Sunday, May 18, 2008
A+E, Theater, Reviews
Lost boys
‘Some Men’ treads the same old ground
Chris Ozment/Coosa Valley Photography
Steven Emanuelson and Doyle Reynolds in “Some Men”
“SOME MEN”
Actor’s Express
$16-$27
404-607-7469
www.actors-express.com
Through May 31
DULY NOTED:
Shakespeare Tavern regulars Paul Hester and Nicholas Faircloth play to their calm and boisterous strengths, respectively, in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” a decidedly dogmatic comedy (by Tom Stoppard) about two minor characters from “Hamlet.” Despite their enjoyable performances—and the stylish, engaging direction of Jeff McKerley—ultimately, all the metaphysical mumbo-jumbo starts to feel convoluted and overbearing, and much too soon for the good of a show pushing three hours in length. Through June 1. 404-874-5299. www.shakespearetavern.com.
Why bother with “Driving Miss Daisy” yet again? Two words: Tony Vaughn. The veteran actor’s superb turn as the humble chauffeur elevates this otherwise slight Academy Theatre/Theatre Gael co-production (directed by John Stephens). Through June 1. 404-474-8332. www.academytheatre.org.
BY BERT OSBORNE
What “sweeping” saga of the American gay experience would be complete without a sequence set in a mid-’70s bath house (lit by a disco ball, of course)? Or a late-’80s AIDS clinic, more seriously? Or a modern-day Internet chat room? Or a pre-Stonewall ’60s bar populated with musical-theater “show queens,” one of whom may be a garish female impersonator who eventually breaks into a heartfelt rendition of Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow”?
Terrence McNally’s “Some Men” covers all this ground, and more—or less, perhaps. While it’s highly unlikely that any one drama could satisfactorily span the full spectrum of that experience, in their general familiarity McNally’s sundry scenarios exude a sort of been there, done that blandness. You’ve probably seen it all before, and for audiences of the recent “Octopus” or “The Little Dog Laughed,” that also goes for the copious male nudity in director Kent Gash’s new Actor’s Express production. (When I went off on a lengthy tangent about this apparent trend a few weeks ago, I forgot to ask: Whatever happened to good old-fashioned female nudity? I can’t even remember the last time I saw a naked woman onstage!)
It’s possibly wrongheaded to criticize a play for what it isn’t, but “Some Men” is more thought-provoking in terms of what it doesn’t attempt than what it does. I left the show questioning how life would have been for homosexuals in the Wild West era, maybe, or about who the very first gay Americans might have been in Colonial times. For McNally’s purposes, their history dates only as far back as early 1920s New England; except for one other vignette set during the ’30s Harlem renaissance, the action primarily unfolds post-’60s.
Insofar as his episodic structure prevents McNally from focusing very deeply on any one scene or issue to begin with, why not broaden the chronological scope? As long as he’s picking and choosing a representative sampling of events in gay society, why not be more adventurous? Leaving no contemporary topical stone unturned, the drama touches on same-sex marriage and adoption, gays in the military and so forth, but rather than introducing another variation of the closeted man with a wife and kids, for example, why not tell us something we don’t know?
That isn’t to suggest that watching actor Don Finney in Garland drag doesn’t have its place. Along with John Benzinger, Tom Thon and Jacob Wood, Finney stands out in Gash’s nine-member ensemble, all of whom portray a multitude of roles. (In the play’s most ingenious device, several of them reappear or are referenced in different segments.) Finney’s unhappy transvestite talks about the frustration of breaking out of one box only to discover that he’s still inside another, about how people just see what they want to see. To the contrary, although McNally may not have created those boxes, he’s not above all-too-neatly fitting his characters into them. Part of the problem with “Some Men” is less a matter of what we see than what we’re shown. SP