JULY 3. 2008
jUStffUt ,39
The Darkest Night Will End
Les Mis meets the queer rights movement
ometimes 1 choke on the words.
Rehearsals for music theater produc-
tions aren’t supposed to he sohhy affairs.
As a performing artist, I’m trained to he
just emotionally invested enough for
the feeling to “read,” hut not so overwrought that
1 can’t make it, dry-eyed, through an especially
moving lyric.
That Friday night, in rehearsal for Broadway
Rose Theatre Company’s production of Les
Miserables, 1 lost it.
“Do you hear the people sing? Lost in the valley
of the night—it is the music of a people who are
climbing to the light,” 1 sang in a super-soft tenor,
almost whispering the words. Except when 1 got to
the next lyric, my voice caught: “For the wretched
of the earth, there is a flame that never dies—even
the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
Suddenly singing that lyric—about hope, about
moving forward, about change and inspiration and
what lies ahead—became just impossible. My eyes
clouded over, tears streamed down my face.
Returning to the musical theater stage in Les
Mis after a few years’ absence has often been jar
ring like this. But nothing prepared me for the
explosive torrent of emotions that Les Mis un
leashed in me, not least because of the surprising
resonances between many of the show’s themes
and today’s queer rights movement.
Actors often like to pay lip service to the
“timeliness” of a certain piece of theater, but here
NW
PROFESSIONAL
DANCE
PROJECT
it’s smacked me right in the face. Since coming
to Just Out several months ago, my own sense of
urgency on queer equality has expanded incalcu
lably. There are moments, like in those Les Mis
lyrics, when the scope of the struggles before us
looms so large as to seem unbeatable. How many
more equality-stripping initiatives are there to re
port, and how many frivolous lawsuits? How many
times can 1 choke down another interview with a
gay-hating activist or find another queer suicide
in the national headlines?
of a powerful enemy. Then the actors re-emerge
from the wings to sing a soaring final reprise of the
show’s major anthem. These are the words:
“Will you join in our crusade? Who will he
strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the
barricade is there a world you long to see?”
I see the barricade: It is David Crowe and
Mary I in Shannon and Gary George and those
diminishing numbers of old-school anti-equal
ity activists across Oregon. It is our country’s
administration, on its way to being retired. It is
There are moments, like in those Les Mis lyrics,
when the very scope of the struggles before
us looms so large as to seem unbeatable. How
many times can I choke down another interview
with a gay-hating activist or find another
queer suicide in the national headlines?
Right at the end of Les Mis, there’s a bloody
battle in which a group of starry-eyed student rev
olutionaries fight for their fervent beliefs in hope
and change. As one of them (Enjolras, a Larry
Kramer type) waves a proud flag in the face of
imminent defeat, others rush forward to battle,
losing their lives in the headlong heat and rush
also sometimes our own inability to stay actively
committed to advancing equal rights.
But I also, most days anyway, try to see beyond
it. 1 see the proud queer director of our Les Mis
production, Broadway vet Robert Hunt, one of
the hardest-working theater pros I’ve met. I see
his wonderful partner, Frank, with whom he lives
in Chicago. I see that, as Illinois residents, they
have no legal protections as a couple, and am
reminded of the Washington lesbian who died
suddenly while on vacation in Florida with her
partner and children, and how that partner was
denied emergency room access because the state
does not recognize their partnership.
It is not even news anymore: These are major
recurring themes, just like that anthem. You read
these stories, battered into our collective queer
consciousness. As students of our own civil rights
Staff Writer S tephen M arc B eauixmn writes
about Portland arts and queer culture at
fromeverycomer. Hogs/x ¡t.com. He welci>mes
feedback at stephen@justuut.com.
PRESENTS the PC at PCPA
i
ORIGINAL WORKS FROM WORLD-
RENOWNED CHOREOGRAPHERS
A
ASZURE BARTON / Premiere
ALEJANDRO CERRUDO I Premiere
JAMES CANFIELD I Premiere
LUCAS CRANDALL I Premiere
SARAH SLIPPER / The Nuisance of Being
4F
e T r ISTI/IAS
c
Extra savings on select
items to make your
summer fun as exciting
as Christmas morning
Best Bet for 2007
- The Oregonian
NEWMARK THEATRE / PCPA
I I I I SW BROADWAY
’
BY STEPHEN MARC BEAUDOIN
movement, we’re scrambling to scale the bar
ricade. Sometimes (e.g., Measure 36) we’re shot
down by the opposition.
But guess what—tomorrow comes. As we sing
in full-throated abandoned at the musical’s end:
Tomorrow comes. ©
ft J JUL/i
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/
SARAH SLIPPER
Corner View
/
TICKETS/$28-$32
Limited BEST SEATS /
www.nwpdp.com
Info / S03.828.8285
*
Tickets also available at /
PCPA Box Office or
Ticketmaster outlets
503.790.ARTS
FRIDAY + SATURDAY /JULY I 1 + 12 /
8 PM
sponsored in part by /
a
1Î4JÜI
hîÛfiH&B
photo / Blaine Covert
James F. ft Manca I
ífflrWr ^dler foundation
dancer / Amanda Philhps-Bosshart
■-
I
À
Enter to win ''special” Christmas
presents valued up to $100.
No purchase necessary.
îl rfí
1
£ All 20 hour DVDs on sale for $20!
Visit our website for more events & store specials.
www.taboovideo.com
»
WWW.TABOOVIDEO.COM
Taboo Vancouver
4811 NE 94th Ave.
Vancouver WA
(360) 254-1126
71
82nd Ave. Taboo
2330 SE 82nd Ave.
Portland OR
(503) 777-6033
■■If*
MLK Blvd. Taboo
237 SE MLK Blvd.
Portland OR
(503) 239-1678
’r r-T
PfWATE AND INTIMATE MULTICHANNEL ANGABE |