Charles Busch to play "Mame" — Page 2

Well that's my point Bulldog. The Ogunquit Playhouse is not a theater one goes to expecting to be wowed by great talent. It's barely a step up from community theater. They will reorchestrate a show to fit a particular person and They have C list ex Match Game celebs starring in the shows. It's just a place to go and have fun. This theater is in a summer beach resort. They cater to tourists who are looking for something to do after spendinga day on the beach. It's not Broadway and it doesn't try to be Broadway but, it is very New England. We who live in neighboring states who vacation there love this theater. We don't expect much, we don't get much and we enjoy it. When we want great theater where the female roles are played by women and the male roles by men and everyone is the right color and nationality, we go to NYC.

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Why don't you quit while you're *behind*, Bulldog? Very behind. What a shock you still haven't mentioned which shows you've seen Busch in! None, evidentally. So you might as well stop posting your prejudice before you dig yourself deeper into the hole, the tight, dark, moist and dirty hole you've managed to get yourself in.

(Orion, forget the history of actors playing women, Bulldog won't address it. He has a issues. And a man in a dress is an idea that is just too engorged with throbbing meaning for him to deal with head on, if you will.)

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I guess I'm confused as to what your complaint is. It seems to be all over the place. There's the issue you have with Charles Busch playing the part because he's a man, then you say he's a bad actor then, in a third post mention the theater's willingness to reorchestrate numbers in order to suit Sutton Foster. Yet, you now say you would go see this production without thinking of it.
If the issue really is the fact that it's a man in drag, all I can do (against Namo's advice) is to once again point out that this is an age old theater tradition. I personally think it's very creative to move away from the norm in theater in this way. To have someone play the part of an opposite gender or to have people of color play roles that are traditionally white, can often bring a new perspective to the character.

I loved seeing Lea Delaria play eddie in Rocky Horror. I think Meryle Streep playing the Rabbi in the recent tv version of AIA was genius. We can get so accustomed to seeing a familiar role played the same way. Maybe a man can bring out that other side of Mamae that we know exists. The side of her that is masculine, the side that gives her her strength, the side that makes you know that she has had a few flings with other women.

Theater is most interesting when it challanges the way we think, perceive and what we expect to see.

For the record, when i said we don't expect much and we don't get it, I meant that anyone who has been to the Ogunquit Playhouse does not expect to see a Broadway calibre production. That's not what they do, it's not what they try to do. You go there for a fun, enjoyable evening of theater.

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