"Gently Down the Stream"

[+ beethoven]

I saw this play with Harvey Fierstein this afternoon at the Public Theater in NYC, and liked it. It's not a typical plot-driven play, such as "Daniel's Husband," (which just closed, unfortunately), but more of a musing on the life of an older gay man. It's quite sad, really, though it has funny dialogue, and Harvey is just wonderful.

It runs through May 21. I'd say that he's the reason to see this play, which has two other characters who are sketchily written, but acted well. Definitely an interesting point of view, and a lot of gay history is discussed in a most poignant way.

[+ beethoven]

The title of the play relates to "Row, row, row your boat/gently down the stream......" The play is about the Harvey Fierstein character maintaining that "life is but a dream," which is the last line of the song. As I said above, he has a melancholy view of life, having experienced it as a gay man in pre-Stonewall America.

[foxy]

I first saw Harvey Fierstein in 1981 in Torch Song Trilogy. I was so moved by the play I went back and saw it a second time. I even bought an autographed copy of the play at the theater. I recently ran across it and should read it again. It also starred Matthew Broderick. Those were the days when he actually took acting seriously and didn't simply stand on the stage looking bored and disinterested. How that man continues to have a career is beyond me. Also in the the play was the wonderful Estelle Getty as Mrs. Beckoff.

In its first conception, the first part of the play was called The International Stud. This was a real bar and I wonder if any other posters remember this place in the West Village? As I recall, you walked into what seemed like a nice neighborhood bar, exposed brick walls and guys playing pool. It looked like a "Cheers" type of bar. But there was the back room! Behind a curtain was a large barely lit room that was a complete orgy of men having every kind of sex imaginable. You just grabbed someone and did whatever you wanted and bounced from guy to guy. I went once and never went back (to my regret but probably just as well). Gay NYC in the '70s and '80s is hard to describe to anyone who didn't experience it and if you lived to tell about it.

A few years ago I saw Harvey Fierstein's play Casa Valentina and I thought it was dreadful and embarrassing. I really wanted to leave during intermission and many people did. I stayed but it continued downhill.

So I seriously wondered about this new play and will probably try to see it. I think Fierstein is a talented guy even though his voice sort of irritates me and not everything he does is great. But I like the idea of a play that deals with gay history. I wouldn't mind a safe walk down that memory lane.