in Chicago doing the show first and foremost, working with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, which is a remarkable company of people. Secondly, premiering the piece there for an audience that was comprised of not only musical theatre people, but people who were interested in classical music and opera. So, it was a great mixture of young and old and the response was so supportive. Which took me by surprise, living in New York, which is a real hard town, but they only want adolescent things right now. So, it was really great to premier an adult piece for an adult audience and it was a really nice match. It's not to say New York's bad, but it's turned into a lot of tea cup rides, you know what I'm saying? People still want to come and see their Broadway show, which I don't know why, but it's like the kid who wants to go and ride the tea cup rides only at Disney World.
GS: Some of your shows are based on pieces of literature (The Wild Party, Marie Christine, Chronicle of a Death, Hello Again) as sources of inspiration.
MJL: I think a musical can be adapted from anything. It can be a movie, a pop song, it could be anything because I think that is the beauty of musical theatre, at least American musical theatre and I would include opera in that as well, is that it can be adapted from any source. For me, it's really primarily what intrigues me. It can be a series of short stories like what I used for The Little Fish, which just opened up here in New York, which was Debbie Eisenberg's wonderful short stories. Or it can be something like the Greek tragedy Medea or it can be Schnitzler's play La Ronde, which Hello Again is based on. If there's a subject matter that intrigues me, where it comes from doesn't really matter to me. It's sometimes easier to work with a dead playwright though. I have to tell you, it's a great collaboration and they don't talk back. You can do whatever you want to do with the material. There are different challenges though. My CPA does not like me taking out the hard stuff, but I enjoy doing it because whatever the greater challenge is, I always end up gravitating towards that. Trying to adapt difficult short stories to a musical form; I'd rather do that than do something that's a little bit easier or looks obvious.
GS: There is also a queer presence in your plays, such as The Wild Party, Hello Again and The First Lady Suite. Is that an important thing for you include?
MJL: Very important for myself, yeah. Any American queer who becomes a writer will eventually be writing about that experience because you do write about your personal experiences: growing up gay in America. For myself, for many years I didn't know what I was. Hello Again is a very bisexual piece at a point in my life where I was examining that in myself. The Wild Party has some very interesting takes on being queer in the 1920s and being Black and queer in the 1920s, which I thought was a very interesting thing that I and George Wolfe did some research on. With the 'brothers' D'Armano, whom you had to call yourself in order to get away with living with your lover. Of course, Wild Party, is about the masks we wear. As gay men we do wear masks, too. How many times have you experienced it too as a gay man? You have to put on the gay mask or else you're not accepted. I try not to do that, obviously, and we all try not to do that. But society forces us sometimes to put on a queer mask. 'White face' us or 'queer' face us sometimes. But I don't like doing that. I like people to be as honest as they possibly can be.
GS: As an active participant in the realm of musical theater, were you happy about the success of the movie version of Chicago?
MJL: Oh yes, very happy! Yes, Rob Marshall and I go way back and he's a wonderful man. Truly, truly deserving of the awards that the movie has won. I enjoyed it very much. I thought he captured Chicago in the very best way. I think Bob Fosse would've really enjoyed it very much.
GS: If you had to choose one of your shows to be made into a movie, which would it be?
MJL: Well, I'm actually looking at two of the pieces. Little Fish and Hello Again are in development. I do think they all could probably work. It's a different medium, taking a musical and putting it into that medium is different now, is a different project to do, obviously. The needs of a movie house as opposed to the theatre.
GS: Some of your songs have been covered by artists such as Audra McDonald and Lea DeLaria…
MJL: … and your own Hollis Resnik.
GS: That's right! Is there anyone who hasn't yet covered one of your songs …
MJL: … Streisand.
GS: Would it be a dream come true for you to have her cover one of your songs?
MJL: Oh yeah, sure. I'm a good gay man (laughs). Absolutely! What a great voice!
