Displaying items by tag: tarell alvin mccraney

Not every story about gay youth is a “coming out” story. Some youth have nothing to come out of. Their lives are not spent hiding who they are. For the most part, young people today are confident and proud of who they are. They are who they are, and the world will have to deal with it. “Choir Boy,” receiving a visually and audibly beautiful staging at the Steppenwolf Theatre is the story of one such boy.

Pharus Young, is a junior at the Charles Drew Prep School for boys. Pharus, (exuberantly played by Tyler Hardwick) is clearly different from the other boys. He is comfortably gay, proud and most of all, talented ……and he knows it. During Senior graduation where Pharus is singing the school song, “Trust and Obey”, he is heckled by Bobby (thuggishly handsome, Gilbert Domally), who happens to be the headmaster’s nephew. Bobby calls Pharus among other things, “sissy” and the dreaded “f” word.

The headmaster (a comical turn by La Shawn Banks) tries to help Pharus by telling him to “tighten up”, code for act straight. Pharus, to prove he is indeed a “Drew” man refuses to tell on his tormentor, although Bobby thinks he has, which leads to more confrontation and taking of sides. Pharus instead confides in his athletic jock roommate, AJ (the excellent Sheldon D. Brown). AJ is the big brother we all wish we had. He understands and doesn’t judge Pharus. Why? He’s comfortable in his own skin, which makes it easier to accept other people. Not so much for the other boys, David, (the baby-faced Richard David) doesn’t want to create any problems that would interfere with his scholarship and Junior, (the comical Samuel B. Jackson) who hides behind his buddy Bobby's machismo. Each of these boys has a struggle that must be dealt with if they are to succeed.

The beautiful Greek motif set consists of the front of a Greek temple with six doric columns holding up a triangular pediment. It is interesting to note ancient Greece had no concept of sexual preference. It was assumed a person could have both hetro-and homosexual responses at different times. Both romantic love and sexual passion between men were often considered normal, and under some circumstances healthy or admirable.  Above the structure are large photos of Fredrick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Barack Obama, Malcolm X, and W.E.B. Dubois looking down on the proceedings. Beds rolled out as if my magic suggesting a dorm room making scene changes quick and effortless. Kent Gash has directed the ensemble to perfection, making clear the issues these men deal with including Mr. Pendleton (William Dick) who bring with him some special deep-seated issues.

Music in this play allows the students to express themselves in ways words would fail. Songs such as “Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child” convey the loneliness of boarding school.

If you listen to the words closely, “Love Ballad” sung by David reveals a bit of his nature. Bobby and Junior act up when singing “Boys II Men” proving they are more boys than men. Gospel music sung a cappella by the group of boys, sounds like angels singing on high. Special notice should go to Jermaine Hill for musical direction and Byron Easley for choreography. "Rockin' in Jerusalem" by the ensemble is worth the price of admission. The cast was note perfect and well as step perfect.

Tarell Alvin McCraney has a special skill when it comes to writing about teenage boys just before manhood. McCraney is known for his Oscar winning movie “MoonLight”, but “Choir Boy” is closer to his lesser known television series “David Makes Man” Season 1. Both involve teenage men dealing with issues beyond their years.

Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St., Chicago, (312) 335-1650, steppenwolf.org

Showtimes: 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, through July 24. Also 8 p.m. June 28, July 5, 12 and 19. No 8 p.m. show July 24

Running time: About 100 minutes, no intermission

Tickets: $20-$98

Parking: $15 in the Steppenwolf parking lot; limited street parking

Rating: For adults; contains nudity and mature themes

COVID-19 precautions: Proof of vaccination and masking required

When Chicago drag performer Joan Jett Blakk ran for President in 1992 – the year Bill Clinton was nominated – it was certainly the most outré act of political insurrection Americans had seen – for those who noticed, anyway. It’s unlikely the Tribune and Sun-Times gave her candidacy much coverage.

Now Steppenwolf Theater is telling her story, in Ms. Blakk for President, timed for Gay Pride Month and the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.Let me tell you something: it will make you laugh and cheer.

This show is particularly special for its genesis – co-authored by Tina Landau (who directed) and Tarell McCraney. McCraney also plays Joan Jett Blakk in a shoot-for-the-stars great performance. McCraney has also had several other plays produced at Steppenwolf. Oh, and he chairs Playwriting at Yale. Oh, and he also won an Oscar for the script with Barry Jenkins for Moonlight. To put it bluntly, this is a moment in Chicago theater you will not want to miss.

The real Joan Jett Blakk, Terence Alan Smith, was a transgressive performance artist who dashed straight cultural and political norms. Smith has collaborated on this play, which finally gives him his due. Running for Mayor of Chicago against Richard M. Daley in 1990, as a black, gay, man in drag, this Queer Nation Party candidate was well ahead of her time. Then she went on to the Democratic National Convention, gaining credentials and making it to the floor. OMG!

In fact, Joan Jett Blakk actually ran twice for President of the U.S. – in 1992 and 1996 – and some of her best lines are put to the service of this show – “Lick Bush in ’92!” “If a bad actor can be elected president, why not a good drag queen?” Doesn't that convey the power of drag?

Her platforms included legalizing all drugs, and to have “dykes on bikes” secure our borders. She posed as Angela Davis in a wicker chair holding a machine gun, but turning that violent Black Panther slogan “By Any Means Necessary” to something altogether mind-bending, delivering power on another plane. That is what Joan Jett Blakk was all about.

The very subversiveness of Blakk’s drag queen candidacy by necessity is ephemeral. Seeing it staged, against the gay liberation protests and demands made at the Madison Square Garden Democrativ Convention for AIDS support and abortion choice, reminds us of not just how far society has come, but how fragile those victories remain.

Landau and Jenkins felt that a more experiential play would tell the story better. So the Steppenwolf has been converted to a drag show bar, with a runway, cocktail table seating, and familiar denizens (some look like Village People types). The audience is encouraged to dress in drag, I suspect, because many did the night I saw it. And some ask questions of the candidate in a free-flowing town hall.

Ms. Blakk for President relates basic factual aspects of the history: how Joan Jett Blakk got to New York (the Limelight Nightclub flew her); where she stayed (a former trick put her up); how she got credentials, and her path the floor of Madison Square Garden, appearing after a young Rep. Maxine Waters and Gov. Mario Cuomo gave nominating speeches. We see clips of those speakers from the real convention.

It is a great story – and Landau and McCraney give us an entertaining semblance of a drag show, with the requisite vamping, dancing, vogueing – all supporting McCraney’s high energy performance. She reveals Smith’s internal process as he changes from an ordinary black man to Joan Jett Blakk, while lying in a stall in the men’s room at Madison Square Garden. It was an almost sacramental transformation, that emancipated Smith into the powerful Joan Jett Blakk. (Smith chose not to use falsies or hide his male body; she donned gold earrings, makeup, and a tight-fitting spaghetti strap flag dress before joining the throngs on the floor). You can see photos of the real dress on the real Joan Jett Blakk in the theater lobby. 

Smith’s achievement with Joan Jett Blakk would be easy for contemporary viewers to overlook – she arrived long before characters like Ru Paul and from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy became household names. If you were around at the time and became aware of her campaigns, you were either tickled or repulsed. But there was a deadly serious element here: gay liberation was taking to the streets, and Queer Nation and ACT UP were demanding action on gay issues– which were largely disregarded by the political mainstream.

Joann Jett Blakk’s campaign brought an element of street theater to bear on pressing issues: LGBTQ Rights, gay oppression and discrimination, marriage equality, and the AIDS crisis. The establishment could only have viewed Smith’s run as an act of political insolence.

This show is good theater, and the play itself accomplishes its slapdash tale-telling, albeit with some loose threads, like the recuring wraith, dressed in popular drag roles, who gives Joan guidance at crossroads in her life. (It kinda sucks.) We do get to know Joan Jett Black, and through her, Terence Alan Smith. We get a pretty good sense of the streams of gay political movement – the more fiery queer rage and the more conciliatory gay gradualists who find drag threatening. The play is male-centric, given its drag focus, a fact that is acknowledged from the stage.

And this work is self-aware – largely a farce, and admittedly so. But it does chronicle someone who made an important contribution to our poltiics and society, by any means necessary.” Ms. Blakk for President” is lots of fun, big laughs, and will also draw you to spontaneous applause for those political statements that ring even truer today. The experience is extended with after-show talks, the DJ SLO'MO at Steppenwolf's Front Bar on Friday nights, and other events. Ms. Blakk for President  runs through July 14 at Steppenwolf Theater. 

*Extended through July 21st