| :: NewYorkQnews.com :: FireIslandQnews.com :: QnewsMegaMall.com :: GayLifeInAmerica.com :: TheBestOfFireIsland.com :: FireIslandRealtors.com |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Jeremy Lawrence & TOSOS II Probe Proud & Political Gay Cabaret in the Weimar Era |
|
|
by Bruce-Michael Gelbert | >> see bio |
|
|
 |
|
Jeremy Lawrence
photo coutesy of TOSOS II |
|
Historians have come to recognize that, along with the annihilation of six million Jews during the Holocaust, the Nazis also censored music and art, which they labeled "decadent," by Jews and others, which is now being examined. Thanks to the research and prompting of gay historians, there has also been acknowledgement that a gay political and artistic community thrived in the Weimar Republic, its members also sent to concentration camps, where many perished, and its art suppressed. Cabaret scholar Alan Lareau collected some of the work created by gay composers, lyricists, and singers, performed in the cabarets of Berlin at the time, in "Lavender Songs," which he prepared in connection with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibit "Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals." Under the aegis of Doric Wilson, Mark Finley and Barry Childs' gay theater company TOSOS (the Other Side of Silence) II, performer Jeremy Lawrence offered a witty, proud and political evening of these "Lavender Songs," in his own English adaptations, at the Duplex on Christopher Street, on April 10 and 11, assisted by pianist Ray Fellman and directed by Jason Jacobs. I attended the second hearing.
Hair slicked back, rouged, tuxedoed, and looking like he just stepped out of one those Berlin cabarets, Lawrence set the tone for the evening with Erik Kästner's evocative and suggestive poem "Ragout fin de siècle" and interspersed the songs, sung in a strong voice, with historic tales of interrogations, arrests, and defiance. Lawrence's first song, upbeat and unapologetic, was composer Lothar Brühne and lyricist and 1920s gay activist Bruno Balz's "Kann denn liebe sünde sein?" first performed by Zarah Leander, sung here as "Can Love Really Be a Sin?" and including the sentiment, "Sorry I cannot live without love." He urged a stiff upper lip in Brühne and Balz's lament "Zeig' Welt nich dein Herz" ("Don't Show the World Your Heart"). Balz survived the war, only to be persecuted under the notorious Paragraph 175, which criminalized homosexuality.
Lawrence probed four songs by Friederich Hollaender, perhaps best known as the composer of "Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss auf Liebe eingestellt" ("Falling in Love Again"), from the film with Marlene Dietrich, "Die blaue Engel" ("The Blue Angel"). "Gesetzt den Fall" ("O Just Suppose") found a proposition, gently tendered, frustrated. Slow, wistful waltz "Ich weiss nicht zu wem ich gehöre" ("I Don't Know Who I Belong To"), first sung by Dietrich, ended with brave resolve. Drawing on the repertory of openly lesbian and often cross-dressing cabaret star Claire Waldoff, Lawrence proffered radical pro-feminist political counsel in merry-sounding martial air "Raus mit den Männern" ("Chuck Out the Men") ("Out of the Reichstadt, out of the courthouse"), noting that what male government leaders consider "perversion" is really "subversion." (Was he commenting on Germany in the '30s and '40s or the United States today?) Perched atop the piano, Lawrence now sadly, now blithely confessed to increasingly extreme "cravings" in "Starker Tobak" ("Shag Tobacco").
The singer took a light-hearted look at role- playing in composer Mischa Spoliansky and lyricist Marcellus Schiffer's "Maskulinum-Femininum" and proudly proclaimed, "we're not afraid to be queer and different" and "we're going to win our rights/to Lavender days and nights" in title number "Das Lila Lied" ("The Lavender Song"), by Spoliansky, with Kurt Schwabach. Donning his drag before our eyes, and dismissing a 'wardrobe malfunction' by singing, "Falling apart again," Lawrence sang a sweet ode, with a strong ending, to chorus, uh, girl "Hannelore" ("she's a girl-boy you can't ignore"), by Horst Platen and Willy Hagen, introduced by Waldoff. He impersonated "Die tätowierte Dame" ("The Tattooed Lady"), calling attention to the many "masterpieces on my body," including "unhappy queens" Marie Antoinette and Mary Stuart, in a monologue by cabaret performer and writer Wilhelm Bendow, survivor of the Nazi labor camps. Schiffer and Kurt Tucholsky were its co-authors.
Lawrence indicted a "debonair" heartbreaker, "too pretty to be true," in Richard Fall and Fritz Löhner-Beda's "Was hast du für Gefühle, Moritz?" billed here as "Moritz" and first sung by Paul O'Montis, victim of the Nazis, and ended with O'Montis' song "Danke schön, es war bezaubernd" ("It Was Enchanting"), a heartfelt expression of gratitude and a farewell, by Ernst Sennhofer and Raimund Dannberg.
This month, at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, within the West Bank Café, at 407 West 42nd Street at 9th Avenue, TOSOS II gives Wilson's 1961 play "And He Made a Her," a satire about Adam and Eve, directed by Finley and produced by Childs. Remaining performances are on April 13, 20 and 26 at 9 pm. The cover charge is $15 and there is a $15 food and/or drink minimum. Call 212/695-6909 for reservations.
|
|
|
 |
|
| |
|
| Search Your Theater Here! |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| Buy Your Tickets Now! |
|
| [ Click Here >> ] |
|
| |
|
| FEATURED HOME FOR SALE |
|
|
|
|
MORE FIRE ISLAND HOMES FOR SALE & RENT AT:
The Best of Fire Island.com >> |
|
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Return to Top of the Page
We are pledged to the letter and the spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity
throughout the Nation. We encourage and support an affirmative advertising and marketing program in
which there are no barriers to obtain housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familiar
status, sexual orientation or national origin.
Equal Housing Opportunity. All material presented herein is intended for information purpose only.
While the information is believed to be correct, it is presented subject to errors, omissions,
changes or withdrawal without notice.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
HOME | SHOW LISTINGS | NEW YORK CITY | ART & MUSEUMS | REAL ESTATE | RESTAURANTS | SHOPPING
BROADWAY | OFF-BROADWAY | OFF-OFF-BROADWAY
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
NewYorkQnews.com | FireislandQnews.com | QnewsMegaMall.com | GayLifeInAmerica.com | TheBestOfFireIsland.com | FireIslandRealtors.com
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
© 2007 QOnStage.com - All Rights Reserved
Design, Implementation, and Maintenance Provided By Circa58/59
Privacy Policy, Disclaimer
|
|
