a&e features
Out actor Michael Urie savors sleek, timely ‘Hamlet’ production
New York-based star is former student of D.C. theater titan Michael Kahn


Michael Urie used to rehearse scenes from ‘Hamlet’ just for fun before being cast in the Michael Kahn production. (Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy STC)
‘Hamlet’
Through March 4
Shakespeare Theatre Company
Sidney Harman Hall
610 F Street, NW
$44-125
202-547-1122
At 37, Michael Urie has the acting career that he couldn’t imagine as a kid in Plano, Texas.
“I thought maybe I’d be a drama teacher one day but couldn’t see much beyond that. And then I moved to New York City where I felt both instantly at home and inspired by the possibility that I could be a real, working actor.”
Today, Urie’s vast and varied vitae includes classical theater, Broadway musicals, 600 performances of “Buyer and Cellar” (his one-man comedy about a young manager of a mock mall on Barbra Streisand’s Malibu estate) and a successful run on TV’s “Ugly Betty.”
Last week, the approachable actor sat down at an out-of-the-way coffeeshop in Chinatown for tea and some talk about tackling a theatrical milestone. It was like meeting with a fun acquaintance who just happens to know a lot about Shakespeare.
When Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Michael Kahn was asked to do one more play from the bard’s canon before ending his tenure as artistic director, he agreed to stage his third “Hamlet” provided Urie play the title role. As Hamlet, Urie, who studied drama with Kahn at Juilliard School in New York, brings a mix of dramatic and comic talents to the story of the Danish prince whose life is rocked after his uncle murders his father the king, marries his mother and steals the crown. Set in a contemporary, sleek police state, the production certainly resonates.
WASHINGTON BLADE: When Michael Kahn offered you Hamlet, how’d you react?
MICHAEL URIE: I accepted without hesitation of course. It’s a part I’ve wanted to play forever. In the past I’d get studio space and work on it from time to time with another director. We’d bring in other actors and do the ghost scene or the Gertrude scene just for ourselves.
BLADE: Is that a thing actors do?
URIE: Nerds like me, yeah. Coming in, I knew the text. I had played Hamlet’s friend Horatio at South Coast Repertory in California. And I did Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy in Michael Kahn’s class at Juilliard. Jessica Chastain (then-fellow acting student and now movie star) was my Ophelia.
BLADE: Are you into the politics of the play?
URIE: How could you not be? The politics of Shakespeare are as universal and timeless as the way he discusses sanity, love and all the other timeless things you find in his works. The whisper campaign sensibility of our production feels very at home here in Washington. … Referring to the death of his father and his uncle’s shady ascension to the throne, Hamlet says, “But two months dead — nay, not so much, not two. So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr.” Similarly, in real life, we’ve gone from the best possible example of what an American can be to the worst of all likelihoods. I have a great sense of pride that there’s a production of “Hamlet” happening in the nation’s capital the week that the Obamas’ portraits are unveiled and the week that the FBI says the White House is lying. And here I am doing a play about spying and lying.
BLADE: How are D.C. audiences?
URIE: When New York audiences embrace you, it’s very exciting. There’s nothing like it. On the other hand, many of them are career theatergoers, and along with their love of theater is a need to qualify what they’re seeing. They’re inherently all critics. Washington audiences are smart. And with the exception of the critics, I find that audiences are coming to enjoy themselves. They’re not seeing shows four times a week like some New York theatergoers. They’re going once or twice a month. They’re coming to find what they like and not what they don’t like about a show. When I was at the Shakespeare Theatre doing “Buyer & Cellar” a few years ago, my costumer told me a story about three fratty young slightly drunk young guys on the Metro looking at my poster. One of them said, “Look at this! Look at this! See this guy.” And my costumer leaned in to hear what he’d say. “This guy plays a bunch of parts all by himself and he’s awesome. We gotta go.” Their counterparts in New York wouldn’t have even noticed the poster.
BLADE: “Hamlet’s” cast includes your partner of nine years Ryan Spahn, who also studied under Kahn. As Hamlet’s former school pal Rosencrantz, Ryan moves admirably from comic to sinister.
URIE: He is good, isn’t he? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are such complicated characters. Lots of people feel like Hamlet isn’t justified in the sending his old schoolmates to their deaths. In this production they’re all in with the king and they stand by and watch Hamlet beaten by the guards.
BLADE: A former sitcom star once told me that nothing compares to TV fame. It’s explosive. People who never see a movie or go to the theater watch TV. Was that your experience, and would you do TV again?
URIE: Yes and yes. After “Ugly Betty” was cancelled I did 13 episodes of “Partners,” a CBS sitcom about gay friends from the guys who made “Will & Grace.” Out of the gate we were a hit. After just three months we won a Golden Globe. That never happens. Yet after our ratings dipped, the show was cancelled. We had more stories to tell and our numbers weren’t bad.
BLADE: Was that difficult?
URIE: Yes, but not as hard as when “Ugly Betty” ended. We were a family for four years. Actors rarely have jobs that last that long.
BLADE: Hamlet changes a lot over the play. You make those changes feel real.
URIE: Thanks. It’s true that he can go from horribly depressed to giddy. He’s wildly emotional, wickedly smart and follows his impulses. Hamlet is probably bipolar. He’s always smart but by the end of the play, he has evolved. He has come to terms with mortality and his place in the world. He finds humility and grace.
BLADE: And do you relate to that?
URIE: In the last two years I’ve noticed a change in myself. Not too long ago I was at a rehearsal where I was the oldest person in the room. People looked at me to set the tone. It was different but I liked it. You don’t feel like you have to prove something or try to be liked. My three most recent works — “General Inspector,” Harvey Fierstein’s “Torch Song” and now “Hamlet” — have all been very formative. “General Inspector” was a silly comedy with a big cast. I was the lead but it was collaborative in the sense that I’ll help you get your laughs if you help me get mine. “Torch Song” is a great American story, a beautiful revival that means so much to people. “Hamlet” is a combination of both of those things. I really think everything leading up till today has informed what I’m doing now.
BLADE: Hamlet can seem so ineffective at times, but that’s not you.
URIE: I certainly have never been one to let grass grow under my feet. But that’s the nature of being an actor. You have to keep moving and looking for work all the time.
BLADE: Would you play Hamlet again?
URIE: I never say never. But for a Juilliard-trained actor who embraced the training and sought a career in theater, this production has been the way to do it. I’m so intensely satisfied with our cast and the way Michael Kahn has led me through the role. And the audience’s response has been amazing.

Michael Urie says the sleek, modern ‘Hamlet’ he’s currently in has pertinence to present-day Washington. (Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy STC)
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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