In Del Shores' film adaptation of his stage hit Sordid Lives, Leslie Jordan, playing an institutionalized drag queen named Brother Boy, savors some Shores-esque moments of character revelation, as raucous belly laughs abruptly shift into pathos. With Shores' Southern-fried autobiographic works, the professional partnership between the funny/sad clown Jordan and his friend/mentor of 20 years has been as serendipitous as biscuits with gravy. And as Jordan's career reaches new plateaus of success, it's time to swim in the gravy.
Sordid Lives debuted this spring on the heels of Shores and Jordan's most fortuitous teaming to date. For the world premiere of Shores' acclaimed comedy Southern Baptist Sissies (which concludes its eight-month stay this week, prior to trips to Dallas and New York), Jordan's supporting performance has swept the local supporting actor awards for his tragicomic characterization of barfly Preston "Peanut" Leroy, with honors from the Back Stage West Garlands, the LA Weekly, and the L.A. Drama Critics Circle. Jordan and Ann Walker, his barroom buddy, keep the audiences in stitches until the later scenes when the tragic nature of his character rises to the surface as he cautions a confused young gay man not to end up in a dead-end life like his own. In my recent return visit to the show, Jordan's incisive performance seemed more impressive than ever. Whether affecting a swishy walk and dropping bitchy zingers with the bull's-eye precision of Jack Benny, or eliciting heart-wrenching moments of poignancy, Jordan's magnificent work never strikes a false note.
One hesitates to use the word sissy, but both the Dallas-raised Shores and the Tennessee-bred Jordan are openly gay men who eked their way through repressive Southern Baptist backgrounds to assert their identities. When Jordan first read the Sissies script, he discovered that the role that Shores had written for him had all-too-familiar personal resonance.
"I was angry at first because that character is not just loosely based on me—that's my story. Del writes of the years I sat on a bar stool and drank and hired young hustlers. I told him I couldn't believe he'd told that—I've had years and years of sobriety now, and I didn't want to relive that stuff. He said he thought it would be healing, to trust him. He was right. I walk out of the theatre a free man every night, as I know I have moved on."
Jordan's own autobiographical film, Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel, based on his play, should be released this fall. He was in two episodes of Fox-TV's Ally McBeal this spring and signed a deal to appear in David E. Kelley shows next season. He boasts extensive television credits, including regular roles on Hearts Afire and Reasonable Doubts and countless guest spots on such shows as Will and Grace.
Jordan feels chipper about the next phase of his career. "This has been an incredible journey," he said. "A friend said that Ally could be my passageway into films, and a director recently told me that my work is more subtle and real now, and that I am not relying on my usual tricks." Tricks are for kids, and Jordan's work comes across to us as mature, full-bodied, and brimming with honesty.