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Grey Henson explores the gay ‘90s in ‘tick, tick … BOOM!’

A departure in tone for Tony-nominated actor

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Grey Henson (Photo by Susan Shacter)

‘tick, tick…BOOM!’
Through Feb. 4
Kennedy Center  
$59.00 – $349.00
Kennedy-center.org

Out actor Grey Henson, 33, leads a charmed career. 

While still a student at Carnegie Mellon University, the genuine triple threat with impeccable comic timing was plucked from oblivion to play closeted missionary Elder McKinley, a part he’s been described as born to play, in “The Book of Mormon” (two years touring, and two years on Broadway).  

Next, he created the musical iteration of confidently queer high schooler Damian Hubbard in Broadway’s “Mean Girls,” scoring a 2018 Tony nod for Best Actor for a Featured Role in a Musical; and until very recently he starred as gay Storyteller 2 in the exuberant hit Broadway musical comedy “Shucked.” 

“That’s what acting is. Timing, luck, being prepared, and being good,” the punctual and polite New York-based actor recently shared via phone.

And now, just weeks later, he’s changing gears with Jonathan Larson’s “tick, tick… Boom!” at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. The hotly anticipated production staged by Neil Patrick Harris also stars Broadway’s Brandon Uranowitz and Denée Benton. 

Before his smash hit musical “Rent,” brilliant playwright and composer Jonathan Larson created “tick, tick… BOOM!” a semi-autobiographical story about Jon, a composer struggling to break into New York City’s theater scene. Henson plays Jon’s best friend Michael. 

Like Henson’s other parts, Michael is gay but not as comfortably so, and the material is heavier than what the actor is accustomed to playing. 

WASHINGTON BLADE: Michael is a little different than what you’ve been known for. 

GREY HENSON: Oh yeah, Michael is a departure from everything I’ve ever done. There’s a lot of code switching that comes with him. That’s something different for me. But I do, to a degree, share the character’s level headedness. 

BLADE: Michael has forsaken his passion for the arts for stability at an advertising agency. Relatable? 

HENSON: Yes, actually. Being an artist is tricky because it’s not concrete, success isn’t finished ever. It’s a nebulous thing that evolves with life and emotions and it’s personal. Hard to separate life from the work and people get burned out by that. And that’s a lot of what the show’s about.  

BLADE: How do you tap into New York City 1990?

HENSON:  I feel a magical connection to 1990…it’s the year I was born. Beyond that, I read Rebecca Makkai’s “The Great Believers,” a novel set against the AIDS epidemic, and watched documentaries like David France’s seminal “How to Survive a Plague.” 

The thing about Michael’s queerness is that a big part of the show is his positive HIV status. He’s joined the workforce in a way that isn’t supportive to people like him during the AIDS crisis. I’ve been thinking a lot about what it was to be a gay man and have HIV in the ‘90s, to be a leper, to feel like an outcast.

That part of Michael — who is based on Larson’s real life best friend — is a really hard journey. 

BLADE: What about your journey?

HENSON: Growing up in Macon, Ga., I was as gay as you could be without saying it. I started ballet at three. I wasn’t hiding who I was, but I couldn’t give myself the title. There’s something so difficult about saying it when you’re young. Damian in “Mean Girls” is confident and settled in to who he is as a teenager, which is so rare. I think that’s why audiences respond so strongly to him. 

BLADE: Are young theatergoers especially inspired? 

HENSON: Yes, I get it a lot, especially now that “Mean Girls Junior” is being done across the globe. I’ve met so may young Damian fans (lovingly nicknamed “the Damianettes”) who look up to me and like seeing someone on stage and in person who is like them without apologies. Never set out to make that my legacy, but I’m happy with it.

BLADE: You’re young to talk about legacy. 

HENSON: I’m not that young. Yeah, playing Michael is definitely different for me; it requires flexing some different muscles, singing a dramatic part and diving deep into scenes. 

I’ve been very lucky in my career to play roles that are very much an extension of who I am day to day like Damian and Storyteller 2 in “Shucked.” It’s a compliment to be asked to pretty much play yourself on stage. But I have a BFA in acting and I know how to transform and play something that isn’t myself. That’s why I fell in love with all of this in the first place.

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Signature’s fresh take on classic ‘Forum’

Actor Mike Millan says ‘it’s like a new work in many ways’

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‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’
Through Jan. 12
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Ave.
Arlington, Va.
$40-$126
sigtheatre.org

For out actor Mike Millan, Signature Theatre’s production of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” couldn’t feel fresher. 

Set in ancient Rome, the 62-year-old Tony-winning hit (music with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart) borrows from Roman comedy, farce, and a dash of bawdy vaudeville to the tales of slaves, soldiers, courtesans, and a lovesick young man. 

Millan plays Hysterium, a nervous slave in the House of Senex, whose tagline reads “I live to grovel.”

“I’ve never done ‘Forum,’ so to me it’s like a new work in many ways,” he says. “And because it’s older and has a classic musical point of view and we’re doing it now, it’s as if we’ve been given a lovely opportunity to make it our own.” 

And indeed, they are doing just that. Directed and choreographed by Matthew Gardiner, the Signature production is introducing new bits and playing with gender: the central character Pseudolus, a sly slave role created by Zero Mostel, is played by Erin Weaver; Erronius is played by Sherri Edelen in drag; and two male actors and one nonbinary actor play courtesans.

Though Millan, 35, is based with his partner in Los Angeles, he regularly travels to New York and is pleased to make Signature in Shirlington an additional destination on his bicoastal work journey. Recently, the affable actor took time to talk about Signature and “Forum.” 

WASHINGTON BLADE: A little about the brilliantly named Hysterium, please. 

MIKE MILLAN: As a gay actor, I can say that Hysterium is one of the gayer characters I’ve ever played. He’s a sort of fop and he’s in drag most of the second act. How can you not see him as a queer character?” 

When the part was written it was sort of gay coded and now it’s just abundantly clear, you don’t think twice about it. 

BLADE: “Forum” is unapologetically fun. Is now the right time for a romp? 

MILLAN: The show comes with a level of escapism that is really infectious. During these tense times, it feels great to be doing a silly musical. We’re doing fart jokes in tunics, and the material and jokes really hold up. You’ll feel better leaving than when you came in.

BLADE: All that and a Sondheim score too? 

MILLAN: He’s the reason I’m here. In high school, I discovered his “Into the Woods” and remember locking myself in my room until I knew every word to “Giants in the Sky.” 

“Passion,” “Follies,” I love it all. He’s so singular because he writes from a perspective of acting and storytelling; Sondheim touches me in a way that feels quasi-religious. 

When I think about the number of times I sang “Last Midnight” alone in my car, it fills me with a joy that I’ve never gotten from any other composer or jukebox musical.

BLADE:  In 2022, you played Idina Menzel super fan Jeff in “Which Way to the Stage” at Signature. Are you glad to be back? 

MILLAN: Yes, I’m happy to be employed. It’s a tough business. Not only are we asked to be great singers, dancers, actors, and performers but we’re asked to have a social media presence and to be the most popular kid in school. 

Signature provides a safe environment to try something new and different, to experiment with a community that respects doing that. Also at Signature, it never feels like any audience members are being dragged by their partners to see a show. It’s a supportive community. 

BLADE: Speaking of partners, do you miss being away from home?

MILLAN: Sometime it’s nice to have that time away from each other; it builds a little mystery.

BLADE: Will your performance change between now and January?

MILLAN: In recent years, I’ve changed my acting approach from cracking the code on how to play a character to inviting the audience on a journey and making them part of the process. 

I was raised in musical theater, but by doing comedy, standup, and improv, I’ve come to find the joy of failure freeing. And I like being part of a changing show. I like the idea of somebody being able to say “I was there the night Patti LuPone yelled at the guy who took a picture.”

BLADE: An unexpected moment. 

MILLAN: Of course, I go in with certain things I have planned out, but I like the element of excitement that anything might happen. And I think the audience should feel that way too.

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Theater

Sexy, spooky werewolf tale comes to Congressional Cemetery

‘Lýkos Ánthrōpos’ explores story of men who live double lives

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Patrick Kilpatrick (left) and Nicholas Gerwitz in Lýkos Ánthrōpos at Congressional Cemetery

Lýkos Ánthrōpos
Oct. 31-Nov. 24
Thursday through Sunday at 8 p.m., 75 minutes without intermission
Congressional Cemetery
1801 E St., S.E.
Tickets: bob-bartlett.com

Just in time for Halloween, Bob Bartlett is reprising “Lýkos Ánthrōpos.” With his sexy, spooky werewolf tale, the gay playwright brings his passion for horror and site-specific productions to historic Congressional Cemetery on Capitol Hill.  

“Vampires are great and I love ghosts and kind of believe in the spirit world, but werewolves are my favorite,” he says. 

Bartlett is interested in the duality of men who turn into wolves and consequently live double lives. The character he’s written is on the queer spectrum but not particularly discriminating. However, one night a month when the moon is full, he reliably leaves his wife and kids and hooks up with a guy. The play’s conceit starts off with two men cruising in the dark outdoors. 

Before penning “Lýkos Ánthrōpos,” Bartlett believed “there isn’t a lot of horror theater, and what there is, isn’t particularly sophisticated. It’s kind of grand guignol, or tongue in cheek,” and he was — and remains — eager to expand on that. 

So, he spent a month in the summer of 2022 in Rhodes, Greece, immersed in lycanthropy. Based in an Airbnb far from any touristy hubbub, he explored the countryside and wrote his werewolf-themed play. 

“It was sunny, dry summertime, and I wrote a good deal of the play in ruins and ancient amphitheaters; I looked at classical texts, including Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses,’ and included much of what I learned in my play.” 

His characters talk about rocky landscape, the heavens, and the effect of the moon on the Earth ranging from tides to our moods and, of course, its impact on werewolves. It’s all a bit more nuanced than the classic Hollywood take, i.e. Lon Chaney Jr’s 1941 horror hit “The Wolf Man.”  

In keeping with the playwright’s love for site specific locales, “Lýkos Ánthrōpos” premiered around Halloween in 2022 in a clearing in the woods on a farm near Bartlett’s home in Davidsonville, Md.  

The team that opened the two-hander in the woods, director Alex Levy and cast members Patrick Kilpatrick and Nicholas Gerwitz, remain on board for the Congressional Cemetery version. 

Moving the story from the farm to an urban cemetery in the Nation’s Capital presented some amusing challenges: “I definitely did some tweaking; rewrites include references to the city and all the dog walkers found in the cemetery. It’s been fun.”  

A horror fanatic since childhood, Bartlett cut his teeth on George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead,” when his aunt let him stay up past his bedtime and watch the scary classic on TV, and though he only made it through the first five minutes, and didn’t didn’t sleep for a week, he was hooked.  

Growing up in Accokeek, Md., Bartlett was introduced to theater through his high school pit band. Later he acted, and did some directing at the community theater level. After returning to school for a second master’s in playwrighting, he took up writing. 

With his current production, he says “The gods had my back. We open on Halloween and its first weekend will be performed under a full moon,” says Bartlett. “People (about 30 per performance) are asked to bring a fold up chair, blanket and lantern or flashlight. They will meet as a group and walk together, with a guide, to the performance site at the cemetery where the actors will be in place surrounded by a circle of eerie light. Death metal will be pounding from the woods.  

“Sometimes it’s more terrifying if the violence is offstage. I believe in the mantra don’t show the monster, so there are moments when the characters turn off the lights.”

Also, a longtime professor of theater at Bowie State University, Bartlett is a semester from retiring after which he intends on becoming “a full-time creepy writer.”

Upcoming projects include a play about the controversial and closeted FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and his longtime romantic partner Clyde Tolson, who not incidentally are buried just a few yards apart in Congressional Cemetery. Largely fictional, the play won’t be site specific, but, says Bartlett, will have its own monster in Hoover.

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A contemporary take on ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Folger

Creating a world that appeals to young audiences

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Fran Tapia as Lady Capulet, Caro Reyes Rivera as Juliet, and Luz Nicolas as Nurse in William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ directed by Raymond O. Caldwell at the Folger Theatre through Nov. 10. (Photo by Erika Nizborski)

‘Romeo and Juliet
Through November 10
Folger Theatre
201 East Capitol St. S.E., Washington, D.C.
$20-$84
Folger.edu

In out director Raymond O. Caldwell’s production of “Romeo and Juliet” currently playing at Folger Theatre, the Capulet family are Puerto Rican except for Lord Capulet (Todd Scoffield) who is white with a Southern accent. 

Fran Tapia (Lady Capulet), Luz Nicolas (Nurse), and Caro Reyes Rivera (Juliet) all speak Spanish when they are together. Rosa Garay López (Translator and Interpreter) translated certain scenes into Spanish. The Montagues are played by a cast of multiracial and multiethnic actors.

Tapia, a Helen Hayes Award-winning actor, identifies as part of the LGBTQ community. She says, “I am Chilean, Latina, queer and a proud immigrant.”  

After receiving her acting degree in Santiago de Chile, Catholic University, Tapia started working professionally as an actor and a dancer with contemporary dance companies.

The newly single actor has been living in D.C. since 2019 and plans to remain based here. Recently, she shared her experiences playing Juliet’s mother in Shakespeare’s story of the star-crossed lovers, a play she first read as a girl in Santiago. 

WASHINGTON BLADE:  Typically, Lady Capulet is portrayed as detached, a woman who can’t even remember her daughter’s age. What’s your spin on the Capulet matriarch?

FRAN TAPIA:  From what I’ve read and seen, including productions and films, she’s a woman who has distanced herself from her daughter.

I see the part differently. I want to make it special, to get away from the hard mother. She does care about her husband and daughter. Her expectations are shaped by society more than anything, she has conservative goals, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t love her daughter.

BLADE: What else about your Lady Capulet is unique?

TAPIA: First of all, she’s Puerto Rican. She speaks in Spanish and English. She loves to sing. She’s a party girl. She’s a devoted wife and partner in crime with Lord Capulet, sharing both his ambition and devotion to family. 

Lady Capulet wants to look pretty and she loves money. And she wants to be blonde, of course. I wear 26-inch blonde extensions for the part. I’m giving so much drama to it. It’s fun and dramatic and over the top.

She can share secrets with the Nurse played by Luz [Nicolas]. There are nuances with how she speaks to her. Lady Capulet speaks English when she wants to be formal. Luz brings the comedy. She’s also, a very good dramatic actress.

BLADE: It’s a contemporary take on the Bard’s masterpiece. 

TAPIA: It’s super contemporary. Raymond [Caldwell] is looking to create a world that appeals to young audiences. He’s working with so many designers doing projection, lighting, and sound. There are so many surprises for you. 

BLADE: Am I right in guessing it’s not set in Verona.

TAPIA: It’s set in a fictionalized Washington, D.C., inspired by the election year. The Capulets are a conservative political family based on nobody in particular. They’re struggling for power through the marriage of their daughter. Unlike the source material, they’re not trying to marry off a teenager. It’s more about preserving a legacy. That’s scary to lose when you’re used to having it.

BLADE: How is working with Raymond? I’ve heard so many good things about him. 

TAPIA: Prior to joining the cast, I’d heard from friends that he was good, but I had no idea how good. When I got this part, I gave myself the opportunity to offer my resources like singing. And he’s been super receptive. 

Raymond is very clear and bold. Lady Capulet has problems with addiction more intense than I imagined. I won’t specify but we’re diving into all of that. There are so many kinds of addiction including social media for instance. In real life, I’m addicted to Diet Coke as anyone in the cast can tell you. 

BLADE: Is Lady Capulet a part you’ve longed to play? 

TAPIA: Not really, but under the direction of Raymond I’m loving every second of it. His view of things has given me a lot of freedom that I didn’t expect.

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