A Burgeoning Gay Classic
Here is Frank Rizzo's Review in its entirety from The Hartford Courant
Tony-Winning Take Me Out Puts Gay Ballplayer In The Lineup
Theater Works ,Hartford, CT Oct. 19 through Dec. 3
October 19, 2006
By Frank Rizzo, Courant Staff Writer
In Richard Greenberg's Tony Award-winning play Take Me Out, Darren Lemming, a superstar Major League Baseball player, matter-of-factly announces to the world he is gay.
The moment at the beginning of the play comes not out of trauma, blackmail or shame but as a so-what-let's-get-on-with-the-game attitude that is stunning in its matter-of-factness.
"Don't expect the daily update," says Darren in the play. "I'm just here to play ball."
Is this a likely sports scenario or strictly a feel-good fantasy?
While there are many out gay athletes, professional team sports do not have an out gay male player. Billy Bean of the San Diego Padres in the '90s and Glenn Burke of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics in the '70s ( who invented the "high five") went public about their homosexuality after they left the game.
Members of the cast ... have a variety of views on how such an announcement would be received in the real world.
"If only more people did come out it would be less of a big deal," says Matthew Montelongo, an out actor who plays Toddy, a fellow ballplayer, in the production. Though Montelongo says homophobia is less tolerated now, he says he feels that it still would be a high-profile event for a professional team athlete to reveal his sexuality, one which would come with a variety of challenges and rewards. "I think there will eventually be out athletes. People want to respect and idolize someone who is a champion and as more come out I think the focus will increasingly be on who can hit a home run and less on whom he is kissing."
"There's a lot more to lose for a star [player] to come out," says Tim Altmeyer, who plays Kippy, Darren's straight and supportive friend. "Sexual boundaries are very well defended in sports. Sports, it seems, is the last bastion, now that politics have gone by the wayside. Maybe more so now."
"With all its machismo, it's the last undiscovered country for sports," says Schuyler Yancey who plays the egotistical superstar who sets the plot in motion with his announcement of being gay. "But I can't foresee it in the near future, sadly."
However, the straight actor says he relates to the character's self-confidence and his ability to find comfort in his differences. "Ever since I was young I knew who I was and eased into it even though there were lot of obstacles being of mixed races growing up in Atlanta," says Yancey, whose parents are African American but whose heritage also include strains of Irish, English, Cherokee, Cree and Creole.
"I was sort of never accepted by either one: black or white when I was very young. The white kids were calling me a nigger, and the black kids were saying I was too light-skinned. So I learned to become comfortable being myself and being by myself. In that way, I can identify with Darren, who may feel being gay is just one more facet of him being different. He was already OK with [being different because of his mixed race]. So it wasn't anything new he had to deal with."
Author Dan Woog of Westport, who writes about gays in sports, says he thinks plays like Take Me Out are "simply part of the culture in which gays in sports are talked about more." Woog points to websites such as outsports.com and gaysports.com, specials on HBO and ESPN, a greater willingness by sports journalists to write about the subject and efforts by teams' front offices to tap into the gay market as positive changes that recognize that athletes - and fans - can come from all kinds of teams.
Woog says he noticed a difference between his first book on the subject, 1998's Jocks: True Stories of America's Gay Male Athletes, and his sequel, 2002's Jocks: Coming Out To Play.
"When that first book came out it was, `Wow. There are gays in sports? Holy mackerel! Who knew?' When the sequel came out there wasn't the `wow' factor. There was the `why' factor. OK, why are these people still closeted?"
But Woog says change should not just be measured in the number of male gay athletes who come out publicly - or don't - but rather the attitudes both subtle and overt by management, team players, sports journalists and fans.
He points to "Gay Days" at stadiums from Chicago to Atlanta and to greater intolerance for anti-gay behavior and remarks both from the front office and players, many of them who have gay friends and relatives.
But still no "out" male player.
"I have always maintained that the first openly gay professional athletes was going to be someone who came up from the ranks and was always openly gay," says Woog, "rather than a quarterback at the end of the Super Bowl saying, `I'm here. I'm queer. I'm going to P-town. There are athletes who are out on their college teams and feel `So what?' I think having an out professional male athlete will come sooner rather than later and the response will depend on who the player is. But I think the response will be far less dramatic than many people imagine and very quickly the sports journalist will move on to the next story."
It's the fear of the unknown, says Woog. "Because no one's done it, nobody really knows what's going to happen. There's the fear of the reaction from the teammates, fear of reaction from fans and coaches and endorsements. But I think any of those fears are overblown and if you're in the closet - as these guys by definition are - you don't see what's in the rest of the house or the world. I think what they may lose in (endorsements) they would gain in other areas. This is 2006. Companies want to stand apart from the crowd. They want to be edgy. So why not associate yourself with somebody who people are talking about, who is seen as bold and courageous and doing something that makes himself apart from the crowd."
Certainly Take Me Out, which is now being produced in regional theaters across the country, is adding to the awareness of gays in mens' sports. But it is also funny, entertaining and provocative (there's locker-room nudity and language). Most memorable perhaps is a gay nerdy character who undergoes a rapturous change of his own when he becomes a smitten baseball fan.
"When I first heard that this was a play about homosexuality and sports I went thinking it was going to be about this poor tormented gay baseball player who's miserable and everyone is mean to," says Nat DeWolf, who plays Mason Marza, the gay accountant who discovers the joy of the sport. "Instead, the leading character comes out in the play's first 10 minutes and in such a nonchalant way. Plus, he's a bit of a jerk."
DeWolf, who is an out actor, grew up in Massachusetts, where sports were not part of his life. "There were no gay role models out there in sports," he says. "But there wasn't anyone anywhere who was `out'. Personally, I was more interested in rumors about gay actors."
DeWolf says "homophobia is how they coach players," he says. "You are told, `Don't throw like a girl.' It's part of it, at least when I was growing up."
It may be different now, says DeWolf, who understudied the role of Mason and eventually played the part on Broadway, and in another production in St. Louis. "These kids [in the audiences] were just beaming and so taken away with the story, he says. "It was great so see young gay kids see such a positive thing."
Others seemed to enjoy the show, too, he said. "The show was a hit in St. Louis," he says, with a smile, "which I've been told is a big baseball town."
Write to Frank Rizzo at Rizzo@Courant.com
Tickets are $35 to $55. Student rush tickets are $10 at show time with valid student ID, subject to availability. Tickets and information: 860-527-7838 or www.theaterworkshartford.org.
Tony-Winning Take Me Out Puts Gay Ballplayer In The Lineup
Theater Works ,Hartford, CT Oct. 19 through Dec. 3
October 19, 2006
By Frank Rizzo, Courant Staff Writer
In Richard Greenberg's Tony Award-winning play Take Me Out, Darren Lemming, a superstar Major League Baseball player, matter-of-factly announces to the world he is gay.
The moment at the beginning of the play comes not out of trauma, blackmail or shame but as a so-what-let's-get-on-with-the-game attitude that is stunning in its matter-of-factness.
"Don't expect the daily update," says Darren in the play. "I'm just here to play ball."
Is this a likely sports scenario or strictly a feel-good fantasy?
While there are many out gay athletes, professional team sports do not have an out gay male player. Billy Bean of the San Diego Padres in the '90s and Glenn Burke of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics in the '70s ( who invented the "high five") went public about their homosexuality after they left the game.
Members of the cast ... have a variety of views on how such an announcement would be received in the real world.
"If only more people did come out it would be less of a big deal," says Matthew Montelongo, an out actor who plays Toddy, a fellow ballplayer, in the production. Though Montelongo says homophobia is less tolerated now, he says he feels that it still would be a high-profile event for a professional team athlete to reveal his sexuality, one which would come with a variety of challenges and rewards. "I think there will eventually be out athletes. People want to respect and idolize someone who is a champion and as more come out I think the focus will increasingly be on who can hit a home run and less on whom he is kissing."
"There's a lot more to lose for a star [player] to come out," says Tim Altmeyer, who plays Kippy, Darren's straight and supportive friend. "Sexual boundaries are very well defended in sports. Sports, it seems, is the last bastion, now that politics have gone by the wayside. Maybe more so now."
"With all its machismo, it's the last undiscovered country for sports," says Schuyler Yancey who plays the egotistical superstar who sets the plot in motion with his announcement of being gay. "But I can't foresee it in the near future, sadly."
However, the straight actor says he relates to the character's self-confidence and his ability to find comfort in his differences. "Ever since I was young I knew who I was and eased into it even though there were lot of obstacles being of mixed races growing up in Atlanta," says Yancey, whose parents are African American but whose heritage also include strains of Irish, English, Cherokee, Cree and Creole.
"I was sort of never accepted by either one: black or white when I was very young. The white kids were calling me a nigger, and the black kids were saying I was too light-skinned. So I learned to become comfortable being myself and being by myself. In that way, I can identify with Darren, who may feel being gay is just one more facet of him being different. He was already OK with [being different because of his mixed race]. So it wasn't anything new he had to deal with."
Author Dan Woog of Westport, who writes about gays in sports, says he thinks plays like Take Me Out are "simply part of the culture in which gays in sports are talked about more." Woog points to websites such as outsports.com and gaysports.com, specials on HBO and ESPN, a greater willingness by sports journalists to write about the subject and efforts by teams' front offices to tap into the gay market as positive changes that recognize that athletes - and fans - can come from all kinds of teams.
Woog says he noticed a difference between his first book on the subject, 1998's Jocks: True Stories of America's Gay Male Athletes, and his sequel, 2002's Jocks: Coming Out To Play.
"When that first book came out it was, `Wow. There are gays in sports? Holy mackerel! Who knew?' When the sequel came out there wasn't the `wow' factor. There was the `why' factor. OK, why are these people still closeted?"
But Woog says change should not just be measured in the number of male gay athletes who come out publicly - or don't - but rather the attitudes both subtle and overt by management, team players, sports journalists and fans.
He points to "Gay Days" at stadiums from Chicago to Atlanta and to greater intolerance for anti-gay behavior and remarks both from the front office and players, many of them who have gay friends and relatives.
But still no "out" male player.
"I have always maintained that the first openly gay professional athletes was going to be someone who came up from the ranks and was always openly gay," says Woog, "rather than a quarterback at the end of the Super Bowl saying, `I'm here. I'm queer. I'm going to P-town. There are athletes who are out on their college teams and feel `So what?' I think having an out professional male athlete will come sooner rather than later and the response will depend on who the player is. But I think the response will be far less dramatic than many people imagine and very quickly the sports journalist will move on to the next story."
It's the fear of the unknown, says Woog. "Because no one's done it, nobody really knows what's going to happen. There's the fear of the reaction from the teammates, fear of reaction from fans and coaches and endorsements. But I think any of those fears are overblown and if you're in the closet - as these guys by definition are - you don't see what's in the rest of the house or the world. I think what they may lose in (endorsements) they would gain in other areas. This is 2006. Companies want to stand apart from the crowd. They want to be edgy. So why not associate yourself with somebody who people are talking about, who is seen as bold and courageous and doing something that makes himself apart from the crowd."
Certainly Take Me Out, which is now being produced in regional theaters across the country, is adding to the awareness of gays in mens' sports. But it is also funny, entertaining and provocative (there's locker-room nudity and language). Most memorable perhaps is a gay nerdy character who undergoes a rapturous change of his own when he becomes a smitten baseball fan.
"When I first heard that this was a play about homosexuality and sports I went thinking it was going to be about this poor tormented gay baseball player who's miserable and everyone is mean to," says Nat DeWolf, who plays Mason Marza, the gay accountant who discovers the joy of the sport. "Instead, the leading character comes out in the play's first 10 minutes and in such a nonchalant way. Plus, he's a bit of a jerk."
DeWolf, who is an out actor, grew up in Massachusetts, where sports were not part of his life. "There were no gay role models out there in sports," he says. "But there wasn't anyone anywhere who was `out'. Personally, I was more interested in rumors about gay actors."
DeWolf says "homophobia is how they coach players," he says. "You are told, `Don't throw like a girl.' It's part of it, at least when I was growing up."
It may be different now, says DeWolf, who understudied the role of Mason and eventually played the part on Broadway, and in another production in St. Louis. "These kids [in the audiences] were just beaming and so taken away with the story, he says. "It was great so see young gay kids see such a positive thing."
Others seemed to enjoy the show, too, he said. "The show was a hit in St. Louis," he says, with a smile, "which I've been told is a big baseball town."
Write to Frank Rizzo at Rizzo@Courant.com
Tickets are $35 to $55. Student rush tickets are $10 at show time with valid student ID, subject to availability. Tickets and information: 860-527-7838 or www.theaterworkshartford.org.
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