Dan Myers
A scene from the Madison Theatre Guild & OUT!Cast Theatre co-production "The Nance."
Early on in Douglas Carter Beane’s Tony Award-winning play The Nance, two actors take the stage to perform a comedy sketch between risqué burlesque acts at the Irving Place Theater. It’s New York City in the 1930s, and burlesque is on its last legs as movies begin to take over the entertainment scene. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia is cracking down on lewd and lascivious behavior, both onstage and among patrons in the balconies, in an effort to “clean up” the city in preparation for the 1939 World’s Fair.
Straight man Efram asks his scene partner, “Hey, are you a pansy?” And with exaggerated bewilderment, Chauncey Miles (the “nance” character) answers, “Doesn’t necessarily make me a bad person!” And so begins the painful conundrum that The Nance’s main character Chauncey will face, both on- and offstage through the rest of the play — how to reconcile his homosexuality with a society that condemns it and an audience that applauds when he himself ridicules it. A co-production from Madison Theatre Guild and OUT!Cast Theatre, the brave and challenging production runs through May 6 on the Drury Stage at the Bartell.
The Nance is a play that tries to cover a lot of ground. First, it’s a love story and domestic drama that follows Chauncey’s attempt at a real relationship with Ned, a small-town guy who has just come out. After picking up the penniless Ned at an automat where boys meet boys, Chauncey is reluctant to let their encounter recede into another anonymous one-night stand, so the two start to play house.
It’s also a lesson in politics, exploring the Roosevelt era of the 1930s, full of government programs for artists and others down on their luck, lefty leanings toward Communism and periodic witch hunts for gays and lesbians, who were routinely arrested and roughed up by the cops for loitering, then condemned as deviants.
And last, it’s a delightful foray into theater history, bringing old vaudeville and burlesque routines to life, clearly demonstrating both the appeal and the limitations of the genre. Under Steve Noll’s direction, the production succeeds on different levels in telling all these stories.
Playwright Beane did a lot of research to put this play together. He also collaborated for three years with the actor who would go on to play the show’s original main character, Nathan Lane. As a result, a lot of Chauncey’s lines were written to Lane’s strengths as a performer — they sound like him. In fact, it’s hard to watch The Nance and not imagine Lane in the title role. Fortunately, veteran Madison actor Dennis Yadon is up to the challenge, putting his own, somewhat understated spin on the character. Yadon plays Chauncey as a man who’s making the best of his situation while haunted by self-loathing. He is most comfortable in the over-the-top gay stock character he plays, and most able to accept the love of his audience.
As Ned, the naïve young man that Chauncey can’t fully commit to, J. Francis Molloy is a wonderful foil. He is earnest and honest to a fault, as he explores the new worlds of gay culture and a life in the theater with an open heart. As Carmen, Ariel LeBron also turns in a noteworthy performance as she takes it off in several eyebrow-raising scenes. An experienced burlesque performer, she pops balloons, twirls tassels and places feathered fans strategically — clearly enjoying the tease. As the burlesque show’s plaid-suited emcee and top banana, Scott Stanley masters the timing of those old slapstick routines, but doesn’t seem to have much fun doing them, which hinders the final result.
Noll does his best to keep the 2 ½-hour show moving, with brief and efficient scene changes on the cleverly designed set (a collaboration between the director and lead carpenter Lee Waldhart). But the show still feels long in spots, as the politically charged comedy sketches go on and on in the second act. Probably written to showcase Lane’s star power, they drag the play out without advancing the story much. The end of the show also feels a bit underwhelming, as the script never quite brings the three main storylines together.
Overall, the ambitious play is both fun and thought-provoking, with many themes that reverberate today about the effectiveness of unions, elitist politicians out of touch with the needs of the people and the violence and vitriol of homophobia.
