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What’s it like to be 30 and queer and an artist? To try to put something meaningful into the world while simultaneously figuring out who you are? For many, it’s a pivotal year — a time when you start to know yourself with greater clarity and to understand what you want and how you want […] More
From Broadway to the city’s smaller stages, a flurry of shows with wide-ranging appeal, familiar faces and rising talent.American theater has long been more welcoming to queer lives and stories than Hollywood has been, so the abundance of shows during Pride Month is unsurprising. It’s also overwhelming — there is just so much to see.On Broadway, queer characters play central roles in productions as starkly different as “Illinoise,” a dance-theater work based on a Sufjan Stevens album, and Paula Vogel’s autofictional “Mother Play,” starring Jessica Lange. In the Max Martin jukebox “& Juliet,” a romance involving Juliet’s nonbinary best friend makes up a sweet subplot.And of course, the gayest show of the year returns on June 26, when Cole Escola’s madcap comedy “Oh, Mary!” — about Mary Todd Lincoln’s secret life and aspirations — begins previews on Broadway after a popular run at the Lucille Lortel Theater. As Joshua Barone wrote in his review, “Escola’s humor is tailored like a Bernadette Peters concert gown to New York gays who were brought up on a diet of alt-cabaret and ‘Strangers With Candy.’”Cole Escola, left, as Mary Todd Lincoln and Conrad Ricamora as Abraham Lincoln in “Oh, Mary!,” which is moving to Broadway after a run at the Lucille Lortel Theater.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesSusannah Millonzi, left, and Purva Bedi in Bailey Williams’s “Coach Coach.”Maria BaranovaSave some money for the city’s smaller stages, though, because they are offering a flurry of shows for Pride Month and are where you can spot rising talent.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
“I’m really inspired by the younger generation to be more open,” said the famous drag king, who shared photos of his very busy Pride month.Murray Hill’s signature catchphrase is a percussive “Showbiz!” When he began performing as a drag king in New York during the mid-90s on stages he recalls being “the size of a postage stamp,” shouting “Showbiz!” called out the irony of his Vegas showman persona against the gritty and grimy environs of underground drag clubs.Today, at age 51, with roles as Fred Rococo on HBO’s “Somebody Somewhere,” which was recently renewed for a third season, and as host of Hulu’s new game show “Drag Me to Dinner,” the distance between Mr. Hill and the mainstream is shrinking. Still, his life isn’t wall-to-wall glamour. “I’m in a two-bedroom apartment right now, the second bedroom being my bathroom where I’m talking to you,” he told me from his home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, during our video call.For Pride season, which lasts the month of June, we unleashed Mr. Hill on the town with his iPhone to capture some of his most “Showbiz!” moments.These are edited excerpts from the interview.I love “Family Feud.” With everything that’s going on in the country, to have us on their daytime slot, I thought it was pretty subversive and radical. Steve Harvey did not know what to do with us. That’s me with Haneefah Wood (above, middle) and Bianca Del Rio (above, left). I knew Bianca when she was just starting. We’re cut from the same cloth, but she’s more Joan Rivers; I’m more Don Rickles. And you know what? She bought a house in Palm Springs with a pool. There’s a whole economy around drag that was never there before. Thinking back to the ’90s — those dirty, stinky clubs — that is mind-blowing to me.That was at Susanne Bartsch’s “New York, New York” Pride kickoff party at the Public Hotel. Susanne Bartsch (above) is like the mother of the queer community. She’ll book Joey Arias and Amanda Lepore, who were the generation before me, and then she’ll book Charlene and all these Brooklyn kids. I don’t know anyone else who does this. I was on “Today With Hoda & Jenna” with Neil Patrick Harris. We’re talking mainstream here, a dream come true. So Jenna and Hoda and Neil were all doing cakes and I’m so short I couldn’t see what he was actually doing. He made a cake of me.Neil Patrick Harris is the producer of “Drag Me to Dinner.” I’m pretty sure I’m the first drag king — transmasc, whatever I am — to host a TV show in history. Neil Patrick Harris and his husband, David Burtka, had me host one of their Restaurant Week gigs. I didn’t know at the time, but I think that was my audition. Robert Evans says, “There’s no such thing as luck, it’s opportunity that you’re prepared for.” They gave me an opportunity.I’m a sports guy. When I got to Mets stadium, I was so excited, I was like a child. I was in the owner’s suite behind home plate and they presented me with that jersey. The back says “Mr. Showbiz.” When I had gone to a Yankees game many, many years ago, I wore a whole Derek Jeter uniform and I actually got harassed a lot. So to go back for a dedicated Pride night, it was such a different experience.I saw a lot of posts from these young drag kings saying that they weren’t getting enough Pride bookings. I always say this: If you don’t see yourself represented, go out and represent yourself. So I said, “Let’s put on our own show.” We had 20 drag kings at 3 Dollar Bill and it was completely sold out. I still have goose bumps, because I’ve never seen a show like that. And there was so much sex appeal! It was like “Magic Dyke” instead of “Magic Mike.”On Sunday at the “Pride Across America” broadcast on ABC and Hulu, I was the guest broadcaster. Lea DeLaria jumped off the parade route to talk to us. She’s the O.G. butch comedian. I’ve known Lea since the ’90s and we often get confused for each other, people calling me “Lea” and her “Murray.” When we took this picture, she goes, “We’re both in the same place at the same time. Now people know we’re two different people.”I never would have imagined sharing a picture of a partner, and I’ve never done it before. When I was coming up, there was this drag etiquette where you never broke character. You never knew anybody’s dead name, you never discussed where you were from, what your family life was like, or what your hardships were. I’m really inspired by the younger generation to be more open and not have things be “on” and “off,” they can actually be everything at once.I am in a loving, amazing, queer relationship at a senior age. Her name is Michelle Casino. This is the first girlfriend that I’ve had in my life that I actually liked. They would all agree. I have this line in my act: I go, “I’ve made a lot of mistakes and many of them are in this room tonight.” More
The director Tina Landau knows firsthand how much the New York City waterfront has changed over the decades. In 1996, she did a production of Charles Mee’s “The Trojan Women: A Love Story” at the East River Park Amphitheater. “I remember going there, and we cleaned up syringes and condoms,” Landau said.She was speaking backstage at another riverside amphitheater, albeit in much improved conditions: at the public park Little Island in Manhattan, which opened last year at Pier 55 on the Hudson and where Landau is directing “The Big Mix,” a new performing arts festival through July 3. The roster features prominent names like Idina Menzel, Tonya Pinkins and Peppermint alongside poets and fire artists, neighborhood dance troupes and choirs, tap dancers and marching bands.“I wanted to focus on representation of as many kinds and types and ethnicities and abilities and genders,” Landau said.One of Little Island’s four artists in residence, Landau has come a long way since her days picking up trash before a show; she’s a member of the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago, and was a Tony nominee for “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical.” But the inspiration behind “The Big Mix” came not so much from a high concept as from simply looking at the calendar.“I saw that Pride weekend was a week after Juneteenth and a week before July 4th,” Landau said. “I started thinking about what these holidays are: What do they mean to different people, and why do we celebrate them? So each show is in honor of, and an interrogation of, the holiday that falls on that weekend.”While she takes seriously the meaning of these commemorations, Landau also wants to entertain. “Let’s get a ton of different people in here and mash them up, and let it be sloppy and crazy and big and powerful and fun,” she said.From left, Zach McNally, Ianne Fields Stewart, Allan K. Washington and Marla Louissaint rehearsing at Little Island for a Pride Week performance. Vincent Tullo for The New York TimesJoshua Henry (“Carousel,” “Waitress” and the upcoming Broadway run of “Into the Woods”) is the M.C. of the Juneteenth celebration, running through Sunday, with a lineup that includes Pinkins, the singer Mykal Kilgore, the Sing Harlem Choir and the dancer Brinae Ali. Henry is fully on board with Landau’s big-tent approach.“It’s my job to make sure everyone’s having a great time,” he said in a video chat. “As I become more active on social media, people are starting to see my personality more, and I guess I come across as a fun-loving guy, which is pretty accurate,” he added, chuckling.Henry also suggested potential guests to Landau, who was all ears. “I wanted to find a way to turn over the space to voices other than my own,” she said. “For Juneteenth, for instance, I’ve invited people, but I’ve also been very open to what they want to say and how they want to say it. We’re in a very charged and thankfully transformative time, culturally.”The L.G.B.T.Q. Pride program (June 23-25) provided Landau an opportunity for some course-correction, decades after her 1994 show “Stonewall, Night Variations,” which also happened to be on a New York pier. Looking back on that show, Landau believed it wasn’t as inclusive as it should have been — leaving out people of color, homeless youth and transgender women in particular, who were all “part of that moment in time.” This time around, she said, “I wanted to honor those that I, in some way, had left out.”That’s why Peppermint, the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” runner-up, seemed like a great addition as M.C. But because she could host only a couple of the Pride shows, Landau turned to the costume designer and activist Qween Jean to handle the other two. “I had been following her, and I thought, ‘She’s the real deal, she’s out there doing the work,’” she said.Another participant in the Pride celebration is the choreographer James Alsop, who had been wanting to collaborate with Landau since meeting her in 2019. “She could have said, ‘I have a sneaker full of poop,’ and I’d be like, ‘I’ll choreograph it!’” Alsop said with a laugh.Fortunately, the director had a better offer — to choreograph a group number to Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out” for the festival, despite being deep in rehearsal for “The Devil Wears Prada: The Musical,” which premieres next month in Chicago.Jose Llana, right, and Brandon Contreras rehearsing a duet in front of an unbeatable backdrop, the Hudson River.Vincent Tullo for The New York TimesOne challenge was to concentrate on the dancing and not the spectacular vista right behind the stage. “Let the backdrop do what it does and just be beautiful, and let me not think too much about it, because then I won’t really focus on the movement and the dance and the joy that I want the audience to feel,” Alsop said. “I just want to exude nothing but radiance and light.”Rounding out the festival is the Independence Day show (June 30-July 3), hosted by Faith Prince — a beloved Broadway star who won a Tony for “Guys and Dolls” in 1992 and starred in Landau’s revival of “Bells Are Ringing” about a decade later.At first, though, the actress worried that she wouldn’t be a good pick for the diverse group of performers, which includes the samba-reggae marching band Fogo Azul NYC, the poet Denice Frohman and the Heidi Latsky Dance company.“Tina said, ‘Oh no, you’re quirky in your own way,’” Prince said on the phone. “And I said, ‘Yeah, I have age on me, which is another factor.’ Just when you think you’re in your prime, they want to put you out to pasture!”Prince is familiar with at least one of the performers in the Independence Day show, the Broadway regular Judy Kuhn, but she’s particularly excited by the mix of professional artists and community members, similar to the approach in a production of “The Tempest” she co-directed at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center in 2019.“We used a lot of different groups around the city, and it was thrilling,” Prince said. “It brought so many different communities together, and they were all cheering for each other. I’m really excited that’s what will happen here.”The Big MixThrough July 3 at Little Island, Pier 55, Manhattan; littleisland.org. More
