Arts & Entertainment
In memoriam: Those we lost in 2016
From Bowie to Lady Chablis, a year of loss
David Bowie, Lady Chablis and Edward Albee were among those we lost in 2016. (Photo of Bowie by Elmar Jr. Lordemann; screen capture of Chablis courtesy YouTube; Washington Blade photo of Albee by Michael Key)
“How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind?” wrote queer writer Carson McCullers in her novel “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.”
Below are some of the many LGBT people and allies who will live on in our minds and hearts.
David Bowie, 69, the queer, musician and actor, died on Jan. 11. Bowie had been fighting cancer for 18 months. “Blackstar,” his last album, was released days before his death. “It was a final, classic Bowie move – releasing an album without fanfare and letting the art stand on its own,” editor Kevin Naff wrote in the Blade.
Art historian Hugh Honour, 88, died on May 19 in Tofori, Italy. For more than 50 years, Honour and his partner John Fleming edited and wrote many books. “All the genius of the masters seem to tremble in the sunbeams and dance upon the waves,” Honour and Fleming wrote in “The Venetian Homes of Henry James, Whistler and Sargent.”
Connie Kopelov, 90, who had Alzheimer’s disease, died in Manhattan on May 28. Kopelov and her partner of 23 years Phyllis Siegel were the first same-sex couple to be legally married in New York City. The couple wed on July 24, 2011, the first day that same-sex couples could marry in New York State.
Melvin Dwork, 94, who was dishonorably discharged from the Navy for being gay in 1944 when he was 22, died in Manhattan on June 14. In 2011, the Navy changed his discharge to honorable.
Cultural critic John Gruen, best known for his autobiography “Callas Kissed Me…Lenny Too! A critic’s Memoir,” died on July 19 in Manhattan at age 89. In the memoir, Gruen called himself “a critic, gadfly, busybody, father, husband, queer, neurotic workaholic.”
Elliot Tiber, a businessman and gay rights activist, 81, who was instrumental in organizing the landmark Woodstock music festival, died on Aug. 3 from a stroke in Boca Raton, Fla. Many young queer people “take their current freedom for granted,” Tiber told Publishers Weekly in 2011, “Coming out in the summer of 1969 was the most dangerous yet liberating thing that ever happened to me.”
Johnny Nicholson died at his Manhattan home at age 99 on Aug. 4. Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal were among the “New Bohemians” who frequented his restaurant, the Café Nicholson. John T. Edge called the Café “a canteen for the creative class” in the “Oxford American.”
Iconic Mexican singer Juan Gabriel, 66, died in his California home on Aug. 28. “He has passed on to become part of eternity and has left us his legacy through Juan Gabriel, the character created by him for all the music that has been song and performed all around the world,” his publicist told the Associated Press.
Over 30 years, Gabriel sold more than 100 million albums and wrote more than 1,500 songs. Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieta called Gabriel “one of the greatest musical icons of our country.”
Actor Jon Polito, 65, who appeared as gangsters in Coen brothers films, died on Sept. 1 in Los Angeles from complications of multiple myeloma. He married his husband Darryl Armbruster in 2015.
The transgender performer Lady Chablis, 59, died on Sept. 6 in Savannah, Ga. Chablis, who had pneumonia, is best known for being featured in the 1994 bestseller “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” “She was The Lady Chablis from morning to night,” Midnight’s author John Berendt, told the New York Times. “She had a great repartee, and she had a way with words.”
Edward Albee, the greatest playwright of our time, died after a brief illness on Sept. 16 at age 88 in Montauk, N.Y. Albee is best known for his groundbreaking play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” After the Tony-winning play ran on Broadway, it became an iconic movie starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
Bill Cunningham, 87, the beloved New York Times fashion photographer, died on June 25. Cunningham was known for his sense of style as well as for getting his photos of AIDS benefits and of LGBT people into the New York Times long before the paper used the words “AIDS” or “gay.”
Out & About
Writers’ association hosts Capital Love LitFest
Inaugural literary salon scheduled for Sunday
The Washington Writers’ Publishing House (WWPH), the nation’s longest continuously operating cooperative nonprofit literary press, will present the inaugural “Capital Love LitFest” on Sunday, June 28 at 10 a.m. at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Md.
Designed as a full-day literary salon and cultural gathering, the event will feature more than 25 writers, nine workshops, and panel discussions, readings, and conversations centered on love, relationships, identity, healing, creativity, and connection in divisive times. Admission is pay-what-you-can, beginning at free.
The LitFest celebrates the release of “Capital Love,” WWPH’s new anthology featuring 55 writers from across the DMV, including contributors from Baltimore, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The pocket-sized collectible anthology explores love in its many forms through poetry and prose and serves as a literary response to today’s social and political climate.
For more details, visit Washington Writers’ website.
Television
‘Vampire Lestat’ heats up Pride month with queer action
Latest Anne Rice adaptation poised to be your next TV obsession
Whether you’re mourning the end of Euphoria, The Boys, or Hacks, you’re dying for another hit of Heated Rivalry or just need something new to watch, The Vampire Lestat has you covered. Whether it’s the cutting witty dialogue, supernatural action, or the maudlin adventures of problematic queer relationships, this is the show for you. This new season brings literal sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll as Lestat (Sam Reid), a multi-centennial vampire, decides to process his beef with his sexy ex Louis (Jacob Anderson) for giving the Interview With The Vampire by starting a rock band.
In 1976, Anne Rice wrote a book to process the death of her young daughter. It was the story of two vampire “roommates” and their centuries-long relationship drama. What followed was a series of 13 books and a whole world filled with vampires, witches, and more. This launched the 1994 film where Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, and Tom Cruise played “totally not gay” vampires who almost kissed a few times, despite having all of the hottest actors of the era, it was sanitized of all queer subplots. R&B diva Aaliyah’s last role was as Akasha, the eponymous Queen of the Damned (2002), the unoffical follow up to the first film covering Rice’s second and third book.
The AMC series version of Interview with the Vampire took all this source material and made it more gay, more current, and more PC. They shifted the story to the present day, having Louis live in a luxurious Dubai compound, and his interviewer, Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), being a former addict hawking his masterclass, armed with a ton of evidence. The choice to race-swap Louis from a misanthropic emo plantation owner to a black brothel owner in New Orleans adds so much more nuance, history and richness to his character. Exploring the abusive nature of the relationship and casting the amazing Delainey Hayles as Claudia have all elevated the story to your next television obsession. The choice to turn the book into two seasons allowed the creators to take their time, play with storytelling and explore Louis as an unreliable narrator and tease at many of the storylines of later books. This was a smart choice considering these characters are all centuries old, and over the course of 13 books, all have complex backstories and inner worlds.
Sam Reid was always a standout and captured the egomania and charm of Lestat, the self-proclaimed Brat Prince. He gets to play an over-the-top bitch about everything we’ve seen and heard in Seasons 1 and 2, while even skewering the world of today, commenting on the state of fame, life, and politics.
Like in the book, he reclaims the narrative as he takes the helm of the story. Rather than write his own book, he’s nabbed the newly vamped-up Daniel Molloy as his documentarian. Also, without giving too much away, this series begins in an unnamed future. Armand (Assad Zaman) and Louis are still as hot as ever, and they’re at an auction for the complete works of the Vampire Lestat. It’s teased that some sort of world-altering event has transpired, and Lestat is missing in action. Could that be the events of The Queen of the Damned or even the sum of all of the books? Only time will tell.
The worldbuilding is really solid as we get to see the past, present and future of these characters. Prime example, Akasha, The Queen of the Damned, was name-checked in earlier seasons. Whether you’re a fan of the original source material or not, this series has something for everyone. It has action, including an epic vampire fight scene in the premiere. It has a complex world and mysteries that unfold over the course of each season. Plus, it has hotties of all genders with Reid, Anderson and Zaman holding it down from earlier seasons. Schitt’s Creek dreamboat Noah Reid joins the cast as Lestat’s band’s frontman.
The show has everything: sex, violence, drama, all with a queer and racially inclusive lens. It doesn’t pull punches in storytelling and examining history, all while maintaining a level of levity and fun. It unfolds with dramatic soap operatic reveals and confrontations while also grounding all of the fantasy in our world.
The series is poised to continue with the same characters from the first two seasons while shifting the focus to allow in a new cast of characters who will play out the events of multiple books and major arcs that are part of AMC’s new Anne Rice cinematic universe.
The series airs on AMC Plus, while the first two seasons are available on Netflix. A note to people streaming it may appear on Season 2, as the series name change might be confusing for those who haven’t seen the show.
a&e features
Television loses a legend, longtime ‘Will & Grace’ director James Burrows
Iconic hitmaker leaves behind a legacy of telling LGBTQ stories
You don’t have to be a pretentious film major to name 10 movie directors. But naming television directors is not that simple. They’re the unsung heroes of your favorite shows, and the late James Burrows was the television director. He passed on June 19, but his DNA runs through television history.
He directed over 1200 episodes of television and over 50 pilots. He co-created “Cheers” and directed many episodes of long-running series like “Friends,” “Taxi,” “Frasier,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and “Two and a Half Men.” You also may remember him from playing a heightened version of himself on the Lisa Kudrow comedy “The Comeback.”
He has left an indelible mark on the LGBTQ community. As recently as last year, he directed the series run of “Mid-Century Modern” starring Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, and Linda Lavin. He was also a longtime director of “Will & Grace” and directed every episode of the series revival. He even directed the unaired “Absolutely Fabulous” pilot with Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Johnston, and Zosia Mamet.
Not to mention he’s worked with queer icons throughout history, including Betty White and Stockard Channing on their single-season series, and Jennifer Coolidge in “2 Broke Girls.”
He started his career on shows like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Rhoda,” “Laverne & Shirley,” and the first four seasons of “Taxi.”
He continued to work steadily and directed successful pilots that went to series for “Roc,” “3rd Rock From the Sun,” “Dharma & Greg,” and “Wings.” He directed multiple episodes of “Friends,” “Caroline in the City,” and “Frasier.”
This magic continued into the 2000s with him directing the pilots for “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and multiple episodes of “Mike & Molly,” and the entire return series of “Will & Grace.”
What was the secret to his success? He’d enact the “fun clause” in his contract. In his words, “Life is too short to deal with obnoxious leads,” he shared. “So as long as the writing is good and the cast is fun, I’m going to enjoy the experience.”
He had the magic touch, having multiple pilots turned into long-running series. He was nominated for an Emmy 24 times in 26 years and worked consistently until a year before his death.
The secret was the way he brought the cast together. He describes, “it was my job to mold them into an ensemble, and they did round into a group of people who loved each other.”
This earned him 11 Emmy Awards and five Directors Guild of America Awards, including being awarded the inaugural DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Television Direction.
In a 2003 interview by the Television Academy, he was asked how he wants to be remembered, and he said, “That every night forever you can tune in somewhere, and there’ll be a show I did.”
He’s survived by his wife, Debbie, four daughters, seven grandchildren, and the countless people whose careers he launched and the countless viewers he inspired with his television legacy.
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