« When nice people kill | Main | Joan Crawford before her drag queen years »
February 7, 2008
No nudes is bad news in Chicago
The very funny Douglas Carter Beane play “The Little Dog Laughed” is about a closeted gay actor — on the verge of movie stardom — who falls in love with a male prostitute he hires one night while visiting Manhattan. The performer decides the time has come to stop hiding his sexual orientation.
The actor’s agent is, of course, horrified and outraged that the young about-to-be-star’s earning potential will be drastically curtailed by the revelation. The agent, Diane, fears that the actor could go from being the next Tom Cruise to the next Rupert Everett (something no good ten-percenter would want to see happen to a client).
Because sex is at the heart of the comedy, Beane wrote a discreet but necessary nude scene into the hotel room encounter between the actor and the hustler.
The play opened at TheaterWorks Hartford (above) earlier in the month with the nudity intact, but controversy has erupted in Chicago over the decision of artistic director Eric Rosen to omit the naked moments in his production at the About Face Theatre.
Playbill.com reported yesterday that Rosen has been forced to send letters to all of the Chicago press telling them he did not adhere to the writer’s wishes in his staging of the comedy.
Unluckily for Rosen, Beane was in Chicago when this production opened last month and was shocked not to see the nude scene (Rosen had asked Beane if he could cut the nudity, was told “no” and Beane’s agents assured the playwright the nudity had been restored).
Beane’s first thought was to yank the theater's rights to the play and force a closing, but he decided to let it continue, if the press was informed about the unauthorized change.
It’s fascinating that 40 years after “Hair” and 39 years after “Oh, Calcutta!” stage nudity is still so controversial.
(“The Little Dog Laughed” — with nudity — is running through March 9 at TheaterWorks Hartford. For ticket information call 860-527-7838.)
Posted by Joe on February 7, 2008 1:50 PM
