Down with his saccharine, sweet generosity

Down with his ministrations

Down with the bleeding heart

And his philosophy

Up with his poor relations

Up with publicity

Up with the interviews

Up with the whirlwind touring

Up with the bunting

Up with the slogan signs

Up with the underscoring!

(Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo!)

beauty and the beast review [’out-of-context spoiler’ warning]

So I saw Beauty and the Beast last night and I actually had some pretty clear thoughts on it! I’m still not fully sure how to get a format for movie reviews, so suggestions would be helpful if you have any thoughts on that!

Overall, I wasn’t super excited about a new Beauty and the Beast ‘live-action’ movie when I first heard about it; it wasn’t my didney favorite as a kid and as much as I liked to defend it, it never really had much for me personally, so I ended up going in without seeing many of the designs or any of the trailers. I just knew the basics that most people already knew when going in: emma watson, cgi, gay lefou, and the story being a ‘darker take’ on the tale.

Honestly, I was very impressed with the changes to the story that this adaption made. The added backstory to the Beast and the Witch were the most key things: showing that the Beast wasn’t a spoiled eleven year old orphaned prince (who honestly wouldn’t have deserved to be turned into a beast and his whole household cursed, no matter who he turned away) but someone older and capable of making his own (cruel) decisions, albeit influenced by the ages and things that had happened to him in life.

Other things that made me quite happen in the story was how the relationship had been changed to make it very clear that it was not stockholm syndrome (something which has been put out-of-context in Beauty and the Beast narratives of the cartoon, when it’s Lima Syndrome if anything) but that Beast and Belle do genuinely have shared interests, and once they are able to talk, they do begin to grow and change as people beside each other. The biggest point to this is the infamous library scene, which detractors say is a false gift because ‘it was already there to begin with, he didn’t actually give her anything except show her where it was,’ and which fans say is Beast trying to cater to Belle’s interest. Instead of it being muddily worded, this time, the Beast simply brings Belle to the library, and upon seeing her interest in books, says ‘well, it’s yours then,’ making it clear this was not planned, but simple surprising correspondence of interest. As much as the servants are certainly in on trying to make Beast and Belle into a ‘thing’ to save themselves (understandably), once Beast and Belle actually do form a connection, the servants quickly lose their control as the two tear off on their own direction.

Finally, one thing that I was very surprised about was the amount of black actors in the movie. The vast majority are background characters, but two prominent servants are revealed to be black at the end of the film, one of them explicitly very beautiful, and the village Father who runs the little library Belle borrows from is black. Several other villages are also black, and there are several end-game mixed romances. Cons where cons are due: most of the black actors were servants which has connotations I don’t think I’m qualified to speak of, I can’t remember if any of the black characters notably spoke to each other, and none of the well known lead characters are black. Still, the casual inclusion of non-white was definitely something refreshing to see, and a trend I hope continues until it’s no longer startling to see multiple named back characters who aren’t playing the martyr-esque perfect magical side character meant to bring out the best in the protagonist/God.

Finally, the issue that I think people were most contentious about: Le Fou.

If you asked our childhood selves, I don’t think any of us would’ve expected walking into a remake of Beauty and the Beast where the character we planned on watching closest was Le Fou.

To get the final verdict out of the way: I personally prefer a Beauty and the Beast that had Le Fou as an explicitly gay character with a flawed portrayal than to have a Beauty and the Beast without a gay Le Fou at all. I think it would have been immeasurably worse to have Le Fou continue to be a gay stereotype bumbling along beside Gaston than to have had Disney not attempt something, but this is my personal opinion, and I do have a lot of reservations.

First of all: I don’t think Le Fou was explicitly gay in the film. We knew from interviews beforehand, but going into the film itself? It felt more like they were trying to hint at it than anything. The only moments Le Fou does anything ‘explicitly’ gay is when it’s played for laughs, particularly in the scene where Le Fou whips up the crowd to praise Gaston. He’s treated better than his cartoon counterpart--he has brains and charisma, and is treated and viewed more as Gaston’s right-hand rather than a bumbling lackey, but the root of the problem still remains that, in trying to keep true to the basic narrative (Belle goes to Beast, Gaston and town follow, Gaston tries to kill Beast) they have also left Le Fou ineffectual and unabe to deviate from his ultimate role as a side character who could vanish from the plot with no consequence. Just because he’s more charismatic and his comedy comes from his snarky muttering than his foolishness doesn’t mean he’s given any more plot weight than before--and that does make me sad.

It also makes me sad that it wasn’t more explicit and the only moments that were explicit were jokes. If I were a child or uninformed adult walking in, I’m not sure if I would realize that Le Fou was in love with Gaston, despite Josh Gad’s admirable acting. I wish there had been more opportunities taken in the movie to make this more explicit, but Le Fou comes across as someone who’s trying to get Gaston to focus on other ladies… not on himself.

And on the level of those outside the movie theater: Howard Ashman was a lyricist for Beauty and the Beast, revitalizing Disney and notably writing the eponymous song featured in the film (Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, Beauty and the Beast). Ashman was gay and severely ill while working on Beauty and the Beast, dying in 1991 of AIDs shortly after it was completed without ever seeing the final product. For two decades after the death of the man who helped revitalized Disney, in 2017, Beauty and the Beast should absolutely have a gay character in it, and perhaps Le Fou was indeed a good choice for that!

But the fact remains that Le Fou is named “the crazy/insane” one, is the only character in a miserable, abusive relationship, and in a film where we get not one but multiple happy straight couples at the end, the sole gay person is left alone and miserable in the climax except for a single blink-and-you-miss-it scene (that I did almost miss due to being in the middle of blinking and so I didn’t even see his face and I just kind of assume it was him because of costuming) and then is never mentioned again.

So I don’t know what Howard Ashman would’ve wanted. I don’t know how any of his surviving loved ones may feel. I am glad that there was a gay character. But I think that they could’ve given a stronger tribute and homage to a man who helped this company so much, who died a miserable death to a miserable illness, and who created the words to a world that children like him will continue to grow up in.

I know it would be difficult without ‘altering’ the movie’s basic plot too much, but even just little things might’ve gone over well: Belle’s father finding Le Fou afterwards and comforting him, perhaps, both having to leave behind the people they loved for their own good and the good of those around them. Having some background utensils being gay as well to take the entire strain of representation off of Le Fou. Even just lingering with him a little longer at the end would’ve been appreciated.

I’m glad he was there. But I wish he was a little more.

...finally, some things that are closer to nitpicks:

Beauty and the Beast clearly demonstrates the difficulties with having live animals and CGI animals, re: the live action horse being surrounded by all those goddamn wolves and just bein super chill. Because they’re CGI wolves. It ends up looking like the world’s least startle-able horse, even in scenes where you really really think the horse should be just. Screaming.

Emma Watson appears to be in a separate room from all other characters throughout the entire movie. Part of this is because sometimes she is, as she has the most parts in the movie with only CGI characters to act off of, and entire scenes where she’s expected to just sit there looking impressed at the thin air (see: be our guest). The problem comes with what I’m assuming is a directorial decision to also have her act like she’s completely ignoring the townspeople half the time earlier on in the film, and then later saying that she feels like she’s shunned by them. We do have one scene of bullying, but unfortunately it’s overshadowed by everything else, and when you put it together, it looks like she had to film the whole movie but the end in a completely different room from everyone else.

Lastly:

...seriously, you can tell those wolves were not the priority for the animation team, oh holy hell.

TLDR: overall good film, liked the plot changes, conflicted but supported about le fou, i realized I didn’t mention Gaston but that was just because he was so seamlessly in that I totally blanked, y’all did fucking great with Gaston, nitpicks about wolves and CGI that I’m sure the animation dept. would like to Explain Why We Did That, M’AAM and I trust you all i’m sorry. It’s just. The wolves. And please give Emma Watson irl people to bounce off of. Please. She does so much better with that. You can’t just force her to look bemused but affectionate all the time, it doesn’t work.

3.5/5 thumbs up. Pretty good but not stellar for my taste, but worth a gander if you’re curious.

Just Like Our Parents

We started the Out on Broadway series in March 1996, brought it back in August 1996, then created Out on Broadway 2000 (aka OOB2K) four years later. It's weird this many years later to return to this series, and even a few of the same songs. The world was so different back then. As I said in my last blog post, when our first edition opened, Will & Grace hadn't debuted yet. When we did OOB2K, not a single state had legalized marriage equality yet, but the Orwellian "Defense of Marriage Act" had been passed. But we face our share of challenges today, particularly in our cultural adversaries and the politicians who are incapable of feeling empathy for gay Americans until someone in their own family comes out. It seems each edition of our series is a response to a cultural and political moment, and Out on Broadway: The Third Coming is no different. But to connect back to the the impulses that drove us in 1996 and 2000, I went back to my director's notes, and I found lots of value there... March 1996 Gay men and lesbians have been playing straight characters since time began. They've had to sing about a kind of love they never felt, never able (until recently) to sing about the feelings they actually have. Stars like Danny Kaye, Larry Kert, George Rose, Jack Cassidy, and many others never had a chance to explore in their work the issues they faced in their daily lives. Gay or bisexual writers, including Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, Jerry Herman, Leonard Bernstein, Noel Coward, Lorenz Hart, Arthur Laurents, Howard Ashman, and so many others have had to “transpose” their feelings in order to write for the characters in their shows. Only a few gay musicals have ever played on Broadway. And though TV and movies are finally accepting gay characters as something more than a punch line, the Broadway musical is much slower to do the same. However, in regional theatres gay issues are being explored in many new musicals by writers like Mark Savage, Linda Eisenstein, Chris Jackson, myself, and others. Two songs from Mark Savage's new musical, The Ballad of Little Mikey will be performed tonight. This spring, an album of songs from gay musicals will be released by AEI Records, including songs from The Ballad of Little Mikey and the gay vampire musical In the Blood, which New Line premiered last season. So tonight we present the history of Broadway musicals the way it should have been. Every song you'll hear tonight was chosen for a reason. “You Have to Be Carefully Taught” was written about racism, but its message against intolerance is as relevant today as ever, as religious extremists demonize gays and lesbians. “In My Own Lifetime” and “Do You Hear the People Sing” are particularly potent, reminding us of the all the work we have to do. “Children Will Listen” is a warning to those political and religious leaders who would promote prejudice and fear instead of understanding. And in this explosive election year, “Our Time” and “Everybody's Got the Right” are no longer just show tunes – they are battle cries. “Everything Possible” is the song we all wish someone had sung to us when we were little, a song that we hope will be sung to children from now on. Very few of these songs were written in the context in which you find them tonight, but I think you'll be surprised at how easily they work this way. The experiences we're exploring tonight are universal. A love song written for a straight couple fits a gay couple no less perfectly: One lyric sums it all up: “They're writing songs of love, but not for me . . .” Well, tonight these songs are for us all. August 1996 Well, here we are, back “Out” at the St. Marcus Theatre. This is the first time New Line has ever done a show a second time. It's the first time we thought a piece was important enough. We decided that if we can reach people this time that we didn't reach the first time, then it's worth doing again. We didn't realize this show was as special as it is until we put it in front of an audience last March. It's the only gay revue I'm aware of that doesn't make fun of gays and also doesn't ask for pity for gays. It's a very proud, brave, and occasionally political look at being gay in America. This is a show that sees gays as regular people, with the same kind of joy and heartache as everyone else, despite their often unique societal obstacles. And I think that's a big part of what made it so incredibly popular the first time around. Only a few gay musicals have ever played on Broadway. And though TV and movies are finally accepting gay characters as something more than a punch line, the Broadway musical is much slower to do the same. However, in regional theatres gay issues are being explored in many new musicals by writers like Mark Savage, Linda Eisenstein, Cindy O'Connor & Larry.Johnson, Chris Jackson, myself, and others. Two songs from Mark Savage's new musical, The Ballad of Little Mikey (which New Line will produce in June 1997) will be performed tonight. We've made some small changes since the last time we were here – a few songs cut, a few added, a few moved. We hope you like the show even better. Very few of these songs were written in the context in which you find them tonight, but I think you'll be surprised at how easily they work this way. Many of the experiences we're exploring are indeed universal. As Congress passes new (possibly un-Constitutional) laws to exclude gays and lesbians from legal marriage, as Bob Dole and his friends work to prevent us from enjoying other equal rights, as national religious leaders misuse and misquote the Bible to demonize us, this is an important lesson for us all to take with us.

March 2000 When we put together the first Out on Broadway in March 1996, we had no idea that there would be such enormous public demand for more performances that we’d have to bring it back in August of that same year. We never thought there’d be a cast album. And we certainly never thought we’d be doing a sequel four years later. But here we are. So much has changed since 1996. Will and Grace is on television every week, getting great ratings, and three more shows with gay lead characters are planned for next season. And for good or bad, gay Americans are every bit as visible as straight Americans on Jerry Springer and the other talk shows. Gay marriage has become one of the top issues in the country, with the Vermont Supreme Court ordering the state legislature to give gay couples equal rights, with Californians voting on a referendum against equal marriage rights for gay couples on March 7, and with the Hawaii gay marriage case still rumbling despite setbacks. In contrast, a study just released says 2.5 million gay Americans are currently in heterosexual marriages. The issue of adoption for gay couples is coming before courts around the country. Anti-gay discrimination in groups like the Boy Scouts is being actively challenged in the courts, and in some cases, is being condemned. As the presidential races heat up, gay issues are on the agenda everywhere you look. Both Al Gore and Bill Bradley are actively courting gay voters. And even the most conservative Republicans are being forced to acknowledge us and address our issues. And yet, Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in Wyoming just for being gay. Billy Jack Gaither was murdered in Georgia for the same reason. And they’re not the only ones. One of the purposes of the original Out on Broadway was to tell gay teens and closeted gay men and women that it’s okay to be gay, that they can be gay and still be proud of who they are, that being gay is not a sickness. With all the increased visibility for gay Americans, perhaps that’s not as necessary today as it was four years ago. The other purpose of the original show was to demonstrate how alike gay and straight people are, and how alike gay and straight love is. That is still necessary because, even though we are all alike deep down, the world still does not treat us alike. It’s amazing how easy it was for most of these songs, originally written for straight characters, to work in a gay context – but they do, precisely because gay people think and feel most of the same things as their straight friends and families. And that message can’t be spread far enough or fast enough. So enjoy the show. Laugh along with us, cry along with us, but most importantly, remember that we are your brothers and sisters, parents, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Remember that many of us want to marry. Some of us want to have kids. And all of us want the respect we deserve. So now here we are in 2017. When we did Out on Broadway 2000, we included a mildly militant piece called "Marry Us," and a song actually written for a gay couple called "Just Like Our Parents." This time, our show will have a married gay couple in the cast. We've come a long way, but we've also been set back to some extent. And many of our victories are fragile ones. We still need Out on Broadway. We still need to remind ourselves, our friends and families, and our audiences that we are more alike than different, and that we're each basically following the same Hero Myth story.

This new show is divided into five sections, that vaguely chart a gay man's life. Act I includes "Finding Your Place" and "Finding Love." Act II includes "I Do," "I Thought I Did," and "Now What?" And we are very grateful that Jason Robert Brown has given us the rights to open our show with his new song, "Hope," which he wrote the morning after the 2016 election:

I come to sing a song about hope I'm not inspired much right now, but even so I came out here to sing a song. So here I go I guess I think That if I tinker long enough, one might appear And look! It's here One verse is done The work's begun I come to sing a song about hope In spite of everything ridiculous and sad Though I'm beyond belief depressed, confused and mad Well – I got dressed I underestimated how much that would take I didn't break Until right now I sing of hope And don't know how So maybe I can substitute "strength," Because I'm strong I'm strong enough I got through lots of things I didn't think I could And so did you I know that's true And so we sing a song about hope Though I can't guarantee there's something real behind it I have to try to show my daughters I can find it And so today – When life is crazy and impossible to bear – It must be there Fear never wins That's what I hope See? I said "hope." The work begins

Yes, the work begins again, and our show is part of that work. I hope you can share it with us. Long Live the Musical! Scott from The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2017/07/just-like-our-parents.html