Playwright Paul Rudnick proclaims religion is in the air: "It's like theatre. People are always declaring it dead. Yet, it has endured." He cites several recent plays that look at the topic‹Terrence McNally's "Corpus Christi" and, earlier, Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" and his adaptation of "The "Dybbuk."
"There's a pre-millenium fever. For a major date we need major answers." Beat. "That‹1999‹will be the worst New Year's Eve party of all time. Small spaces with lots of people who will all expect a hug!" Rudnick likes underscoring words and his sentences are frequently punctuated by exclamation points.
His campy personal style hinting at celebration is equally evident in his work‹from "I Hate Hamlet" to "Jeffrey" to, most pointedly, his current offering, "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told." It opened to rave reviews Off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop, on Dec. 10, and rumors abound that it will move to a larger theatre soon.
Considering the question, what if God made Adam and Steve, "Fabulous" presents four gay archetypes‹a lesbian couple, Mabel and Jane, is also thrown into the brew‹on a surreal journey from the Garden of Eden, to Noah's Ark to Bethlehem to present-day Chelsea. Improbably combining a "Saturday Night Live," No"l Coward, and "Skin of Our Teeth" vision of the universe, the play's imagery could easily emerge from the horrified nocturnal ramblings of a Bible-thumping fundamentalist on a mood-altering drug.
Clearly, the work is intended as a broad-stroked satiric swipe against those right-wing Christians who've argued that God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. "I thought it would be fun to call them on it," Rudnick, a 40ish Piscataway, N.J., native, beams. "And rather than play separatist games, I say, "No! We'll come to the party!' It'll confuse them. They're so used to thinking of gay people as godless and soulless."
So far Rudnick has received no flak from the Christian Right in response to the piece, short of a couple of letters from women in the Midwest "worrying about my immortal soul. Thank God somebody is!"
"Fabulous" is not simply a romp. Despite organized religion's discrimination against gays, the characters here are not shunning traditional religion or inventing a new religion. They want in. The narrative also tackles the question, how does anyone reconcile a benign God with horrible injustice and evil events in the world?
"Religion raises the most unanswerable questions on the planet. And it's oddly democratic," says Rudnick. "Great Biblical scholars may be incredibly knowledgeable. Yet if I choose not to believe in the text, my view is equally valid. Few areas offer that kind of freedom and wonderful license. It's a subject that's rich in comic and dramatic possibilities because people are at their most exposed and funniest when they believe in something fervently."
Rudnick sees religion as the "last taboo," especially among urbanites. "Sex has become commonplace. But religion is provocative. Whenever the cast members talked about themselves, not the characters' opinions, the atmosphere was charged. Sophisticated New Yorkers don't talk about religion unless it's discussed with levels of irony and deconstruction. We may make our way to religion through humor, science, and especially coolness. But can those who go to foreign films and Robert Wilson productions at BAM picture themselves in a church without sniggering?"
The slightly built, sportily clad Rudnick, with whom we meet in a NYTW rehearsal hall, describes his own spiritual journey from "Reformed Jew to atheist to seriously superstitious. I'm an atheist who reads the horoscope. Okay, I don't believe in God‹I can't reconcile that much hate, war, disease, and sorrow with any traditional God. But in case I'm wrong, I don't want Him coming after me. What if I die and the Catholics were right? And I'm the only one without a harp?"
Rudnick defines himself as a romantic. Indeed, he suggests romance is his dramatic calling card. "It's humanity at its best. People need romantic affirmation. Satire can be chilly and wear thin quickly. You need characters you can care about. The core of the play ["Fabulous"] is the romance between the two couples through the ages."
A constant: Rudnick doesn't worry about appealing to gay stereotypes. "It's what I call the shanda syndrome: the belief that if you show a minority person with any imperfection or idiosyncratic characteristic, you are bringing shame on your people. Politically correct characters are the death of comedy. I love exploring and celebrating gay characters in all their variety and that includes masculine lesbians and less-masculine gay men who love hair products and cashmere sweaters!"
A Novel "Hamlet"
The son of a physicist, Rudnick wanted to be a playwright from the outset. After graduating from Yale University, he launched his playwriting career‹"writing a lot of bad plays," he admits frankly. Rudnick also tried his hand at novels, a liberating and educational experience. "For the first time I realized the subject matter dictates the form. There are certain rhythms that work in novels, and not plays. Similarly, other rhythms lend themselves to plays. By the second chapter of my third novel, I realized I was writing a play, "I Hate Hamlet.' "
Rudnick's much-awarded "Jeffrey"‹OBIE, Outer Critics Circle, and John Gassner Playwrighting awards‹marked both career turning point and artistic watershed. "Jeffrey" is an unlikely romantic comedy detailing a gay love story in a world awash in AIDS. "I had reduced the cringe factor. That's when I sit in the back of the theatre and want to send a letter of apology to everyone in the audience and a full refund. Although "Jeffrey' was hardly a perfect play, I believed for better or worse I had a voice and style that combined a full range of comedy with serious themes. "
Rudnick observes that plays like "Jeffrey" or "Fabulous" are a far cry from the landmark "Boys in the Band," which he describes as a "salute to gay wit that had never been seen before. There'd be no gay theatre today without it. But there's the danger of dismissing it as a kind of Uncle Tom play, instead of regarding it as a period piece. And even now, it's very entertaining."
The future of gay theatre‹its subject and tone‹will "expand endlessly," says Rudnick. "There are so many gay voices it's hard to classify them, which leaves room for a lot of dreadful gay plays. But that's the price‹when a playwright of any stripe can fail and not be seen as a litmus test for the whole group."
Gay film, on the other hand, is in its early stages, and therefore not nearly as evolved as its theatrical counterpart, Rudnick points out. Still, some gay movies already have broad-based appeal, like "Bird Cage," and his own "In and Out," an amusing flick about an outed closeted gay teacher (Kevin Kline), who comes to terms with his homosexuality following a series of psychic pratfalls.
Rudnick's next movie, "Isn't She Great!"‹due next fall and featuring Bette Midler and Nathan Lane‹centers on the over-the-top life of novelist Jacqueline Susann, who's enjoying a bit of a reappraisal these days. (Check out the recent TV movie on Susann, the wonderfully dreadful "Scandalous Me!" starring Michelle Lee.)
"Jacqueline Susann was a pioneering female success story. But because she was superficial‹her style was not politically correct‹she was not given credit for the inroads she made. "Valley of the Dolls' was the biggest-selling novel ever. She changed the face of publishing. She was the first trademark novelist and paved the way for writers like Tom Clancy and Stephen King."
Rudnick attributes Susann's re-emergence to such gay icons as Madonna, Sandra Bernhard, and Bette Midler, those larger-than-life Mae West cultural heirs who celebrate female outrageousness, bawdiness, and sexual independence." Rudnick suggests they are not unlike gay artists who are embracing‹owning‹their own stereotypes by transforming the cliched images‹self-loving or self-hating, depending on viewpoint‹to their ultimately boisterous conclusions.
Currently, Rudnick's thoughts are focused on "Fabulous" and his conviction that it talks to a cross-section of theatregoers, regardless of ethnic identification, religion, or sexual orientation.
"Whether you're a pious believer or a sceptic, you have to wrestle with issues of belief. I hope this play offers audiences lots of laughs, and an exploration of these questions without answering any of them definitively. I hope audiences leave the theatre entertained, challenged, and most of all surprised because they didn't get what they expected." q
PULL-QUOTE:
"People are at their most exposed and funniest when they believe in something fervently."