| . | 04/21/2008
THE NEW CENTURY
By: Eugene Paul
Mike Doyle and Peter Bartlett.
Photo by T. Charles Erickson.
There’s a stereotype of the gay man as being unerringly, devastatingly witty. Playwright Paul Rudnick encapsulates the stereotype in spades, then goes much, much further, surprising the hell out of you, even teaching you a thing or two or ten about gays, more than you want to know, bold as brass, bald as an egg and far, far wittier. The devilish thing is that you are not even aware, as you are laughing your sides off at all these revelatory wierdnesses that you are getting a nurturing dose of tolerance. Painlessly. It’s positively masterful and the epitome of what theater is about: entertain, yes, but also educate. Be not of faint heart; “educate” is not a dirty word and you’ll never even hear it mentioned in this evening of four plays but, bless his devious heart, Rudnick has put it right, right there.
Not in the first play, “Pride and Joy”, at least not so’s you’d notice, of course. We find the fabulous Linda Lavin in a school auditorium as Helene Nadler, about to give an uplifting talk about her children, her pride and joy. She prefaces her upcoming comments by declaring that she is, without doubt, the most loving, the most caring, the most understanding mother in the whole, wide world. Which strength of character and bosom of American matriarchy is somewhat tested when her large, very butch daughter comes out to her as a lesbian. She manages to convey the wonderfulness of her response to her daughter’s announcement but then has to again emphasize her standing as the most wonderful mother in the world when she goes on to reveal what her son has to reveal to her: that he is trapped in the wrong body and needs to become a woman. Helene enlightens us as to the travails she suffers denting her psyche when she sanctions her son to “cut it off”. Of little faith, she needs to tell us how being the most wonderful in the world is tested yet again when her remaining son comes out. He is gay, but not just gay, he is into leather gay, and not just leather gay but an aficionado of scatology to boot. This, the perfect mother finds sundering. The bright side is that he is totally submissive.
Second play, “Mr. Charles, Currently of Palm Beach” appears to do nothing but lay bare the eccentricities of dress, speech, mannerisms and taste which delineate the aging queen’s persona in the person of hilarious Peter Bartlett as host of a late late late late show on Palm Beach TV. But darned if you don’t end up after laughing at him and his protégé, Shane, the wonderful Mike Doyle, a little more willing to let them be. And thinking about it after, you wonder
how playwright Rudnick did it. He did, though.
Perhaps the play with the widest net for capturing understanding and tolerance is “Crafty”, built around the life and wares of Barbara Ellen Diggs,a devoted, furiously energetic craft person from Decatur, Illinois, who makes all those things you give to your family and enemies but wouldn’t be caught dead owning. Why is this her life? Because her life all but ended when her gay son died of AIDS. “Crafty” will certainly make you laugh but as certainly, it will make you cry. The magic is not only because of playwright Paul Rudnick but also because of the astonishing Jane Houdyshell as Barbara Ellen. Houdyshell is so absurd, so touching, so risible, so heart rending that you are on a yo-yo of emotions throughout and somewhere along the line you’ve become so much in sympathy with
her that you’ve adopted her too late learned tolerance for gays, for gays are, after all, part of us, not separate but family, community, humanity.
The carryover is laughingly intensified in the fourth play, “The New Century”, when all our characters find themselves in the maternity ward of a Manhattan hospital looking at the new babies, one of which is the baby that Helene’s daughter, the lesbian, has borne for her and her partner. Helene’s grandchild. Pure as all babies are, with their wondrous futures before them to grow as providence wills. Our happy group vow to meet to launch Shane’s new late late late later show, an offspring of Mr. Charles’ show. Gay TV creating gay TV. Laughter and understanding creating laughter and understanding. Way to go, Rudnick.
Mitzi Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center. Tues-Sat 8 pm. Mats Wed, Sat 2pm, Sun 3 pm. $70, $75. 212 239-6200
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