Character Issues

See this story at GayCityNews.com.BY STEVE ERICKSONCommunity News GroupIn a musical landscape where the distorting effects of Autotune on vocals are the clearest hallmark and glitchy production effects are in... Show more

cts are increasingly common (the aesthetics behind trans producer Sophie’s “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” and rapper Travis Scott’s “Astroworld” aren’t so far apart despite vast differences in recording budgets and sales figures), the idea that music is most truthful when it consists of a singer/ songwriter standing with a guitar and performing confessional songs about their life is dying out. Christine & the Queens’ “Chris” is a deliberate feminist exercise in genderfuck designed to express many of the contradictions of being a pansexual woman, including expressing attitudes coded as masculine while still attracted to men. Chris is a persona adopted by the French singer Héloïse Letissier, the woman behind this one-person band, but she’s also the name Letissier uses in real life. The full version of “Chris” contains two parts: the first sung in English, the second in French, with the same instrumental backing. However, even when Chris performs in English, her voice is strongly a

Farewell, Marin

See this story at GayCityNews.com.BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNECommunity News GroupThe dazzling, diminutive production of “Heartbreak House,” now on Theater Row, draws its emotional heft from several sources. It start... Show more

rces. It starts, of course, with the play and Shaw’s passionate condemnation of Britain’s institutional and cultural status quo that created the conditions for the first World War and then treated that war merely as a hiccup rather than the transformative event that should have awakened people to a new world but did not. Shaw wraps his polemics in characters for whom, however symbolic, an audience comes to care. Then there is Shaw’s nod to Chekhov in creating a darker domestic comedy, like “The Cherry Orchard,” where the characters are blinded to the world around them, making this one of his bleaker social commentaries. David Staller’s inspired concept takes all of that one step further, set the play in the basement of London’s Ambassador Theatre during the Blitz in World War II. The audience and the company seek safety, and the actors, who had been performing a silly review when the bombs began to fall, decide to perform “Heartbreak House” to entertain the audience until the all-cl

Public Advocate Possibilities Include Daniel O’Donnell

See this story at GayCityNews.com.BY DAVID NOHCommunity News GroupIf you were lucky enough to catch the Michael Blakemore-directed 1999 revival of “Kiss Me Kate,” then you experienced pure musical theater bli... Show more

al theater bliss. And no one was more responsible for this than Marin Mazzie, who succumbed to ovarian cancer at her home in Manhattan on September 13 at age 57 . The role of Lilli Vanessi encompassed all of Mazzie’s best qualities: she dazzled with charisma and was big, bold, and brassy, gorgeously laminating Cole Porter’s deliciously immortal songs with her rich, velvety, clarion voice. And, when she gave forth on “I Hate Men,” she kicked mincing, ear-piercing little Kathryn Grayson (from the 1953 MGM movie) right out of the room in my memory, turning it into a ferociousy funny diatribe aimed at the truly weaker sex. But this was but one of so many remarkable highlights in a Broadway career that spanned three decades, starting with a replacement gig in “Big River” in 1985. Her first Tony nomination came in 1994 for Stephen Sondheim’s “Passion,” and she gained two more for her exemplary work in “Ragtime” (1998) and “Kate.” One of her final Broadway appearances was as tempestuous

One Step Forward: NYC Approves Non-Binary Gender Category

See this story at GayCityNews.com.BY NATHAN RILEYCommunity News GroupWith Letitia James winning the Democratic primary for state attorney general, the question of who will become New York City’s next public a... Show more

ext public advocate stops being idle political speculation and becomes a serious matter affecting the city’s future. The public advocate is first in line of succession to the mayor, even if the comptroller, the only other citywide elected office, is vested with a far larger mandate and budget. Though there is no evidence that Mayor Bill de Blasio is a target of an ongoing investigation by US Attorney Geoffrey Berman into the New York City Housing Authority’s cover-up of lead paint and asbestos contamination in public housing, the inquiry has already implicated the former NYCHA chair and Berman has not ruled out criminal charges against individuals. Though James still needs to prevail in the November general election, the Daily News on September 16 did a roundup of potential successors to her in the public advocate role and the list included two LGBTQ leaders — former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Bronx Councilmember Ritchie Torres — as well as another former speaker, Mel

Fore: Golf Has its First Out Gay Male Pro

See this story at GayCityNews.com.BY ANDY HUMMCommunity News GroupThe New York City Council voted 41-6 on September 12 to add an “x” category to birth certificates for people who are non-binary. The bill was ... Show more

The bill was sponsored by Speaker Corey Johnson, an out gay Chelsea Democrat, who said it “will send a powerful signal to the world that New York City government works for everyone.” Objecting was Councilmember Robert Holden, Democrat of Maspeth, Queens, who told the New York Post it could be “abused” and that it raised “public safety issues.” Those who wish to change the gender marker on their birth certificates will now be able to do it by presenting a personal affidavit rather than needing a letter from a doctor or an affidavit from a licensed health care practitioner.Comment on this story.

Kim Davis, Kentucky’s Lawless County Clerk, Brings Bigotry to Rom...

See this story at GayCityNews.com.BY ANDY HUMMCommunity News GroupProfessional golfer Tadd Fujikawa, 27, came out publicly on World Suicide Prevention Day. “Now I’m standing up for myself and the rest of th... Show more

the rest of the LGBTQ community in hopes of being an inspiration and making a difference in someone’s life,” he wrote on Instagram on September 10. While lesbian pros have been coming out for decades, Fujikawa is the first male pro to do so. Fujikawa had the distinction in 2006 of being the youngest player ever to qualify for the US Open, played at Winged Foot in Westchester County that year. He turned pro at 16 and played in 14 tournaments, including finishing tied for 19th in the 2012 Sony Open before playing the mini-tours (minor leagues) for 10 years. Last year, he won the Hawaiian Open and opened up about his struggle with depression. After declaring himself, he told Outsports, “Now I can be the best version of me.”Comment on this story.