a&e features
Megan Mullally bares all
From ‘Will & Grace’ to ‘Nancy and Beth,’ singer says music was her first love


Actress/singer Megan Mullally, right, says her band with fellow singer STEPHANIE HUNT is a quirky, musically eclectic outfit that made sense instinctually. (Photo courtesy Kid Logic Media)
Nancy and Beth (Megan Mullally, Stephanie Hunt)
Monday, May 8
7 p.m.
U Street Music Hall
1115 U St., N.W.
$30
Megan Mullally cemented her legacy as the boozing and wise-cracking Karen Walker on the hit sitcom, “Will & Grace.” She later would go on to play opposite her husband Nick Offerman as his character’s ex-wife on “Parks and Recreation.” Since then, Mullally has started a side passion project with fellow actress Stephanie Hunt (“Friday Night Lights”), known as Nancy and Beth.
Bonded by a mutual love for quirk and music, the duo’s self-titled album is an eclectic mix of cover songs from rapper Gucci Mane’s “I Don’t Love Her” to the country classic, “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones. Mullally and Hunt bare it all on the cover art, appearing naked with the album’s title lettering strategically placed.
Mullally spoke with the Blade on the eagerly awaited “Will & Grace” reboot (a limited, 12-episode run with the original cast and crew on NBC is expected to air this fall), dropping her clothes for an album cover and the struggle to be taken seriously as an actress pursuing music.
WASHINGTON BLADE: Where did the name Nancy and Beth come from?
MEGAN MULLALLY: Nick, Stephanie and I had sat around at dinner one night and bounced around a bunch of band names and none of them seemed exactly right, but I wrote them all down. When I got back to Los Angeles I made a list of those, and a few others that I thought of, and I had thought of Nancy and Beth. For some reason it just seemed like the perfect name. I don’t know why. I stuck it in the middle of the list without any comment. I emailed the list to Stephanie and she emailed back right away, “Nancy and Beth.” I thought, well there you have it. That would be a good way of describing our entire vibe together. We’re completely on the same page. We have a real synchronous sort of affinity for each other.
BLADE: On the album cover, the both of you are naked. How did that concept come about?
MULLALLY: We’re both modest people. I don’t think Nick has ever seen me naked, for example. I’m not someone who rips my clothes off and goes galavanting about. I’m the opposite of that. I know Stephanie is too. I was in a very relaxed state one day and that image, exactly the way the album cover ended up being, came into my mind. Even though I didn’t want to take my clothes off necessarily, and I knew that Stephanie didn’t either, I pitched it to her and she was like, “Yeah we should do that.” It’s hard for me to put into words why I feel that’s the right record cover. It has something to do with bringing everything down to its most basic, elemental level. It’s the most stripped down, pure state. It’s two humans on the planet and we tried to keep it as absolutely neutral as possible. Except on the back cover art you see that we don’t mean it just as taking ourselves seriously, we also mean that there is humor included. I don’t think either one of us are very analytical people, we’re more instinctual.
BLADE: The music video for the single “Please, Mr. Jailer” has a quirky vibe paired with a classic song. Is that the vibe of the album?
MULLALLY: Yeah, it is. There’s only 10 songs on the record.They’re all a very eclectic mix from every genre, every era. Originally for the video there’s one rap song on the record by an artist named Gucci Mane. Initially I thought that should be the video because the track came out pretty well. It’s pretty funny. It’s not a comedy band at all, but that track has a lot going for it. So I sent it out to a bunch of people I know who are really good directors and said, “Hey do you want to direct our music video?” and for whatever reason everybody said no, mostly for scheduling reasons. It occurred to me that I didn’t want to get in a situation with a music video where we were going to have to sell our house and move into a tent so I thought, “Well I’ll just direct the music video.” And I thought we shouldn’t do that track because it’s an anomaly, it’s the only rap/hip-hop song on the record. We should do “Please, Mr. Jailer” which is more representative of our record as a whole and the spirit of the band. So I thought, I’ll just direct it and I’ll shoot it on my phone.
My pilates teacher, who is a really good friend of mine, I was talking to her about it and I realized that her husband is a really great VP, editor and director. So I thought, “Maybe I’ll just get Alex to come over and take some pictures or hold my phone.” Then I thought, “Wait, why don’t I just have Alex shoot it?” It was just really simple. We had a really easy shoot. It was just me, Stephanie, Alex and his assistant and hair and makeup. There was no other crew. It was all just very chill. I think it came out really well and I’m excited about it. The music video is more reflective of the tone of the album cover. So I think there’s an enigmatic quality that pulls you in that’s not necessarily reflected in our live show. Our live show we have facial expressions and every song is choreographed full-on. The video is different from the live show but I think the video is reflective of a weirdness that is inherent in my and Stephanie’s take on music.
BLADE: Lots of actors have musical side projects. Did you ever fear that the public wouldn’t take you seriously when you embarked on Nancy and Beth?
MULLALLY: Oh, I know they won’t. Nobody gives a shit if an actor does music. If a musician wants to act, people are like, “Oh my god. Amazing, brilliant.” If an actor reveals that they also have a musical side people are like, “Please, take your childish musical aspirations elsewhere.”
Well the fact of the matter is that I, and probably many other actors who also would like to express themselves musically, that was my start. I was into music way before I even thought about acting. I was in a ballet company. I was a serious ballet dancer for years also. I have done three musicals on Broadway and two of them were before “Will & Grace.” So two of them were before I was ever known as an actress on television. I think I’ve said that I came out the womb in a top hat and tap shoes. I’ve always loved music. Music has been the driving force in my creative life. It’s just that the public at large has no idea. They have not seen me in a Broadway musical. They don’t know anything about me being a singer. I’ve done a lot of concert singing. Singing is really my first, or maybe my best, thing. People don’t know that and that’s not their fault. It’s just the way it is. I don’t expect to ever sell one ticket, one record or anything. So each ticket or record that gets sold, I’m like, “Great. Bonus.”
BLADE: The last time you were on tour with Nancy and Beth your husband came along. Is he coming along this time?
MULLALLY: He is. Sometimes he’ll make an appearance during the show so we’ll see what happens. He’s our roadie.
BLADE: Fans are super excited for the “Will & Grace” reboot. Was it easy to slip back into the role of Karen Walker after so long?
MULLALLY: Frighteningly easy. I never doubted that it would be, but I also never thought there would be any reason for it to be. It never crossed any of our minds that the show would come back as the same exact show on the same exact network because that’s never happened before.
Although I did feel Karen was living a happy existence in some kind of alternative universe. It never occurred to me that universe would then be on NBC. It’s very exciting. I think the weirdest thing about the whole reboot is the fact that it doesn’t feel weird. It seems totally normal like we were just here two days ago, we went away for the weekend and we came back on a Monday. We’ve only had like two photoshoots and we’ve already just been like, “Hey” when we walk in like no time has gone by. We just had a photoshoot and I walked in and Eric (McCormack) and Sean (Hayes) were sitting there and I was like, “Hey guys” as I was heading to my dressing room. I came back and was like, “Wait a minute. No crazy casual, ‘Hey guys.’” This is great, we’re doing this. It’s crazy. It’s pretty fun. We’re already back to total, full-time groping, humping and laughing hysterically. It’s bizarre, nothing has changed.
BLADE: You’ve performed in D.C. before with your husband. What about D.C. makes it different from other cities you’ve performed in?
MULLALLY: I love D.C. as a city. I love performing there, the audiences there are great. I have a good friend who lives in D.C. She just organized this huge benefit for D.C. Public Libraries and they had two stages, music going all night, speakers, art installations. She sent me some stuff about it afterwards and one of the articles that was written about it had said how great it was that you live in a city where reading and libraries and that aspect of the culture, as well as all other aspects, are celebrated and all go hand in hand. I think that’s why D.C. is a great city for us to perform. I find our band entertaining across the board for all different kinds of audiences but at the same time its an eclectic band. I think the fact that we’re able to entertain everyone equally is a bonus so D.C. is a great city for that.

(Photo courtesy of Kid Logic Media)
a&e features
James Baldwin bio shows how much of his life is revealed in his work
‘A Love Story’ is first major book on acclaimed author’s life in 30 years

‘Baldwin: A Love Story’
By Nicholas Boggs
c.2025, FSG
$35/704 pages
“Baldwin: A Love Story” is a sympathetic biography, the first major one in 30 years, of acclaimed Black gay writer James Baldwin. Drawing on Baldwin’s fiction, essays, and letters, Nicolas Boggs, a white writer who rediscovered and co-edited a new edition of a long-lost Baldwin book, explores Baldwin’s life and work through focusing on his lovers, mentors, and inspirations.
The book begins with a quick look at Baldwin’s childhood in Harlem, and his difficult relationship with his religious, angry stepfather. Baldwin’s experience with Orilla Miller, a white teacher who encouraged the boy’s writing and took him to plays and movies, even against his father’s wishes, helped shape his life and tempered his feelings toward white people. When Baldwin later joined a church and became a child preacher, though, he felt conflicted between academic success and religious demands, even denouncing Miller at one point. In a fascinating late essay, Baldwin also described his teenage sexual relationship with a mobster, who showed him off in public.
Baldwin’s romantic life was complicated, as he preferred men who were not outwardly gay. Indeed, many would marry women and have children while also involved with Baldwin. Still, they would often remain friends and enabled Baldwin’s work. Lucien Happersberger, who met Baldwin while both were living in Paris, sent him to a Swiss village, where he wrote his first novel, “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” as well as an essay, “Stranger in the Village,” about the oddness of being the first Black person many villagers had ever seen. Baldwin met Turkish actor Engin Cezzar in New York at the Actors’ Studio; Baldwin later spent time in Istanbul with Cezzar and his wife, finishing “Another Country” and directing a controversial play about Turkish prisoners that depicted sexuality and gender.
Baldwin collaborated with French artist Yoran Cazac on a children’s book, which later vanished. Boggs writes of his excitement about coming across this book while a student at Yale and how he later interviewed Cazac and his wife while also republishing the book. Baldwin also had many tumultuous sexual relationships with young men whom he tried to mentor and shape, most of which led to drama and despair.
The book carefully examines Baldwin’s development as a writer. “Go Tell It on the Mountain” draws heavily on his early life, giving subtle signs of the main character John’s sexuality, while “Giovanni’s Room” bravely and openly shows a homosexual relationship, highly controversial at the time. “If Beale Street Could Talk” features a woman as its main character and narrator, the first time Baldwin wrote fully through a woman’s perspective. His essays feel deeply personal, even if they do not reveal everything; Lucian is the unnamed visiting friend in one who the police briefly detained along with Baldwin. He found New York too distracting to write, spending his time there with friends and family or on business. He was close friends with modernist painter Beauford Delaney, also gay, who helped Baldwin see that a Black man could thrive as an artist. Delaney would later move to France, staying near Baldwin’s home.
An epilogue has Boggs writing about encountering Baldwin’s work as one of the few white students in a majority-Black school. It helpfully reminds us that Baldwin connects to all who feel different, no matter their race, sexuality, gender, or class. A well-written, easy-flowing biography, with many excerpts from Baldwin’s writing, it shows how much of his life is revealed in his work. Let’s hope it encourages reading the work, either again or for the first time.
a&e features
Looking back at 50 years of Pride in D.C
Washington Blade’s unique archives chronicle highs, lows of our movement

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of LGBTQ Pride in Washington, D.C., the Washington Blade team combed our archives and put together a glossy magazine showcasing five decades of celebrations in the city. Below is a sampling of images from the magazine but be sure to find a print copy starting this week.

The magazine is being distributed now and is complimentary. You can find copies at LGBTQ bars and restaurants across the city. Or visit the Blade booth at the Pride festival on June 7 and 8 where we will distribute copies.
Thank you to our advertisers and sponsors, whose support has enabled us to distribute the magazine free of charge. And thanks to our dedicated team at the Blade, especially Photo Editor Michael Key, who spent many hours searching the archives for the best images, many of which are unique to the Blade and cannot be found elsewhere. And thanks to our dynamic production team of Meaghan Juba, who designed the magazine, and Phil Rockstroh who managed the process. Stephen Rutgers and Brian Pitts handled sales and marketing and staff writers Lou Chibbaro Jr., Christopher Kane, Michael K. Lavers, Joe Reberkenny along with freelancer and former Blade staffer Joey DiGuglielmo wrote the essays.

The magazine represents more than 50 years of hard work by countless reporters, editors, advertising sales reps, photographers, and other media professionals who have brought you the Washington Blade since 1969.
We hope you enjoy the magazine and keep it as a reminder of all the many ups and downs our local LGBTQ community has experienced over the past 50 years.
I hope you will consider supporting our vital mission by becoming a Blade member today. At a time when reliable, accurate LGBTQ news is more essential than ever, your contribution helps make it possible. With a monthly gift starting at just $7, you’ll ensure that the Blade remains a trusted, free resource for the community — now and for years to come. Click here to help fund LGBTQ journalism.





a&e features
In stressful times, escape to Rehoboth Beach
Here’s what’s new in D.C.’s favorite beach town for 2025

At last, after an uncharacteristically cold and snowy winter, another Rehoboth Beach season is upon us. I have been going to Rehoboth Beach since 1984, and it was the first place I went where people only knew me as a gay man. It was the year I came out. It was a summer community back then. Today it really is an exciting year-round community. But it’s still the summer season when Rehoboth shines, and when the businesses make most of their money.
The summer brings out tens of thousands of tourists, from day-trippers, to those with second homes at the beach. Everyone comes to the beach for the sun and sand, food, and drink. Some like to relax, others to party, and you can do both in Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Stop by CAMP Rehoboth, the LGBTQ community center on Baltimore Avenue, to get the latest updates on what is happening. CAMP sponsors Sunfestival each Labor Day weekend, and a huge block party on Baltimore Avenue in October. They train the Rehoboth Beach police on how to work with the LGBTQ community, and have all kinds of special and regularly scheduled events. Pick up a copy of their publication, Letters, which is distributed around town.
I asked Kim Leisey, CAMP’s executive director, for her thoughts, and she said, “CAMP Rehoboth looks forward to welcoming our friends and visitors to Rehoboth Beach. We are a safe space for our community and will be sponsoring social opportunities, art receptions, concerts, and art exhibits, throughout the summer. If you are planning a wedding, shower, reception, or business meeting, our beautiful atrium is available for rental. We look forward to a summer of solidarity and fun.” While at CAMP stop in the courtyard at a favorite place of mine, Lori’s Oy Vey! Café, and tryher famous chicken salad.
There’s something for everyone at the beach, from walking the boardwalk and eating Thrasher’s fries, to visiting Funland, or playing a game of miniature golf. Or head to some of the world-class restaurants like Drift, Eden, Blue Moon, or Back Porch.
Some random bits on the summer 2025 season. Prices are going up like everywhere else. Your parking meter will cost you $4 an hour. Meters are in effect May 15-Sept. 15. Parking permits for all the non-metered spaces in town are also expensive. Transferable permits are $365,non-transferable $295, or after Aug. 1 if you only come for the end of summer, it’s $165. Detailed information is available on the town’s website.
Rehoboth lost one of its best restaurant this off-season, JAM, but Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant is open for its fourth season. Owner Freddie Lutz told the Blade, “We are looking forward to a fabulous season. Freddie’s has a dance floor and is the only music video bar in town.” There is also live entertainment, karaoke, and Freddie’s Follies drag show Friday nights.

My favorite happy hour bar is Aqua Grill, which has reopened for the season. I recommend taking advantage of their great Tuesday Taco night, and Thursday burger night. Then there is The Pines and Top of the Pines. Bob Suppies of Second Block Hospitality told me, “Come, relax, and play. We are ready! I have been spending summers here since the mid-90’s, and Rehoboth Beach seems to age like a fine wine. Between the new, and favorite restaurants opening back up, the shops bursting with incredible finds, and all the great LGBTQ+ bars to entertain everyone, nowhere beats the Delaware beaches this summer.”
Head down the block on Baltimore Avenue and you get to La Fable restaurant. Go all the way to the beach and you will see the new lifeguard station, which is slated to open later this month. Also, demolition of the old hotel and north boardwalk Grotto Pizza has happened. The site will become a new four-story, 60-room hotel, with ground level retail space.
Then join me at my favorite morning place at the beach, The Coffee Mill, in the mews between Rehoboth and Baltimore Avenues, open every morning at 7 a.m. Owners Mel and Bob also have the Mill Creamery, the ice cream parlor in the mews, and Brashhh! on 1st street, where Mel sells his own clothing line, called FEARLESS! Then there is the ever-popular Purple Parrot, celebrating its 26th year, now with new owners Tyler Townsend and Drew Mitchell, who welcome you to their iconic place. It has only gotten better. If you head farther down Rehoboth Avenue you will find the Summer House with its upscale Libation Room, and a nice garden looking out on Rehoboth Avenue. Also on Rehoboth Avenue is Gidget’s Gadgets owned by the fabulous Steve Fallon. With the renewed interest in vinyl records you may want to stop in at Extended Play.
Then there is the always busy and fun, Diego’s Bar and Nightclub. Joe Zuber of Diego’s told the Blade, “Get ready for a great gay ole time in Rehoboth Beach. Plenty of entertainment, dancing and fun as we seem to be the next Stonewall generation with this newest administration. Each election brings its concerns about how our gay community will be affected. Come to Rehoboth Beach to escape this summer season!”
If you are in town for Sunday happy hour, make sure to stop there to hear the talented Pamala Stanley who is celebrating her 20th season entertaining in Rehoboth.And on Mondays, Stanley plays Broadway and other classics on the piano at Diego’s.
If you are looking for culture Rehoboth has some of that as well. There is the Clear Space Theatre on Baltimore Avenue. Rumors abound that Clear Space will move out of town. But I can’t believe the commissioners and mayor would be dumb enough to let that happen. This year’s shows include “Spring Awakening,” “Buyer + Cellar,” “Hairspray,” “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” and “RENT.”Tickets sell fast so I suggest you book early and they are available online. Then mark your calendars for Saturday, July 19 for Rehoboth Beach Pride 2025 at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the other fine restaurants and clubs in town. Just a reminder, during season you often need dinner reservations. Come to the beach often enough, and you can try them all: Café Azafran, Dos Locos, Goolee’s Grille, Rigby’s, Frank and Louie’s, Above the Dunes, Mariachi, and Henlopen City Oyster House, and Red, White & Basil. And take a short drive to Dewey for breakfast or lunch at the Starboard; popular bartender Doug Moore (winner of the Blade’s Best Rehoboth-Area Bartender 2024 award) holds court at one of the inside bars, which has become a de facto gay bar on Saturdays.
One major development in the local dining scene last summer was the purchase of the Big Fish Restaurant Group by Baltimore-based Atlas Restaurant Group. Nearly a year later, not much has changed at the many Big Fish restaurants, although many locals are hoping for a renovation of Obie’s along with a gay night at the ocean-front bar/restaurant.
These are only a few of the fantastic places to eat and drink at the beach. Remember, book your reservations for hotels and restaurants, early. Rehoboth is a happening place and gets very busy.
We are living in stressful times. A visit to Rehoboth is a nice way to escape them for a while. Take the time to destress, enjoy the sun and sand. Take a stroll on the boardwalk and listen to the sound of the ocean, and people having fun. Enjoy good times, good food, good friends, and remember that life can still be good. Recharge your batteries for the rest of the year, by enjoying some summer fun in Rehoboth Beach.

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