Dan Savage’s The Kid and 5 Other Gay Memoirs That Went Big
If you hadn’t heard, Dan Savages’ gay adoption memoir The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend And I Decided To Get Pregnant is now an Off-Broadway musical. Even though the NY Daily News called the musical “a boring baby that needs to grow up” we haven’t snagged a ticket just yet. So while waiting for the box office to open we found five other gay memoirs adapted for stage and film. They’re crawling with bisexual Berliners, hateful elves, and gaylebrity gossip. But even better, if you don’t wanna read the originals, you can always just watch them in a theatre. It’s CliffsNotes for the cultured set.
tales of the city is not a memoir.
·
“Tales” isn’t a memoir, per se, but neither is “I Am a Camera.” Both are fictionalized accounts of the author’s experiences a as part of a certain decadent social scene. In “Christopher and His Kind”, Isherwood details how he adapted his experiences in Berlin in the the stories that became “I Am a Camera.” When he talks about being a lodger in the home of a working-class German family, he leaves out the little fact that he was shtupping his landlady’s son. When “Tales” was first written in the 70s, it was serialized in newsprint. Some San Franciscans took great pleasure in seeing who they could recognize from Maupain’s descriptions. That the characters took on lives of their own in later books is more about Maupin’s abilities and sensitivities as a writer.
·
Jeez did Dan Savages ex f*cks come in here and put the down button on your comments?
Dan Savage is toxic. He was practically giving that creep Ramin a blowjob when he was saying that gay guys are too camp to play str8 in films/broadway etc
·
I really wanted to like The Kid as a musical. As someone going through the adoption process myself, I enjoyed the book immensely. About half the songs need to be entirely re-written and the book could be tweaked. There is a kernel of a good show in there, but it needs to be revised before it will be great.
·
Daniel V:
Thanks for this interesting post. Well-written, too! I have a few things to add to my reading list once exams are over!
Anyone know if any of Edmund White’s books (memoirs or fiction) have been adapted to stage or screen?
·
Didn’t White write “A Boy’s Own Life,” which was made into a film with di Caprio & de Niro?
·
It’s too bad that you didn’t mention “Fun Home” by Alison Bechdel*, one of the biggest graphic novels since Maus and a runaway bestseller in 2008.
*or a book by any other author who wasn’t white and male.
·
excuse me, 2006, not 2008.
·
Good list. I’ve read and/or seen four out six.
I do miss Timothy Conagrave’s Holding the Man, though. Don’t think it’s ever been staged in the US, but it had a successful run in Australia and is currently playing in London.
·
I think only Sapphire’s was adapted, but it all could be.
Precious – based on the novel you know what by Sapphire
Dorothy Allison – Bastard Out of Carolina
Lisa Kron – Well played Broadway
Maria Maggenti – Incredible Adventures of Two Girls in Love
Lynnee Breedlove -Godspeed
·
@Ace: “Fun Home” is a wonderful gem and a must-read, but I don’t think it was adapted to the stage or film (yet.)
·
I’m sick of Dan Savage.