Thursday, May 13, 2010

Gays playing straight on (gasp) Broadway?

Idly wondering if that guy, Seedy Ramin whosis, at Newsweek has any problems when Nathan Lane plays hetero leads in Guys and Dolls or The Producers or Forum, or when Ian McKellen or Derek Jacobi play Richard III, or when Tom Cruise and John Travolta (yes yes yes they're totally straight I know) play het leads in a film, or when David Daniels (or Mariusz Kwiecien) makes love to a woman in an opera (and women in the audience swoon, though they all know he's gay), and when everybody will grow up (not holding my breath).

In fact we've come a long way since straight actors didn't dare play gay, which was true until the late 70s IIRC. (I think Buck Henry was the first, in The Man Who Fell to Earth.)

And I saw that episode of Glee and didn't know Jonathan Groff was gay and never suspected it even once. And Nathan Lane is a lot prissier than Sean Hayes.

The point is, they're actors, either they can play the role or they can't.