God knows the theater is full of homosexuals, but this week heralds several big-name gays headlining bold new productions.
Autumn in London brings queer history to the Hampstead Theatre, where Rupert Everett will portray homo-wit exemplar Oscar Wilde in David Hare’s The Judas Kiss. The play traces Wilde’s later life, from his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas and his arrest for “gross indecency” to his post-gaol exile to Italy. In his own later years, Everett has taken to the stage like a lush to vodka, having appeared on Broadway in 2009 in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, alongside grande dame Angela Lansbury. Kiss isn’t his first foray into the wild Wilde world, either: Everett starred in the film versions of The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband.
If you’re bubbling like a cauldron to see Alan Cumming, get thee to New York this month for the Lincoln Center Festival, where the out Scotsman is staging a one-man Macbeth. Yes, Cumming is playing all the infamous roles, from the titular king and his murderous wife all the way down to the three witches. The production is set in a mental asylum, which hasn’t been everyone’s cup of witch’s brew: When Alan tested out the production in Scotland earlier this year it met with standing o
vations but also quite a few walkouts.
Now’s the time to familiarize yourself with cutie Matt Doyle, the out actor-singer who lit up Broadway productions of Spring Awakening and Bye Bye Birdie. Doyle is slated to star in Diner, a new musical adaptation of the classic film by Sheryl Crow, slated to open this fall on the Great White Way. If Crow doesn’t have the chops to pen a winning musical, Doyle’s sublime singing voice and radiant charm should keep this one afloat for a while.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
We leave you with a classic clip of Katie Holmes singing “On My Own,” the oft-warbled, sad-sack toe-tapper from Les Misérables. The scene is from a Season One episode of Dawson Creek, back in 1998, when her character, Joey Potter, entered a beauty pageant. Who’d have thunk her solo showtune would prove prophetic all these years later?
Photos: Vicki Neave, Matt Doyle Music
Aquarelle
Rupert Everett? Alan Cumming? Yuck. Aren’t there some *attractive* people you could report on?
Charlie
@Aquarelle: Aquarelle please go back to watching music videos and never again presume you have the right to take part in a conversation about Theater.
Aquarelle
@Charlie: I know plenty about theater, I watch Smash.
Geri
“Full of homosexuals” Queerty?
Rupert Everett and Alan Cumming are both bisexual celebrities. Well okay it’s only Alan who identifies as bi – Rupert says he’s gay, but then you find out he’s apparently dated more women than men. Or at least he’s dated more famous women than famous men.
Calling Oscar Wilde a “homo-wit” seems simply idiotic to me – did he ever say anything funny about homosexuality? He had plenty of amusing things to say about women and marriage however. His boyfriend Alfred Lord Douglas was bisexual too – well maybe more bisexual than Oscar ( Bosie didn’t get sent to prison for being “a homosexual” after all) – and the woman he married, the poet Olive Custance, was also bisexual.
David Hare is married to a woman. Closet case?
Angela Lansbury? I don’t think she’s lesbian or bifem but her first husband, the actor Richard Cromwell, was a bisexual (according to wikipedia).
Noel Coward was apparently “a homosexual” who had an intense dislike for penetrative sex all his adult life. He is rumoured to have had an affair with Laurence Olivier who is of course rumoured to have been bisexual; wrote a play in 1926 – The Vortex – which has a bisexual theme; and he referred to his close friend, the actress Marlene Dietrich (confirmed bisexual)- as his “loyal and lifelong amitié amoureuse.”
Katie Holmes, as we all know, is in the process of divorcing an actor who has been the subject of gay rumours for years – yes they are generally referred to as: “gay rumours” rather than “bisexual rumours” which has always struck me as even odder than that weird Scientology thing he belongs to.
Sheryl Crow has been the subject of some bisexual rumours – but then what famous women of her generation hasn’t?
That leaves Matt Doyle – yeah I believe he’s an actual homosexual. Oh and God – no I won’t attempt to go there.
Someone will probably take violent exception to this post – do I give a shit?