Arts & Entertainment
Accompanying ‘Florence’
‘Big Bang’ star plays gay in new Meryl Streep vehicle
Simon Helberg as accompanist Cosmé McMoon in ‘Florence Foster Jenkins.’ (Photo courtesy Paramount Pictures)
Fans who only know Simon Helberg as the super nerd Howard Wolowitz on “The Big Bang Theory” will be surprised and delighted to see him in his latest role: Meryl Streep’s shyly flamboyant accompanist in the new movie “Florence Foster Jenkins,” opening Friday, Aug. 12 in wide release.
Madame Florence, played by Streep, was a wealthy New York socialite and patron of the arts. Although she was a classically trained pianist who played at the White House when she was a child, her claim to musical fame was an infamous 1944 Carnegie Hall performance that showcased her complete lack of singing ability.
Helberg plays Cosmé McMoon, Madame Florence’s long-suffering but supportive pianist. He started developing his character by zeroing in on the work of screenwriter Nicholas Martin.
“First and foremost is the script,” Helberg says. “He wrote these characters who are very vivid and very full. There were so many clues in the script. I took every word and direction as gospel.”
From there, Helberg turned to the historical record, discovering he was born in Mexico to Irish immigrants who later moved to San Antonio and New York.
“I went to research who he really was. There wasn’t a lot of information on him, but there were these little insights,” he says. “I thought he must have felt somewhat alien.”
As for McMoon being gay, everything pointed to it. McMoon was, after all, an accompanist. He was fascinated with muscle magazines and body-building competitions. He worked at a bathhouse and never married.
But Helberg decided to approach the character’s sexual orientation in a subtle manner, reflecting both the character and the period. McMoon starts out the movie “completely innocent.” But, as he starts to move about in the glittering social circles that Jenkins and her husband St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) inhabit, he becomes more aware of his sexuality. By the end of the movie, McMoon rushes backstage for the Carnegie Hall concert, explaining his lateness by breathlessly gushing, “I was attacked by lots of sailors.” As Helberg dryly notes, it’s not exactly clear what has happened, but “the light bulb has started to flicker.”
As for McMoon’s delightful physical mannerisms, they’re rooted in Helbing’s own training as a piano player: arms weighted to the floor and fingers dancing over the keys. Cosmé, Simon says, “has the posture that a classically trained pianist would be taught.”
Helberg, in fact, nearly became a professional pianist.
“I’m good,” he says. “I used to obsessively play and practice all the time in high school. But once I started acting, then I just started playing for fun. I threw away that career path. Because being an actor is so much easier than being a jazz pianist.”
“I kept playing for fun,” he says, “but never anything classical or opera. Then this came along. I really wanted to be in this movie and thought how great that I can play the piano. At least I’ll be able to put my hands in the right place and make it look real when a classically trained pianist plays the music. Maybe I’ll get to play a song or two.”
But things turned out slightly differently. Director Stephen Frears wanted a pianist who could really play Strauss and Mozart. Once he got the part, Helbing started a crash course in classical music. Then, once he got on set, Helberg started a crash course with Meryl Streep. Luckily, Helberg says, “I’m really good at making people sound worse.”
Streep and Helberg hey had a week and a half to rehearse before filming started.
“We had this great collaboration,” Helberg says. “We really had to go into this intimate and intense training. We had to work it and work it and work it. It was incredibly tough and satisfying to actually sit there and do it.”
Initially, Streep and Helberg assumed they would perform to pre-recorded tracks.
“I know Meryl always wanted to sing it live, but at first that didn’t seem possible,” the actor says. “We prerecorded at Abbey Road Studios, but once we did that, the producers said, ‘Well, they can really do it. Let’s just have them do it live. Screw that album.’”
Working with Streep, Helberg says, “was honestly a dream for me. She’s very aware of people and she’s very open and she’s grounded. She’s about making the best movie she can and it’s not about her. There’s something very effortless about it.”
Since McMoon becomes a confidante to both Madame Florence and her husband, Helberg also spent a lot of time working with Hugh Grant, whom he calls “hilariously self-deprecating and neurotic.”
“I thought that was my job but were battling for who was most neurotic. He was completely consumed with making the film the best it could be. I know he was also nervous about working with Meryl and even Meryl was nervous about being Meryl. That’s a lot of pressure.”
The scene, however, that was must challenging for the actor was McMoon’s delayed burst of laughter after he finally hears Madame Florence sing.
“It’s so hard to laugh that way when you’re having an uncontrollable fit of laughter.”
He asked Meryl Streep for advice, and she said, “Well try to cry, that always makes me laugh.” Helberg rejected that advice, fearing he’d actually cry.
He tried recording a couple of things on his phone, but finally realized, “I just had to surrender to it. Stephen had a conversation with me about how I saw that scene, about how I saw it being shot and how I saw it being cut together, and how I saw the elevator and how many people should be in it. He really was asking me questions that I felt less qualified to answer than he, but he really wanted to know what I thought. It was a tricky scene for everyone involved, but it did turn out nicely.”
Now that “Florence Foster Jenkins” is in theaters, Helberg is getting ready to start filming season 10 of “The Big Bang Theory.” The actor admits he doesn’t know a lot about what’s in store for Howard and his friend.
He says we’ll be seeing more of Christine Baranski, Laurie Metcalf and Judd Hirsch and meet Penny’s brother and mother.
“I literally have no idea.” he says. “They don’t tell us anything ever until we get the script the night before the table read. What I do know, based on my rudimentary knowledge of biology, is that he will be having a baby, because Bernadette is pregnant and I hear that’s how it works. Their baby will come in the first half of the season and they will be navigating that and figuring out who the bigger baby is, him or the baby.”
Theater
National tour of ‘Gatsby’ comes to National Theatre
Out actor Edward Staudenmayer talks playing the show’s gangster
‘The Great Gatsby’
May 12-24
The National Theatre
1321 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
$59-$196
Thenationaldc.com
Often dubbed “The Great American Novel” for its depiction of ambition and self-invention alongside the reversals of success, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” says it all in a fast read.
Set against the excesses and energy of the Roaring Twenties, “The Great Gatsby,” novel and now the same-titled hit Broadway musical with a jazz/pop original score by Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen, tells the story of Nick Carraway and his friendship with Jay Gatsby, an enigmatic millionaire intent on reuniting with ex-lover, Daisy Buchanan.
It was during a four-month 2025 run in Seoul, South Korea, that out actor Edward Staudenmayer first played the show’s heavy, Meyer Wolfsheim, a gangster who helped Gatsby make his murkily acquired fortune. As Meyer, Staudenmayer opens the second act with, appropriately enough, “Shady.”
Now three months into a year-long North American tour, the show is poised to enjoy a brief run at Washington’s National Theatre (5/12-5/24).
While putting on his eyeliner prior to a recent Wednesday matinee at Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre, the upstate New York-based actor shared about Gatsby and a life in theater.
WASHINGTON BLADE: Despite your good looks and terrific voice, you’re rarely the leading the man. How is that?
EDWARD STAUDENMAYER: I’m definitely a character man. I’ve been painting lines on my face to play old men since I was in high school. I was the youngest freshman in college playing old Uncle Sorin [in Chekhov’s “The Seagull”].
There have been many villains. Some darker than others. Meyer Wolfsheim is a very bad guy, but he doesn’t haunt me once I’m offstage. I play a lot of pickleball.
BLADE: Is it true that like so many of Fitzgerald’s characters, Wolfsheim is famously based on someone the writer encountered in life.
STAUDENMEYER: That’s true, Wolfsheim is pretty much a direct portrayal of real-life mobster and 1919 World Series fixer [Arnold Rothstein].
BLADE: When did the 1925 novel first surface on your radar?
STAUDENMAYER: Like many of us, I was assigned “The Great Gatsby” in high school. It was short, and filled with sex and illicit activities. I thought it was great. Definitely wasn’t a Judy Blume novel.
Interestingly, the book wasn’t originally a huge a success for Fitzgerald, but because it was about war and having the girl at home, they gave it to GIs leaving for WWII. After returning, a lot of those guys went on the GI Bill and became English teachers. They assigned the book to their students.
BLADE The idea that the book’s first-person narrator, Nick Carraway, is gay and enamored with Jay Gatsby is long discussed among readers and scholars. Does the musical touch on that?
STAUDENMAYER: Yes, there’s conjecture about Jay and Nick, and it’s implied in our show. It’s also implied about Jordan Baker, Jay’s fleeting romantic interest. Ultimately, she’s a confirmed bachelor, and a professional golfer who only wears pants.
Our performers are really good. Josh Grasso who plays Nick is fantastic. I’ve had to stop watching him in his last scene; it’s not good for Meyer Wolfsheim to take his curtain call crying. Our Gatsby, Jake David Smith, is good too. He’s gorgeous like Superman and sings like an angel.
BLADE: Do you ever imagine backstory for your characters whose sexuality is undefined?
STAUDENMAYER: I do, but not with Wolfsheim. I don’t see it. I’m trying to be as butch as possible with this ruthless killer.
BLADE: Have you had to do that in your career?
STAUDENMAYER: For a long time, I wore a mask to hide my gayness. I worked hard on being believable, that I was into the girl or that I was a tough guy.
It’s a different world now, and it’s so refreshing to be around the younger actors today; they’re remarkably open and comfortable.
BLADE: What was your coming of age like?
STAUDENMAYER: I played high school football in Palm Springs [he chuckles, alluding to the arid gay mecca], and I was pretty good too. But much to the chagrin of my parents and coaches, I quit the team to act in our senior year play. My super butch dad played semi-pro football and he was an ex-cop. I’m named after him. While I didn’t become my dad, I’ve played him often on stage. He was a true Gaston [the bumptious rival in “Beauty and the Beast”]. And like Gaston, he used antlers in all his interior decorating.
BLADE: Did he live to see your success in theater?
STAUDENMAYER: He did. Life was challenging growing up but the last 10 years of his life we couldn’t get off the phone with each other [his voice catches with emotion]. He accepted me entirely, and we became very close.
BLADE: Looking ahead, is there a part you’d especially like to play?
STAUDENMAYER: Like all baritones I’d love to play Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd.” I’ve come close but it hasn’t happened yet. There’s still time.
Music & Concerts
DJ Chanel Santini is bringing the heat and some gender-fluid diversity to XBIZ Miami
Pool party celebrates most charismatic personalities, creative artists in adult entertainment
Chanel Santini has crossed over to being a DJ, performing at clubs all over the country. Now known as Santini, they will be making music and hyping the pool party, DJ-ing at XBIZ, the conference for adult creators and digital players, in Miami.
Taking place on Monday to Wednesday, the event honors the most charismatic personalities and creative artists in entertainment.
“I am honestly so excited — getting to DJ in Miami Beach is literally a DJ’s dream!” Santini told the Los Angeles Blade.
“I thought it would be a good opportunity because I haven’t been around my industry peers in a long time. It’s a great event to network and show off the new me!” said Santini.
While Santini is unsure what music they will be playing, they want everyone to have a good time. “My goal is to ignite the dance floor and play great music that everyone will vibe to. My sound includes house music, bass house, tech house, and I always like to throw a little bit of hip-hop in my sets.”
Santini loves how DJ-ing brings people together.
“Music really ignites us all! It is so universal, no matter what language you speak. I think it’s the best high in the world when you play a banger track, and everybody on the dance floor screams loudly. You can’t describe that feeling until you’re up there on that stage.”
Santini describes DJs as the “modern rock stars” in today’s world.
“I always feel like such a superstar when I’m up on that stage. The best feeling is after my set when I have people come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for sharing that amazing music.’ That’s how you know that you’re a good DJ — I love when I get those types of compliments!”
While sometimes it’s hard to please everyone’s musical tastes, Santini endeavors to try! “You just have to go out there and give it your all and be the best DJ that you can be,” he noted.
Santini, who had previously identified as transgender, recently decided to transition back to being gender fluid.
“It’s definitely been a journey, but I’m definitely happier in my own skin now than I was. I don’t go by he/him pronouns. I don’t go by they/them either. I guess I just really don’t have a preference. Whatever you see me as is your opinion. I’ve learned over the years that I’m not trying to be one specific thing. I’m just Santini. I’m just me.”
Santini acknowledged they felt respected more when dressed as a woman.
“I think it’s just because femininity runs the world. When I started to de-transition, I felt like I had to just be a boy all the time. But I’ve realized over the years that I don’t need to stick to one specific thing. I am always gonna be feminine, and that’s OK.”
Recently, Santini has been embracing their feminine side more.
“I definitely feel more comfortable in female presentation, and more powerful when I’m on stage dressed as Chanel. I love DJ-ing in drag because there are so many straight male DJs in the world. It’s almost like a superhero when he puts on his cape! I think it makes me confident and stand out more as an artist.”
And because Santini loves makeup and fashion, they can incorporate that into their sets. “I’m not just bringing you good vibes and good music. I’m bringing you a show/ production!”
Santini is already working on big plans for the future.
“I’m opening up for a huge Pride block party in my hometown, Albuquerque, N.M., on June 12 and 13. It’s a two day festival and I’m super excited for this opportunity. I’m even hiring backup dancers and a choreographer.”
Santini plans to go “all out” for this show.
“It’s gonna be the biggest crowd that I’ve ever played for,” Santini enthused. “I’m putting my heart and soul into this performance, especially because it’s Pride in my hometown, and that means so much to me. I know the younger me would be so proud.”
Santini remembers going to Pride when they were younger and telling themself they couldn’t wait to be up on that stage.
“I’m truly living my dream right now, and I’m so excited for the future. The last 10 years of being in the adult entertainment business have been great and have given me major success. But I always knew that I didn’t want to be in this industry for long.”
Santini acknowledged that, in the recent past, it was a struggle.
“I’ve been trying to find myself and figure out what I wanna do next with my life. Now that I’ve found this passion for DJ-ing, it makes me want to go far in this business.”
In addition to being a DJ/artist, Santini is starting college next semester.
“I’m gonna get my degree in audio engineering,” Santini enthused. “I can’t wait to start producing my own tracks. I especially can’t wait till the day I’m headlining a major festival! I know with a little bit of patience and hard work that I can get there! I just have to continue believing in myself.”
Santini wanted to thank all of their fans for their support. “Truly, if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to fund my art in the way that I have. I’m truly grateful. And I’m excited for the future!”
Out & About
Learn more about queer love
Friends of Dorothy Cafe hosts event at City-State Public House
Friends of Dorothy Cafe will host “Living History: How We Loved” on Thursday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. at City-State Public House.
Guests will hear how queer and trans people have loved and cared for one another, especially when legal, medical, and social systems did not recognize those relationships. We’ll reflect on chosen family, long-term partnerships before marriage equality, caregiving during the AIDS crisis, hidden romances, friendship as survival, chosen family, and the loves that changed the course of our lives. This evening is about honoring lived experience, preserving community memory, and strengthening the bridge between generations.
Tickets are $24.57 and are available on Eventbrite.
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