When the musical “The Producers” opened on Broadway — and even more so when the movie version hit the cineplex — GLAAD condemned it, partially because of its supposedly offensive portrayal of gay men as swishy, lisping, loose-wristed effeminate creatures who live only for musical theater and care for little else.
And also because of the supposedly equally offensive portrayal of the one person in the scene who worked on the technical side of the business we call show as being a butch woman with short cropped hair, not a lot of pizzazz and who prefers men’s clothing.
The problem was while GLAAD was busy raising a stink over the producers of “The Producers” transparent use of broad stereotypes presented as one-dimensional characters, gay men and women were flocking to the theater to see the show and loving it. To this day when “Keep It Gay” is videocast onto monitors at a gay bar, the clientele stop to listen, sing along and laugh their asses off.
Why? Because so many among us can in fact see glimpses of ourselves, or a glimpse of a friend or an acquaintance, in those overblown stereotypical portrayals.
We no longer live in a time when LGBTQ people are only shown in mainstream entertainment in one of two accepted but restrictive forms: Those who are unhappy — perhaps even suicidal — despite how they might party and camp it up in public or the over-the-top, out-of-the-closet screaming queen who dressed to distress the “normal” people and by their every movement were practically begging to be beaten up.
But those times are long past and the audiences are new. I think we can be a little less sensitive about stereotypes in entertainment. We have now arrived at a time where most people understand that LGBTQ people come in all varieties and that no stereotype is true when applied generally to any entire group of people, demographically speaking.
I feel that we fought long and hard to get here and we’ve finally arrived at a place where non-LGBTQ America sees us as the “everything bagel” proudly on display in the bakery case. A conglomeration of so many spices, toppers and fillers sharing shelf space with at least another dozen easily identifiable types, each a treat in its own right but each with vastly differently flavors and colors, yet all with the shared identity of being bagels. If someone wants to make a few jokes about a pumpkin spice bagel and the pumpkin spice bagel doesn’t mind the attention then why should the plain bagel waste his or her time being upset on behalf of the pumpkin spice bagel who is not at all bothered?
As of late we have both career critics and gay persons of every ilk who seem to be losing it over what they are declaring to be an “offensive” performance by James Corden as a gay, narcissistic Broadway actor in the film version of the Broadway musical, “The Prom,” and this just makes me want to vomit.
First off, there is no one type of gay man so therefore no gay man has the right to criticize any actor for improperly portraying a gay man. Newsflash! We do not come “one size fits all” and it is impossible to answer the question: How does one play a gay man? The near answer is: One doesn’t play a gay man. One plays a man who is many things and one of those things may be that he is gay.
Most of us reading Watermark right now can likely think of a half dozen gay men in our lives who move, speak, act and react precisely like Danny — the character Cordon plays in “The Prom.”
People like Danny are real. They exist. It is a manor of behaving the likes of which some among us might label extreme but it is none the less real.
Cordon’s performance is not contrived to inform others that this person in and of himself tiptoes all gay men. We know he does not and I have to believe that in 2020 most movies goers think not as well.
Then there’s the belief that straight actors not ought to be allowed to play gay characters, which to me — a playwright, an actor and a producer — is completely ludicrous. That would then mean gay people could not portray straight men, and that would be just downright silly.
Say you dislike Corden’s performance all you like if you thought it lacked something compared to when you saw it performed live on stage, but don’t bash the man because he’s a straight actor playing a gay man and don’t join the chorus of voices claiming his portrayal should be offensive to gay men.
To me that’s as stupid as saying Wanzie should not play that part of a gay man in the upcoming movie because then the general public will think all gay men are overweight, speak with a lisp and have a foot fetish. The fact of the matter is I am overweight and speak with a lisp and have a foot fetish, and I’ll play any damn role I have a mind to play — gay, straight, trans or lesbian — and I will expect to be critiqued on nothing but my ability to act.
P.S. I loved “The Prom.” It’s downright fun and happily uplifting at just the right time. I’m sure I would have appreciated it less had I seen the show on Broadway but I didn’t so I love the film. And I adored James Corden’s performance in it. So there!
