Friday, March 7, 2008

cat on a hot tin roof of a fabulous brownstone in Park Slope




 Brick and Skipper sitting in a tree. 
I have always been fascinated with how different actors/directors/time periods have defined the relationship between Brick and Skipper. Paul Newman was SO not gay that they rewrote the end of the movie, HE takes Maggie to bed... ( but come on PAUL NEWMAN in 1958!!), no gay there, ole Skipper is out of the picture!
A brand new production of the Tennessee Williams play opens tonight on Broadway, with an all African-American cast. It would seem as if James Earl Jones was just born to play BIG DADDY. There is no mention of the "gay-ness/non-gay-ness" of the play in the review, but it would be VERY intresting to address the issue from the African-American prospective. The whole DOWN LOW thing.
The play just gets right to the heart of it all. How close can two  straight men be, even if there is no sex ( or one gay/one straight) . Brick tells big daddy all they ever did was " shake hands before going to bed" ( albeit in the same hotel room!). How close can the two jocks be off the field? How close IS too close, or is there even such a thing as TOO close?? And well, gosh, why did Skipper jump out of that window......

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