varo_kamry

The professional theatre critics are not allowed to write reviews of previews. The newspaper, magazine and online theatre publications cannot do reviews until after the official premier on July 13.

The "reviews" we will see (hopefully) before the official opening will be from fans .

My friend Trish is going tonight too, so between Trish and Kim we should have some reports and hopefully photos of Randy after the performance

Zebbers

Okey-dokey!! Well, I hope all those attending tonight have a fabulous time!

SojournHeart11

Well, I'm looking forward to reading those fan accounts of the production.

varo_kamry

QAF related interview with Randy:


Evolution of gay life on TV, from 'Will' to 'Queer as Folk'
Tony Bravo SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle)
Published 5:27 pm, Thursday, June 26, 2014

Before LGBT characters were as ubiquitous in pop culture as they have become in recent years, there were two shows on TV in particular where you could find gay characters. Breaking down barriers through comedy (and a hands-off sexual point of view) was NBC's hit "Will & Grace," a story about a gay man's relationship with his straight female friend that debuted in 1998 and continues in eternal reruns today.

The show was so influential in normalizing gay characters on television even Vice President Joe Biden cited it on a 2012 appearance on "Meet the Press."

That said, "Will & Grace" was "safe," easy for straight Middle America to laugh at.

A few years later in the uncensored realm of cable, we had the provocative, sexually hands-on nighttime soap opera "Queer as Folk" on Showtime. The show, adapted from an earlier British series, revolved around a group of single gay men who were as far from the mainstream-friendly Will as possible.

It's interesting to view the tone of "QAF" in a post-"Modern Family" and "Glee" world. While these contemporary programs seem to strike a balance between gay cultural in-jokes and pop sensibilities, the pitch of "QAF" is brash, in your face, even political at times, jarring in its depiction of sex and drug use and over-the-top in its narrative style.

Of the two, "Will & Grace" is rightly credited with the larger cultural reach, but while rewatching "Queer as Folk" as Showtime has rerun it for June Pride Month (along with the female companion, "The L Word," both on through November), I was reminded of my own youthful relationship with the series.

Among the central characters on "QAF" was 17-year-old Justin Taylor, played by Randy Harrison, a high school student just beginning to come out of the closet and getting his first taste of LGBT nightlife. At the time, I was a teenager in roughly the same situation. While the gays on "Will & Grace" played sidekick to straight women, Grace Adler and Karen Walker, Justin was living the life of a young gay man as my peers and I were starting to know it. He went to clubs, had sex and struggled in his first relationships. He spoke in cultural references I was beginning to learn and, most important, his character was allowed to make poor choices and exhibit all the impulsiveness of a teenager without worrying about setting gay rights back.

"I had no reluctance taking on the role of Justin," Harrison says from New York, where he's rehearsing the new off-Broadway musical "Atomic" (opening this week). "I'd been out for many years, I'd played gay characters before and depicted sexuality onstage."

Rather than giving Harrison pause, the overt sexuality of the series drew him.

"I was interested in demystifying gay sexuality to an audience, even making its depiction boring," Harrison says, also citing the lack of sexuality in gay characters before the show.

While Harrison is proud of how the show and his character dealt with story lines ranging from gay bashing and sexual assault to parental homophobia, he does admit that one of his character's central arcs, the teenage Justin's relationship with a man 12 years his senior (played by Gale Harold), was difficult for him to accept.

"Honestly, I always looked on that relationship with an enormous amount of skepticism," Harrison notes regarding the controversial plot point. "The power imbalance is really hard to rectify."

When viewing the current LGBT cultural landscape, Harrison says he is thrilled with the new kinds of voices on television.

"One of the things that made doing 'QAF' exciting at the time was remembering when I was a teen in the '90s how frustratingly difficult it was to find queer stories in film and television and how patronizing and offensive many of them were. There's so many more nuances to our identity as a community," Harrison says. "I'm excited to see our stories continue to expand and evolve. I love these shows."

Although he hasn't seen any of the recent reruns of the show, Harrison believes the episodes to be "an interesting time capsule, since the situation for gay Americans was socially and politically so different," but he remains happy overall with his role in the pioneering series.

"I've encountered many people who had no understanding of the difficulties many LGBTQ people face," Harrison says of the show's role in bringing these issues forth in the culture. "Knowing that 'QAF' awakened some people to awareness and activism has been very rewarding."

Tony Bravo is a regular contributor to the Chronicle's Datebook and Style Sections. E-mail: datebookletters@sfchronicle.com

Zebbers

Thank you hun, makes interesting reading.

Fanquinine

Cool! Thanks for sharing that!


He definitely failed there!

SojournHeart11

Nice try Randy, but you didn't succeed in demystifying anything remotely sexual about those scenes. Good try, though. A for effort.

...but it's a good interview.

♥ Gale's Fragile Beauty ♥

Great Article!

@ the comments in this thread.

SojournHeart11

Kim (Predec2) attended Randy's preview(?) show last night, and will post an entry about it on her LJ. Looking forward to reading it. I bet he was a knock out on that stage.

♥ Gale's Fragile Beauty ♥

She said he sounded amazing and she's also attending on Sunday! She's so lucky!

SojournHeart11

So, so lucky. I'm a tad jealous...but in an incredibly good way.

varo_kamry

Looking forward to Kim's report. Trish will be sending me a report this evening too. She texted me last night from the play: "Amazing vision" When I texted back to ask for details she said "Dancing in a vintage tuxedo"

Zebbers

I'm sure you'll be sharing it with us hun - can't wait to hear all about it!!

Fanquinine

Or at least acceptably moving

♥ Gale's Fragile Beauty ♥

Most definitely.