The Nance

I went to see The Nance last night at the Lyceum Theater and thought it was very good.  A little long, a little preachy, but still very good.  It's the story of a gay burlesque actor/singer who plays a gay man (a Nance) on stage.  Normally, the Nance is played by a straight actor, but in the play the Nance was really gay.

Nathan Lane, the show's star, was excellent, as expected, and the supporting cast members were also great.  Nathan's love interest, Ned, played by Jonny Orsini was so sweet and endearing even when Nathan (Chauncey) was treating him like crap.  And what a pleasant surprise to see Orsini in a brief nude scene at the beginning of the show.  I wasn't expecting to see schlong and bare ass on Broadway, but there they were in all their glory.  It must take a tremendous amount of willpower (and a lot of time at the gym) to have the confidence to

stand totally naked in front of an audience six nights a week (and during the Wednesday and weekend maintees).  Damn, Jonny!  But, I digress.

The Nance showed the tremendous amount of suffering a gay man went through in the 30s when you could be thrown in jail for being a pervert just because you were homosexual.  It's hard to understand how such a thing could happen, but it did.  What was interesting to me was that while then New York Mayor LaGuardia was working to shut down these burlesque shows and round up any actors performing in homosexual skits, no one seemed to care about the men dressing in drag doing song and dance numbers.  Dressing in drag is just like putting on a costume.  But if a man came on stage and did a Nancy boy act (hence the Nance), he was tossed in the clink.  Crazy.