News Satire Roundup: June 24th-June 28th

Sunday, June 24 – John’s disgust for the administration’s family reunification “plan” lacking a timeline or a way to reunite separated children with their parents was so depressingly valid.  Fortunately, we also got a tremendous story about safe sex ads in Norway, featuring a guy in a penis costume sneaking up behind people and ejaculating confetti on them – what the what?  The main story was on the upcoming Mexican election.  John looked at the corruption that’s occurred under the current “fucktacular” president Enrique Peña Nieto, then examined a few of the candidates running now.  No surprise, “El Bronco” was the big winner comedy-wise, between his plan of very literally cutting off the hands of corrupt politicians to his personal vendetta against Santa Claus.  And I liked John’s points about the frontrunner, dubbed “Amlo,” being vague enough on policy that numerous disparate groups project their aims onto him.

Monday, June 25 – Re:  the administration’s call center for families separated at the border, I loved Trevor’s remark that a call line to find your stolen kids “should have better hours than Comcast.”  Good story on pushback against the administration, from Sarah Huckabee Sanders being asked to leave a restaurant to White House staffers struggling to date (“he looks like a Slytherin professor who got MeToo’d” is a brilliant description of Stephen Miller,) along with Maxine Waters being done with these guys.  Dulce came on to discuss a white woman who made to call the cops on a Black child selling bottled water – her point that the woman did it, not because she cares about permits, but because she knew a Black child would be scared of police, was really powerful.  Rap mogul J. Prince was the guest; I like Trevor’s comment that he’s the “Forrest Gump of hip-hop,” popping up in so many iconic moments.

Tuesday, June 26 – Great point about the shadiness of the Supreme Court buying Trump’s last-minute travel-ban add of “North Korea’s in there, too, so it can’t be about Muslims!”  I liked the continuing story on the Sarah Huckabee Sanders incident and right-wing pundits calling for “civility” and “tolerance.”  Trevor’s comment that tolerance “got called an animal and thrown in a cage and had her kids taken away” was spectacular, and I loved his interrogation of the “be more like MLK!” argument by showing that people in the ‘60s didn’t like his protesting, either.  Michael did a field piece at a Trump rally, asking people about “Space Force” – I did like the wild disagreement about what it actually was.  Good interview with Bill Clinton and James Patterson – in addition to talking about the book, Trevor asked Clinton about some of the current goings-on in America, and I liked the way he approached discussing the #MeToo movement.

Wednesday, June 27 – After touching quickly on Mike Pence giving a supervillain-style speech in Brazil and a CPR-trained police dog from Spain, we looked at a huge New York primary upset, with a 28-year-old first-timer beating out a 10-time incumbent.  I loved Trevor’s point that the incumbent had been groomed for the “next generation” of Democratic leadership, given that he was only in his 50s.  Next was Justice Kennedy’s resignation and the fear that comes with losing a key swing vote during this administration, mixed with renewed anger at the Senate blocking Obama’s nominee in 2016.  Michael came on to “clear things up” for Trevor on Trump supporters cheering for Trump’s vulgarity and insults but clutching their pearls when a liberal activist responds – handy demonstration of the hypocrisy on display.  Guest Janet Mock talked about the different hats she wears for Pose and the importance of seeing people like you on TV.

Thursday, June 28 – Cute opening bit on Mexican World Cup fans swarming South Korean embassies in celebration after a key South Korean win kept Mexico in the tournament.  Next was an app analyzing a baby’s cries to determine the most likely cause, with Trevor throwing “Shazam for babies” some serious side-eye.  Loved the viral video of a guy clinging to the hood of a car, especially his ultra-calm 911 call.  More on the Supreme Court, with Trevor ruminating on Trump’s pick shaping America for generations to come and Hasan trying to find a way Senate Democrats could still Mighty Ducks their way to a win.  We then looked at some strides made for LGBTQ rights worldwide this last year, including Bermuda legalizing same-sex marriage twice (Trevor shamelessly claimed the first law got lost in the Triangle.)  The guest, writer DarnellMoore, discussed his new memoir and the toxic masculinity that helped Trump get elected.

Once on This Island (2017)

I’m still catching up on the TV I missed during my super-quick New York trip, which means the usual News Satire Roundup isn’t ready to go yet (I’m shooting for posting it tomorrow.)  Luckily, I have in its place a write-up on the other, non-Boys-in-the-Band show I saw while I was there, a revival of Ahrens and Flaherty’s Once on This Island.  I’d discovered after I booked my trip that I’d be seeing it the day after Lea Salonga left the show and had prepared myself accordingly.  There were also a couple of understudies on the night I saw it, but that was no knock against it at all.  On the whole, a really gorgeous production.

On an island in the French Antilles, we’re told of the divide between the Black peasants and the light-skinned grand homme, mixed descendants of peasants and French colonizers.  The two groups live entirely separate lives, but one day, a young peasant woman called Ti Moune challenges that – and the gods themselves – when she falls in love with a grand homme.

I’ll start by saying that, while Ahrens and Flaherty’s score is wonderful, the story definitely has its problems.  Based on a book, I’ve heard it described as an island reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s original Little Mermaid, with colorism instead of mermaids.  I don’t think I’d go so far as to say that the story itself is racist, but it’s certainly disappointing in places, especially the ending (I walked out of the theatre beside a couple who’d been unfamiliar with the show and were a little taken aback by it.)

All that said, I do love the music – beautiful enough to make me tear up multiple times – and the journey the show takes getting to that unfortunate ending.  And truth be told, this production is exquisite.  Performed in the round, the stage is transformed into our island, complete with sand, rain, a felled “tree” laying across a few of the seats, and (as I’ve said before) live animals.  The peasants are also the storytellers, and those playing the peasants’ gods put together their costumes as they go from whatever’s on hand.  With inventive staging and exuberant choreography, my eyes were glued to the stage the whole time.  (Note:  one negative I’ll mention is that the sound wasn’t mixed all that well, especially since the actors sometimes move into the aisles during songs.  There were points when I couldn’t hear the main melody over the actor singing a descant a few rows away.)

The entire cast is very good, with incredible energy and powerful voices.  If I single out too many of them, I won’t stop, but I will applaud the four actors playing the gods.  Alex Newell (formerly Unique on Glee) is a hugely-entertaining Asaka, Quentin Earl Darrington has a great presence as Agwe, Darlesia Cearcy (who replaced Lea Salonga) is very sweet as Erzulie, and Merle Dandridge is effectively menacing as Papa Ge.

I mentioned that there were a couple of understudies on, including the actress playing Ti Moune!  Courtnee Carter was filling in for Hailey Kilgore, and I thought she was fantastic in the lead role.  An excellent voice, lovely acting, and great dancing – I was thoroughly impressed with her and hope she gets an opportunity to take over the role when Kilgore leaves the show.

Warnings

Brief violence, sexual content/references, drinking, and strong thematic elements.

The Book of Rannells: The Boys in the Band (2018)

And already, I’m deviating from my chronological order, but I’ve decided to make exceptions for anything new coming out, and I saw a performance of this limited-run revival two nights ago.  I’ll get back to Andrew Rannells’s season 1 episodes of Girls next week – this one can’t wait!

Written 50 years ago, The Boys in the Band gives us a window into a single night of a group of gay men in a New York City apartment in 1968.  Host Michael has assembled the usual suspects to celebrate the birthday of his friend Harold, but the party shows signs of going off the rails even before the unexpected arrival of the uninitiated Alan, Michael’s old college roommate who doesn’t know about the life Michael leads.  As the night wears on, quips become barbs, discomfort becomes hostility, and Michael becomes his own worst enemy, urging his friends into a shockingly ill-conceived party game that puts all their emotional vulnerabilities on display.

I’ll start with the play itself, which I’d previously heard of but didn’t know much about.  The play shares a resemblance with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, gathering together a collection of contrasting personalities, letting the tension simmer, and waiting for the inevitable disaster.  It’s almost startling to see a gay-themed story from the past that predates HIV, just as its pre-Stonewall sensibilities feel conspicuous.  This is a group of men whose lives are both pathologized and criminalized, whose internalized homophobia fuels their psychiatry sessions along with the cutting remarks they make about each other.  While now, during Pride month in the 2st century, some of what we see feels dated, stereotypes and attitudes best left retired, the production and performers bring a sense of immediacy to the proceedings and imbue the characters with a recognizable, if often vicious, truth.

The fact that the entire cast, headed by Hollywood names, is composed of out actors has certainly gotten its share of promotion, deservedly so.  While the play exists outside of that, of course, there’s something special about watching a whole collection of actors onstage together playing gay characters, knowing that none of them are fielding interview questions about what it’s like to “play gay.”

The real big-ticket names here are Jim Parsons as Michael and Zachary Quinto as Harold.  To be perfectly honest, these were my least-favorite performances in the show, though neither was bad, not by a long shot.  Instead, both feel just a little distant, a little removed.  Of course, with Harold’s precisely-curated brand of apathetic neurosis, artifice is the whole point, but I still feel like Quinto doesn’t quite hit the mark of Harold the person beneath the droll pronouncements and carefully-arranged poses.  And while Parsons does a nice job navigating MIchael’s descent from fluttery anxiety to meanness fueled by his own self-loathing, there are points where I think he falls just shy and I see the work of his performance more than the emotion of it.  Also representing the celeb contingent is Matt Bomer as Donald, Michael’s best friend who makes several valiant attempts at being the voice of reason within the madness.  Though his role is certainly less demanding than Parsons or Quinto’s, Bomer plays it well, offering support and cautions as necessary.

Then, of course, there’s Brian Hutchinson as the bewildered Alan, harboring some sort of private trouble of his own.  The party would’ve likely devolved without Alan’s presence, but he certainly helps it get there much quicker, and Hutchinson’s uncomfortable performance is very effective.  The other non-invited member of the group is the Cowby, played with endearing dimness by Charlie Carver.  A “birthday present” for Harold, the rentboy sits on the periphery of the trainwreck and makes clueless comments at inopportune moments.  As for the guests, Robin De Jesús (Sonny from In the Heights) is probably the heart of the piece as Emory, a flamboyant man who wears his much-maligned feminine side like a badge of honor.  In De Jesús’s skilled hands, Emory is always more than a stereotype, and as things get heavy in the second half (where pretty much everyone gets at least one meaty spotlight scene,) he makes the most of Emory’s big moment.  Michael Benjamin Washingon plays Bernard, conspicuous as the one Black guest at the party, with the careful control of a man conscious of his intersectionality.  While Michael’s apartment is a rare place where, for better or worse, the others feel freer to be themselves, Bernard knows he doesn’t get that luxury and guards himself accordingly.  And Tuc Watkins’s Hank, in the midst of a divorce from his wife, is the most conventionally-masculine of the bunch, the one Alan latches onto like driftwood in a gay ocean.  Hank himself is a bit out of place among the campy friend group, and Watkins plays that precarious position delicately and with heart.

Finally, we come to Rannells (phew!)  Although billed above the title with the other recognizable TV faces, his character Larry fits more into the supporting cast.  Larry and Hank are the show’s only couple, and they arrive at the party already in mid-argument.  The big point of contention between them is Hank’s expectations of fidelity, which Larry doesn’t want to fulfill, insisting that relationships only work with “an arrangement.”  The two begin at odds, which only deepens when Hank is the most successful at Michael’s entreaty that they “straighten up” while Alan is there.  Larry can’t keep his pointed remarks to himself, and, annoyed with and feeling hurt by Hank, he flirts with other guys and offers little digs while he makes a show of what a great time he’s having.

Even though Rannells’s performance as Larry isn’t markedly different in voice or manner than many of his most well-known characters, he still feels distinctly his own and, what’s more, entirely natural.  “Effortless” is the first word that comes to mind when I think of Rannells’s performance here, at least that’s how he makes it look.  He seems utterly at home as Larry, genuine in a way that the bigger leads don’t pull off.  Again, Parsons and Quinto’s roles are trickier and Quinto’s in particular is predicated on a sense of artificiality, but watching Rannells, I felt like I was watching a person at a disastrous party – sometimes stirring up more trouble, sometimes sitting back to see it unfold, by turns relaxed, snippy, wilfull, ardent, upset, and softened, always real.  To me, Larry and Hank were my favorite part of the piece, and I didn’t feel at all cheated by Rannells having a smaller role than his Hollywood compatriots.  Oh, and his big spotlight scene?  Tremendous.

Recommend?

In General – Yes, although I know that’s not necessarily possible with the expense of seeing a Broadway show and the August closing date (for which I assume we can blame The Big Bang Theory.)  If you have the opportunity, I’d highly recommend this caustically-funny, emotionally-harrowing production.

Andrew Rannells – Yes.  Rannells may have an easier job than some of the actors on that stage, but he plays it masterfully; I thoroughly loved him in this show.

Warnings

Language (including homophobic and racial slurs,) brief violence, drinking/smoking/drug use, sexual content, and thematic elements.