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Sean Hayes on new film, saying farewell to Jack
Actor plays female lead in ‘Lazy Susan’
Even though he’s sheltering in place with his husband Scott Icenogle, this April is going to be a very busy month for award-winning actor Sean Hayes.
He’s starring as the lead female character in “Lazy Susan,” a movie he also co-wrote and co-produced, which drops on VOD and streaming channels on April 3.
Then on April 23, Hayes’s role as the exuberant Jack McFarland on “Will & Grace” comes to an end when the long-running NBC series broadcasts its final episode.
The press tours for these projects have been cancelled, but Hayes is promoting the projects from the comfort and safety of his own home. “Luckily,” the multi-talented star says, “we can do interviews over the phone to get the word out about shows that you can watch at home, so this whole process adheres to the rules of this horrible virus.”
When he’s not promoting his latest projects, Hayes has been watching some of his favorite movies and shows with his husband. “I’m a big sci-fi fantasy nerd,” he says. “I like all the classics like ‘Star Wars,’ ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Stranger Things,’ but I’m always on the lookout for great new shows.
He also admits that he’s a big fan of “This Old House.”
Hayes and Icenogle, a music producer, have been together for almost 14 years and have been married since 2014. He says the secret to their relationship, and to surviving social distancing together, is respect. “You have to fall in respect with somebody, not in love. Love will happen if there’s respect.”
Hayes’s latest project, “Lazy Susan,” has its roots in his career as a stand-up comedian (he’s an alumnus of Chicago’s famed Second City improvisational theatre troupe). “When I was 21 years old and living in Chicago,” he recalls, “I got a call from my agent for an audition to replace ‘the white guy’ on the sketch show ‘In Living Color.’”
“They were talking about Jim Carrey,” he adds.
“I went in with a bunch of character ideas and voices and wigs and things like that. One of the characters was Susan, who was just a girl who couldn’t get her life together. She always had excuses and she was never really happy. She dreams about having it all, but she does nothing to get it.”
“Decades later,” he continues, “a friend of mine suggested that I resurrect the character because we had so much fun with her. She came up with the name ‘Lazy Susan,’ and I thought ‘what a genius title.’”
Hayes developed the script with two old friends, Carrie Aizley and Darlene Hunt, both of whom also appear in the movie. Aizley plays Corrin, Susan’s long-suffering bandmate, and Hunt, who created the Showtime series “The Big C” and appears as Maggie in Apple TV’s “Dickinson,” plays Wendy.
The image of the kitchen turntable helped Hayes and his co-writers turn the character sketch into a full-length movie script. “We loved the built-in metaphor of a ‘lazy Susan,’” Hayes says, “of someone spinning around in circles, who can’t get their life together.” Hayes notes that alert viewers can spot lots of spinning motifs in the film, like when Susan and her friend Corrin are in the playground.
As the script took shape, Susan became Susan O’Connell who idly spends her days stealing magazines from her neighbors to create elaborate collages of her dream life while borrowing money from her mother to pay her rent. She’s looking for someone to take care of her, but when her world starts to crash around her, she finally finds a job and starts to take care of herself.
Working closely with director Nick Peet (“Grimm”), Hayes decided to play the character straight. Usually, when a man puts on a dress to play a female character, it’s played for laughs. Hayes and his colleagues wanted the comedy to come from the character and her outrageous life, not from the fact that he was wearing a skirt. “I always enjoy an acting challenge,” he says. “I like finding new voices. I wanted the challenge of playing a woman, not a guy in drag, not a transgender person. I wanted to play her as a real person, and not get laughs just because I was a man dressed as a woman.”
In addition to Aizley and Hunt, Hayes was able to recruit his dream cast for the movie. “It never, ever happens that the people you have in mind when you are writing the script say yes to being in the movie,” he says. “But we were very lucky to get the cast we wanted.”
The cast includes Allison Janney as Susan’s nemesis Velvet (“she is brilliant in everything she’s in,” gushes Hayes) and Margo Martindale as Susan’s mother (“who is such a funny, wonderful person”), as well as Jim Rash, who won an Oscar for “The Descendants” as Susan’s love interest and Matthew Broderick as Susan’s landlord.
Hayes thinks that audiences will be drawn to the off-beat movie and that the time is right for a movie that’s just trying to entertain. “I’m very proud of “Lazy Susan,” he says, “and very proud of everyone involved. I think it’s super fun and quirky and odd and a little creepy and hilarious. For me, it’s a throwback to the old independent movies of the ’90s like ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse’ and ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ that I’m such a fan of.”
He could also add his first full-length film, the delightful “Billy’s First Hollywood Screen Kiss” (1998) to that list.
While Hayes was working on “Lazy Susan,” he was also filming the final episodes of the groundbreaking NBC sitcom “Will & Grace.” Hayes originated the award-winning role of Jack when the series was initially released in 1998 (months after the premiere of “Billy”) and recreated the role when the series was revived in 2017.
The actor is proud of the legacy the show leaves in its wake. “I think it had a very positive impact,” he says. “It opened up a dialogue in America about LGBTQ inclusion and acceptance. A lot can be accomplished through the power of comedy. We succeeded in educating Americans without them even knowing it.”
Looking back over the experience, Hayes says, “I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to play Jack and especially for the audience’s desire to see the show come back. That’s the only reason we did it, but now it feels like it’s time. I think the timing is perfect.”
The energetic star is working on two exciting new projects. Through his production company Mills Hazy, he’s developing an animated series for Netflix. “It’s about a spy who happens to be gay,” he says, “the gay James Bond. There’s a great cast involved, but I can’t say anything about it yet.”
He’s also in the midst of casting for a new play by out playwright Doug Wright called “Good Night Oscar.” Wright won the Pulitzer Prize for his one man-show “I Am My Own Wife;” he also wrote the books for the musicals “Grey Gardens” and “War Paint” and the play “Quills,” which premiered at D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre. The play will be helmed by out director Leigh Silverman.
Drawing on his own experience as a talk-show host and classical pianist, Hayes will play composer and raconteur Oscar Levant. Known for his rapier wit and encyclopedic recall, Levant was a regular on quiz shows and variety hours on both television and radio; he also had featured roles in classic Hollywood musicals like “Rhapsody in Blue,” “An American in Paris” and “The Band Wagon.”
The production was slated to premiere at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in January 2021, with an anticipated transfer to Broadway, but plans are currently on hold. The unplanned break gives Hayes extra time to practice Levant’s quips, including the infamous line, “I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.”
Hayes has an impressive theatrical resume. He played Mr. Applegate (the Devil) in Encores! Concert production of “Damn Yankees” and appeared as God on Broadway in the play “An Act of God” and with Kristin Chenoweth in the Burt Bacharach musical “Promises, Promises.” Hayes also hosted the Tony Awards in 2010.
In the meantime, fans can also enjoy “viral music video masters” Sean Hayes and Scott Icenogle on their official YouTube channel “The Kitchen Sync,” where they perform a hysterical mix of lip-sync and parody videos.
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Award-winning D.C. chef reaching new culinary heights
Anthony Jones of Marcus DC competing on ‘Top Chef’
In Anthony Jones’s kitchen, all sorts of flags fly, including his own. Executive chef at award-winning restaurant Marcus DC, Jones has reached culinary heights (James Beard Award semifinalist for Emerging Chef, anyone?), yet he’s just getting started.
Briefly stepping away from his award-winning station, Jones took a moment under a different set of lights. Recently, he temporarily gave up his post at the restaurant for a starring small-screen slot on the latest season of “Top Chef,” which debuted in March. (The show airs weekly on Bravo and Peacock).
Before his strategic slice-and-dice competition, however, Jones, who identifies as gay, draws from his deep DMV roots. In the years before “Top Chef” and the top chef spot at Marcus, he was born and raised in Sunderland, Md., in southern Maryland, near the Chesapeake.
Early memories were steeped in afternoons on boats with his dad bonding over fishing, and wandering the garden of his great-grandparents spread with fresh vegetables and a few hogs. “It was Southern, old-school ethics and upbringing,” he said. “Family and food went hand in hand.” Weekends meant grabbing bushels of crabs, dad and grandma would cook and crack them. Family members would host fish fries for extra cash. In this seafood-heavy youth, Jones managed time to sneak in episodes of the “OG” Japanese “Iron Chef” show, which helped inspire him to pursue a career in the kitchen.
Jones moved to D.C. after graduating from college, ending up at lauded Restaurant Eve, and met famed chef Marcus Samuelson, who brought him to Miami to be part of the opening team for Red Rooster Overtown. After three years, Jones moved back to D.C., where he ran Dirty Habit, reinventing and reimagining the menu, integrating West African flavors and ingredients.
Samuelson, however, wouldn’t let a talent like Jones stay away for too long. Pulling Jones back into his orbit, Samuelson elevated Jones to help him open his namesake restaurant Marcus DC, which has been named a top-five restaurant by the Washington Post. Since then, Jones has been nominated as a semifinalist for the RAMMYs Rising Culinary Star in 2026 and won the Eater DC’s Rising Chef award in 2025.
Samuelson’s Marcus is a tour de force interpreting the Black Diaspora on the plate, from the American South to West Africa, along with his signature “Swedopian” touches. Yet it’s Jones who has deeply informed the plate, elevating his own story to date. Marcus DC is primarily a seafood restaurant, which serves Jones well.
“Where I’m from is seafood heavy, and as I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve moved away from meat.” Veggies and fish are hero dishes. His own dish, Mel’s Crab Rice, was not only lauded by the Washington Post, but is framed by his youth carrying home the crustaceans from Mel’s crab truck. It’s a bowl of Carolina rice, layered with pickled okra, uni béarnaise, and crab. Jones also points to a dish on the opening menu, rockfish and brassica, paying respect to a landmark D.C. institution, Ben’s Chili Bowl. Jones reverse engineered a favorite bowl of chili that’s seafood instead of meat forward, leveraging octopus and rockfish along with different riffs of cauliflower: showing his intellectual, creative, and cultural sides.
While “Top Chef” is showing Jones’s spotlight side, he also lets his identity show at work. “In the kitchen, I make sure we’re inclusive. We don’t tolerate discrimination. Everyone that’s here should feel confident to express themselves. There are so many different flags in the kitchen.”
Jones says that he didn’t fully express his gay identity until fairly recently. He felt reluctant coming out to certain family members, “you’re scared to tell them about being different,” he says, and while that anxiety ate at him, “I’m lucky and fortunate to have unconditional love and that weight off my shoulders.”
Today, “I’m me all the time, Monday to Sunday. I’m honest with people, and my staff is honest with me.”
“Being a chef is hard,” he says, “and being a chef of color is even more difficult.”
Yet his LGBTQ identity is a juggling act, he says. “I need to keep that balance, because once someone finds out something about you, their opinion can change, whether you want it or not.”
Being on a whole season of TV cooking competition, however, might mean millions more might have an opinion of him (Jones has appeared on TV already, on an episode of “Chopped”). To prepare, he says, “I’ve just kept a level head. It’s just an honor to be on top chef with amazing people happy to be there.”
Plus, this season is set in the Carolinas, and Jones attended Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C. “It’s a full story of my life, now a monumental moment for me.”
Jones also recently was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. “JBF has been a north star, a dream for so long. I always had this goal on my wall.”
Being at the top spot at Marcus DC, making waves through his accolades, and cooking on Bravo means that Jones is highly visible. “I think that if someone has a similar background to me, and can see our story, trajectory, and success, they can have more ability to be themselves. This is my goal.”
Back at Marcus, Jones has plenty up his chef’s white’s sleeves. A new spring menu is in the works. He’ll be launching a new tasting menu “dining experience,” he says, and has plans to work on more events and collaborations with chefs and friends to bring in new talent and share the culinary wealth.
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Introducing the Torchbearers Awards honoring queer, trans women and nonbinary people
Meet the Legends and Illuminators lighting new paths
The Torchbearers Awards are more than recognition—they are a continuation of legacy. They honor the quiet architects of progress in our community: those who organize, advocate, build, and protect, often without fanfare but always with purpose. Rooted in a belief in intentional recognition, this honor names those who carry our movements forward—those who make room for others, who remind us that change is both generational and generative. In a time marked by uncertainty and challenge, these leaders push forward with courage, clarity, and an unwavering commitment to expanding opportunity and equity.
This year’s honorees reflect the full breadth of our community, spanning generations, backgrounds, identities, and industries. From Legends, with decades of leadership and having created pathways for others, to Illuminators, who are lighting new paths with creativity and innovation, each Torchbearer represents the power of intergenerational leadership and the strength found in our diversity. They are organizers, advocates, artists, policy leaders, healers, and changemakers whose lived experiences shape a shared vision for equity and liberation.
This award is our love letter to queer and trans women and nonbinary people who carry the flame when it would be easier to let it dim. To those who consistently show up, who use their voice and visibility and stand firm, often without recognition, so that others may live more freely and fully. The Torchbearers Awards celebrates not just what has been done, but the enduring spirit, responsibility, and collective care that ensure the work continues, and that the flame is always passed forward.
Co-Creators of the Torchbearers Awards: Shannon Alston, June Crenshaw, Heidi Ellis
Torchbearers Awards Advisory Board: Aditi Hardikar, Lesley Bryant, Jasmine Wilson-Bryant, Stephen Rutgers
ILLUMINATOR AWARDEES
- Representative Sharice Davids (she/her), (D, KS-03)
— U.S. House of Representatives - Greisa Martinez Rosas (she/her/ella)
— Executive Director, United We Dream - Paola Ramos (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Meagan A. Fitzgerald (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Jessica L. Lewis (she/her)
— Founder / Producer, Play Play DC - Savannah Wade (she/her)
— Founder, OAR Agency - Suhad Babaa (she/her)
— Filmmaker/ Former Executive Director of Just Vision - Ashlee Davis (she/her)
— Global Head of Inclusive Outcomes, Ancestry - Jazmine Hughes (she/her)
— Journalist and Former Editor at New York Times Magazine - Queen Adesuyi (they/she)
— Policy Advisor & Organizer, ReFrame Health & Justice - Michele Rayner, Esq. (she/her)
— Civil Rights Attorney, State Representative (Florida House of Representatives) - Gaby Vincent (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Jenny Nguyen (she/her)
— Founder & Owner, The Sports Bra - Denice Frohman (she/her)
— Independent Artist, Poet / Performer - Vida Rangel (she/her)
— Founder, Our Trans Capital - Roxanne Anderson (they/them)
— Executive Director, Our Space - Ann Marie Gothard (she/her)
— Co-Founder & President, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Diana Rodriquez (she/her)
— Co-Founder & CEO, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Wendi Cooper (she/her)
— Founder / Executive Director, Transcending Women - Toya Matthews (she/her)
— City of San Antonio, Texas - Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Charity Blackwell (she/her)
— Poet, LGBTQ Advocate & Community Leader - Wilhelmina Indermaur (she/her)
— Director of Communications, Tyler Clementi Foundation - Em Chadwick (she/her)
— CMO, For Them & Autostraddle - Kylo Freeman (they/he)
— CEO, For Them & Autostraddle
LEGEND AWARDEES
- Sheila Alexander-Reid (she/her)
— Executive Director, PHL Diversity, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau - Cassandra Cantave Burton (she/her)
— Interim Director of Thought Leadership & Senior Research Advisor, AARP - leigh h. mosley (she/her)
— Photographer / Educator, PhotoFlo Photography - Jenn M. Jackson, PhD (they/them)
— Assistant Professor of Political Science; Author & Columnist, Syracuse University - Jordyn White (she/her)
— COO, Washington Prodigy / VP of Leadership Development & Research, HRC Foundation - AJ Hikes (they/them)
— Deputy Executive Director, ACLU - RaeShanda Lias (she/her)
— Digital Creator, RL Lockhart - Donna Payne-Hardy (she/her)
— Educator, EEO Specialist, Founder of NBJC, Former Leader at the Human Rights Campaign - Courtney R. Snowden (she/her)
— Principal, Blueprint Strategy Group - Gaye Adegbalola (she/her)
— Musician & Activist, Musician / Inductee of the Blues Hall of Fame - Cheryl A. Head (she/her)
— Independent Author, Novelist (Crime Fiction) - Letitia Gomez (she/her)
— The American LGBTQ+ Museum, Board Chair - Lynne Brown (she/her)
— Publisher, Washington Blade - Shay Franco-Clausen (She/Her/Ella/Queen)
— Political Strategist and Organizer - Melissa L. Bradley (she/her)
— Founder & Managing Partner, New Majority Ventures - Meghann Burke (she/her)
— Executive Director, NWSL Players Association - Victoria Kirby York, MPA (she/they)
— Director of Public Policy & Programs, National Black Justice Collective - Joli Angel Robinson (she/her)
— CEO, Center on Halsted - Jeannine Frisby LaRue (she/her)
— CEO, Moxie Strategies - Alice Wu (she/her)
— Film Director (Saving Face, The Half of It) / Screenwriter - Storme Webber (she/her)
— Interdisciplinary Artist / Educator, University of Washington - Kim Stone
— CEO of the Washington Spirit, Washington Spirit - Mickalene Thomas
— American Visual Artist, Mickalene Thomas Studio - Erika Lorshbough (any/they/she)
— Executive Director, interACT - J. Gia Loving (she/ella)
— Co-Executive Director, GSA Network
a&e features
D.C. springs back to life with new, returning events
Cherry blossoms, Rehoboth season kickoff, and more on tap
Longer and warmer days are back meaning: It’s time to get out of the house and enjoy Washington D.C.’s many events. Below are a few to check out this spring.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts will host “Making their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection” until Sunday, July 26. This exhibition illustrates women artists’ vital role in abstraction, considers historical contributions, formal and material breakthroughs and intergenerational relationships among women artists over the last eight decades. For more details, visit. NMWA’s website.
Art in the Attic will host a pop-up on Saturday, March 14 at 6 p.m. at 1012 Madison St., Alexandria, Va. There will be a variety of vendors selling products across different modes of art. For more details, visit Eventbrite.
Play Play will host “Indoor Recess – The art of play” on Sunday, March 15 at 2 p.m. This event will embody classic recess energy, including opportunities to build and experience community and connections through games, movement, art stations, and creative freedom. Tickets are $12.51 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.
Spark Social will host “Gay Bar Crawl on U Street” on Friday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m. This will be a fun night out in gay D.C. with other gay people, whether you’re visiting D.C., new to the area, or just looking to expand your social circle. Many crawlers have formed lasting friendships and even romantic relationships after just one night out. Tickets are $35.88 and are available on Eventbrite.
Creative Suitland Arts Center will host “EFFERVESCENT: House of Swann” on Saturday, May 30 at 7 p.m. This will be a gay, good time where we will celebrate love, joy, wellness, and visibility for the LGBTQIA+ community. Tickets start at $17.85 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.
SWAG Works DC will host “Unapologetically Her” on Saturday, March 14 at 2 p.m. at 701 E St., S.E. This event is a powerful celebration of womanhood, resilience, creativity, and self-expression in honor of Women’s History Month. This all-women exhibition highlights the diverse voices, stories, and artistic perspectives of women who create boldly, live authentically, and stand confidently in their truth. This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
9:30 Club will host “Gimme Gimme Disco: A Dance Party Inspired by ABBA” on Saturday, March 14 at 6 p.m. There will also be a “Donna Summer Power Hour – The Queen of Disco” segment during this event. It’ll be one hour of music with no skips. Tickets are available on 9:30 Club’s website.
Harder Better Faster Stronger will host “Heated Rivalry Rave” on Friday, March 20 at 9 p.m. at Howard Theatre. This event is open to all ages. Tickets are available on the theater’s website.
CAMP Rehoboth hosts its 25th annual Women’s+ FEST, April 9-12 in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Entertainers include headliner Mina Hartong, a comedian, storyteller, and founder of Lez Out Loud; and singer Yoli Mayor. There are dances, dinners, pickleball, and much more. Details and tickets at camprehoboth.org.
Also in Rehoboth Beach, the Washington Blade’s 19th annual Summer Kickoff Party is set for Friday, May 15 featuring Ashley Biden, who will accept an award on behalf of her brother Beau. State Rep. Claire Snyder-Hall will also speak. More speakers and the venue to be announced soon.
The annual D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival kicks off March 21 at DAR Constitution Hall and culminates with Petalpalooza on April 4, the day-long, outdoor street party with music and art, stretching across Navy Yard, and ending with fireworks over the Anacostia River.
Award-winning D.C. chef reaching new culinary heights
Trans-driven ‘Serpent’s Skin’ delivers campy sapphic horror
Now more than ever: the importance of LGBTQ activism
D.C. not the place for antisemitic Democratic Socialists of America
Blade editor to be inducted into D.C. Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame
‘Out for McDuffie’ event held at D.C. gay bar
The Oscar-losing performance that’s too good to miss
‘Jonah’ an undeniably compelling but unusual memory play
PHOTOS: ‘No Kings’ rally and march
