I sat down with the creators of the new
musical “The View UpStairs”, the author of book, music and lyrics, Max Vernon,
and the director, Scott Ebersold, to talk about the LGBTQ community in 1973 and
now and their show.
“Gay
marriage once was legal, now we live in prison camps” might replace the current
line “Gay marriage now is legal but in four years who can say”, if “The View
Upstairs” will be revived in several years. We laugh about it with the
musical’s author, Max Vernon, and the director, Scott Ebersold. The laughter stops
suddenly and Max’s face becomes dead serious: “Well, I am not going down
without a fight”. Our conversation, much like the musical itself, swings back
and forth between jokes and painful moments of the distant, and recent, history
of gay rights.
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| Max Vernon, photo by Frédéric Lagrange |
“The
View UpStairs”, the new musical that just opened at Lynn Redgrave Theater,
takes the audience to 1973, to a gay bar called The UpStairs Lounge, in New
Orleans. We first arrive to a gloomily lit, rundown place circa 2017, as Wes
(Jeremy Pope), a young fashionista from New York, who is looking for a place
for his hip boutique. Ignorant of the history of the building, Wes is only focused
on his social media flock and obsessed with the idea of becoming famous. But we
are about to be reminded of the glittery old days of the place and the tragic
event that ended it.
The
musical is inspired by real events in a real place. The UpStairs Lounge was a
vibrant gay bar in New Orleans in the 70s. It had piano sing-alongs, amateur
drag queen shows, and even functioned as a house of worship for the
Metropolitan Community Church, the nation’s first gay church founded in Los
Angeles in 1968. A place for hookups, for many the UpStairs Lounge was also a
safe haven and the only place where people could be themselves. But it all came
to an inglorious end on a Sunday in June of 1973, when an arson attack took the
lives of 32 people.
Max
Vernon first came across these events about seven years ago, while majoring in
Queer Studies at NYU. To his surprise, nobody among his professors or peers
from this “liberal bastion” knew about the UpStairs Lounge, which made him feel
obligated to tell this story. In 2013, graduating from Tisch School of Arts
with a MFA in Musical Theater Writing, Max presented The View Upstairs as his
thesis musical. It was important for the young writer to make a statement as an
activist and an artist, but also to celebrate the 70s, with all the joys and
sorrows of life within a family-like, gay community.
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| Scott Ebersold, photo by Jorg Meyer |
Max
met Scott Ebersold the same year he graduated, and Scott recognized the great
potential of this story right away. Among the things that drew the director to
the project was an endearing love story between Wes and Patrick (played by Taylor
Frey), “a love affair between 2017 and 1973”, as Max puts it. But the other
inhabitants of the UpStairs Lounge are not merely a background for the romance.
Each of them is a unique individual with their own crazy story, which gets to
be heard.
To
name just a few, there is a piano player, Buddy (Randy Redd), married to a
woman while keeping the real reason for working at a gay bar secret. There is
Willy, (Nathan Lee Graham), an aging queen, yet still a vibrant and radiant
dancer. Pastor of MCC, Richard (Benjamin Howes) leads everybody to prayer, and
the butch bartender, Henri (Frenchie Davis), straightens everybody up with her
commanding voice. Some characters, like the mother-son duo of Porte-Rican Inez
(Nancy Ticotin) and giggly drag queen, Freddy (Michael Longoria), won’t be seen
on theater stages at all. Yet they were based on the real frequenters of the
UpStairs Lounge, as were other characters.
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| the cast of The View UpStairs, photo by Kurt Sneddon
To
name just a few, there is a piano player, Buddy (Randy Reed), married to a
woman while keeping the real reason for working at a gay bar secret. There is
Willy, (Nathan Lee Graham), an aging queen, yet still a vibrant and radiant
dancer. Pastor of MCC, Richard (Benjamin Howes) leads everybody to prayer, and
the butch bartender, Henri (Frenchie Davis), straightens everybody up with her
commanding voice. Some characters, like the mother-son duo of Porte-Rican Inez
(Nancy Ticotin) and giggly drag queen, Freddy (Michael Longoria), won’t be seen
on theater stages at all. Yet they were based on the real frequenters of the
UpStairs Lounge, as were other characters.
The
casting was unexpectedly challenging because, apparently, so many graduates
from musical theater programs have their individuality completely beaten out of
them in order to fit into the commercially oriented Broadway musicals. But the team
led by the casting director, Rebecca Feldman, was on the hunt for talent based
on vibrant individuality. This resulted in a wonderful ensemble of ten, of whom
I haven’t yet named Ben Mayne (playing Dale) and Richard E. Waits (playing a heartless
pig in 1973 and a fatherly supportive cop in 2017).
“I
really believe that the actor directs the role and the director directs the
play. Those are unique individuals. I helped them to shape their performances
but I also allowed them to create the characters as they saw them”, comments
Scott on his approach to working with the cast. And you can see just how much fun
the actors have on stage.
photo by Kurt Sneddon
Dressed
in sleek 70s outfits, designed by Anita Yavich, and groomed by the hair, wig
and makeup designer Jason Hayes, the characters make you believe that it is you
who just traveled back in time. The busy scenic design, by Jason Sherwood, immerses
you in the homey atmosphere of the cabaret, with a bar, grand piano, and a few
tables with audience members on stage. The ambitious, dynamic lighting design,
by Brian Tovar, gave the production an extra kick by taking us in and out of
reality and changing the set entirely at times.
Coming
from a place of truth, rather than doing things for the sake of the pure effect,
is what the author of the musical, Max, and the director, Scott, have in common.
The musical went through several rewrites since they started working together,
due to the changing political situation. When Max first wrote “The View
UpStars”, it had the line: “Gay marriage will be legal any day now, that I’m
sure” in it. When gay marriage was legalized countrywide in June 2015, Max
changed the line to “Gay marriage now is legal but I don’t see the allure”.
After
seeing a five-year old with a little rainbow flag marching alongside the
Brooklyn pride parade, Max came to Scott with a concern: is the musical about
the struggle of the gay community in the 70s still relevant? They agreed upon
the importance of the acknowledgment of historical events, as well as
celebrating the spirit of people on whose footsteps that five-year old marches.
But then Pulse happened in June 2016, when a security guard of this gay club in
Orlando shot 49 people to death and wounded 53 others. And then Trump got
elected president and suddenly nobody in LGBTQ community felt safe anymore.
The
lead character of the musical had to grow up quickly to keep up with the times,
and, I must say, he feels very down to earth. I swear I saw him in a bar in
Bushwick yesterday and I probably stumble upon him on Instagram multiple times.
First he chooses to ignore reality and escape to his dreams about becoming
famous, influential, and to act from a position of power. It takes him a night
spent in 1973, and a lost love, to realize that in order to survive and hold on
to his rights, he needs to act upon it. And not by building a social media
following, but by being an active member of the more inclusive community. As
Wes puts it towards the end of the show, no member of a gender, religious, or
ethnic minority can rest assured of their rights.
photo by Kurt Sneddon
The
song “Some Kind of Paradise”, which frames the show, perhaps sums it all up. The
nature of the “Paradise”, created by the patrons of the UpStairs Lounge, as
well as Wes’s generation, is fragile. Yet thanks to the dialogue between the
past and the present, we can take the strengths of both on the march into the
future. As Scott states, “One of the questions of the musical is what have we
left behind on this journey forward, and what are the things that we can
remember from the past?”
Hopefully,
in thirty years at the revival of “The View Upstairs”, the audience will say:
“What a crazy time 2017 was”. And mark my words; there must be a revival! Because,
besides being a history lesson, an incredibly touching love story, a socially
self-aware piece, “The View Upstairs” is one hell of a party with glitter and
dancing on the piano under a dildo chandelier. Believe me, you don’t want to
miss it!
“The
View UpStairs” runs through May 21st in The Lynn Redgrave Theater,
located at 45 Bleaker Street. Tickets start from $46.50 and are available at
the box office, or by phone at (866-811-4111) or online.
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