Arthur Laurents Expresses Adoration For Matt Cavenaugh In The Advocate

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 5:24pm

http://www.advocate.com/issue_story_ektid82054.asp

Updated On: 5/11/09 at 05:24 PM

[jv92]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 6:33pm

Unfortunately, Mary Rodgers shouldn't be expecting a phone call any time soon.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 6:35pm

Well, at least we now know why he got the part.

So much for the detailed acting work.
It's the veal.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 6:40pm

"So what is it that keeps the 91-year-old going like he's still 35? Well, there are some daily vitamins, plenty of fish oil, a couple of weeks of skiing in the winter, swimming almost every day on Long Island in the summer, and nine minutes of floor exercises every morning. And, of course, a still very active sex life: 'God knows, I'm all for ****ing,' Laurents says without a trace of irony."

Updated On: 5/11/09 at 06:40 PM

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 6:44pm

I shudder to think what he does with the fish oil!

[bundy5000]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 6:50pm

way to much information

[blaxx]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 7:15pm

'God knows, I'm all for ****ing,' Laurents says without a trace of irony."

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 7:22pm

As Ira Gershwin and Dorothy and DuBose Hayward wrote:

Methus'lah lived nine hundred years.
Methus'lah lived nine hundred years.
But who calls dat livin'
When no gal'll give in
To no man what's nine hundred years?

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 7:47pm

Thank you so much for that visual, Arthur.

[fflagg]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 7:51pm

Well they had to kiss his ass about the extremely overpraised GYPSY. I wonder if AL is still enamored of Patti L. or if he can now let his hair down about her.

The bottom line: when he passes do not hold your breath for a love fest memorial.

When William Frawley died, Vivian Vance exclaimed "champagne for everyone!"

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 7:54pm

I want to vomit. It may be intolerant of me, but the LAST thing I want to think about or read about is Arthur Laurents doin' the dird. No thank you very much.

[jv92]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 7:57pm

Really Arthur, did we need to know you like to ****? I don't think so. The first thing that came to my mind was "Who would **** him?".
Updated On: 5/11/09 at 07:57 PM

[StageManager2]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 7:58pm

I'd tap that.

With a tap shoe kick up the wazoo, that is!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 8:05pm

There will be no tapping of the 91 year ole.
The choreography has been dumbed down.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 8:22pm

a depth and passion I suspect he didn?t know he had, that exploded during rehearsals

Ugh, my mind is thoroughly wrong, but I can't help but read almost every line of this as a double entendre.

Laurents does look surprisingly well for 91 years old, though. I know guys in their seventies who look far older.

[A Director]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 9:29pm

How typical of Mr. Laurents to make a dig about Larry Kert. Laurents looks like death warmed over in the photo.

Wonder how Mike Nichols would feel if Laurents wrote a play about a theatre/movie director and his fourth wife who worked for Richard Nixon?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 10:53pm

He's his own worst press agent.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 10:56pm

The comments to the article in the link are rather scathing.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/11/09 at 11:03pm

The title of the article:
ARTHUR LAURENTS EXPRESSES ADORATION
FOR
MATT CAVANAUGH
IN THE ADVOCATE,
is like a triple entendre.

The dig to Larry Kert who could sing the pants off
Matt Cavanaugh, is vile.
The ADVOCATE should get some letters for this rather unhonest portrait, which also never talks about Cavanaugh's GF.
Updated On: 5/11/09 at 11:03 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/12/09 at 12:40am

The comments to the article in the link are rather scathing.

And, believe it or not, not one of them is mine!

I came to understand, years ago, that Arthur has a kind of version of Tourette's syndrome. Only it's not the kind you see on Law & Order, where a string of obscenities pours out of the mouth of a wrongly accused defendant.

Arthur's disorder masquerades as "honesty" but it is actually compulsive cruelty, no more, no less. The same judgmental thoughts pop into his head that pop into everyone else's head: "She's ugly." "He's stupid." "He's fat." "She's untalented." And so on...

But we all learn to curtail those impulses and turn our thoughts, for the most part, to more socially acceptable ways of discourse. Not because we're dishonest, but because we're civilized, because we seek to live in a civil society, and because we try to be kind to other people, even though we frequently fail.

Arthur's kindnesses are conditional, and swiftly withdrawn. It's true that Tom's death softened him, but the softening is really no more than a pose, a new character he's now created to live out his nineties, playing the kindly, avuncular, sweet old man with a pixie-like hint of naughtiness. Don't believe it for a minute!

But before Tom's death Arthur never tried to be nice because he never had to--and he never wanted to! Who could have made him? From his lofty self-constructed position, he could pass judgment on everyone who came into his sphere.

At first the cleverness of his quips is seductive. Then their enthralling outrageousness becomes overwhelming and ultimately exhausting. Finally his Tourette's is turned on YOU. Because ultimately he must turn on everyone, or be turned on.

His frequent reason for no longer speaking to an old friend? "He (or she) said some unforgivable things to me." To YOU? you wonder. How could that be? You are the king of unforgivable.

When I hear that Mary Rodgers, Larry Kramer and Stephen Sondheim have turned their backs on him, I feel a little compassion...but it quickly dissipates when I hear in my mind what must he be saying about THEM!

It is scathing, it is clever, it is most definitely evil, but ultimately he is to be pitied.

12 years ago, Arthur gave Charles Kaiser the author of the Advocate article, some valuable interviews and background information for Kaiser's history of old gay New York, The Gay Metropolis.

This puff piece is pure payback.

Updated On: 5/12/09 at 12:40 AM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 5/12/09 at 1:02am

Maybe his prefrontal cortex is underdeveloped? Relates to impulse control.

That said... the linked article is creepy. To quote the brother of Jon Gosselin's alleged mistress: "Ick. Nast."

[NYadgal]

Posted: 5/12/09 at 9:54am

As always, I appreciate your insight, PalJoey.

And agree with your perspective and thoughts.

The fact that Mary Rodgers, Larry Kramer and Stephen Sondheim have turned their backs on him reinforces the knowledge that actions have consequences.

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 5/12/09 at 10:29am

"So what is it that keeps the 91-year-old going like he's still 35? Well, there are some daily vitamins, plenty of fish oil, a couple of weeks of skiing in the winter..."

Why Natasha Richardson and not him?

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 5/12/09 at 10:41am

Matty likes the way I do my corn...isn't he a treasure....

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 5/12/09 at 10:42am

Scary as it is to hear about his sexual exploits or what have you, it is 10x better than hearing him say Matt Cavenaugh is better than Larry Kert in any aspect. Shudder shudder shudder. Why do I bother reading any articles about him when what he says always pisses me off? Serves me right.