Whether it’s going to a gay and lesbian film festival, a Cher concert, or still trying to fit into my Debbie Gibson dress; every weekend is a gay weekend for me. However some weekends are more gay than others and last weekend was, in my gay opinion, the pinnacle of gayness so far.
It all started Saturday night when my partner and I went to New York City for an overnight trip. First stop was the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 W 46th St) to see the play Apologia. If you’re interested in seeing Apologia, it’s scheduled to run through December 16th, 2018. I’ve seen discount tickets for half price, so shop around. The crowd is older so expect pre-show entertainment with elderly wives yelling at their hearing-impaired husbands to find their seats and ordering them to guard their purses. The theater is small and intimate. We were in the last row of the mezzanine and saw everything fine. Once the show starts, the theater won’t allow late attendees into the orchestra but they do allow them into the mezzanine. The first few minutes of the play we had to fight to hear over the rude late-comers figuring out where to put their folding chairs. Two “gentlemen” with gastric distress set up camp behind us and proceeded to belch themselves into comas.
Why Apologia? Two words, Stockard Channing. My partner was a fan of West Wing and I loved her as Rizzo in Grease. In Apologia, she’s perfection in the role of an aging author and flower-child who has a conflicted relationship with her adult sons. The play is two hours and twenty minutes long. The first half’s a mix of comedy and drama, there’s a 15 minute intermission, followed by a serious second half. All but one of the supporting cast were completely believable in their roles. After the show I hung out at the stage door (the same door you go in but now roped off) to be able to tell Stockard how much I enjoyed the show. She was very friendly, kind enough to meet her fans, and to sign Playbills. It was the perfect start to the weekend!
Stockard Channing set the expectation bar high since she was the first diva I met on the start of the Gayest Weekend Ever but I still had Drag Con and the Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction to go.
