Stt Ellis Talks About the Broadway Gay-Themed Baseball Play 'Take Me Out'

Contents:

• JSE WILLIAMS WEIGHS ON BEG A STRAIGHT MAN PLAYG A GAY CHARACTER BROADWAY'S TAKE ME OUT
• STT ELLIS TALKS ABOUT THE BROADWAY GAY-THEMED BASEBALL PLAY 'TAKE ME OUT'
• JSE WILLIAMS MAK HIS BROADWAY DEBUT WH A GAY ROLE ‘TAKE ME OUT’
• 'GREY'S ANATOMY' STAR JSE WILLIAMS MAK A SE FOR WHY STRAIGHT ACTORS N PLAY GAY ROL HIS BROADWAY BUT, 'TAKE ME OUT'

JSE WILLIAMS WEIGHS ON BEG A STRAIGHT MAN PLAYG A GAY CHARACTER BROADWAY'S TAKE ME OUT

His cisn to open up about his sexualy sparks a firtorm of homophobia and racism the sport, particularly his own locker room. But Williams is also engagg wh another proment topic of discsn — whether straight actors should play gay characters. He don't nsir himself part of the gay muny, and he's stgglg wh his own inty and sense of awarens there.

STT ELLIS TALKS ABOUT THE BROADWAY GAY-THEMED BASEBALL PLAY 'TAKE ME OUT'

You were talkg about the inty issu that the play wrtl wh, and your character, Darren, has two big thgs that he's alg wh terms as a biracial baseball player who out as gay. Dealg wh tolerance and and the racism and homophobia that e up the play, do you have to parse the nuanc between those two thgs or is all one big meltg pot of horrible people? AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTCric’s PickRichard Greenberg’s 2002 play about baseball and homophobia gets a fe revival starrg Jse Williams and Jse Tyler Klwich/The New York TimPublished April 4, 2022Updated Oct.

For nothg is Darren Lemmg, the fictnal center fielr of a team lled the Empir, also at the center of “Take Me Out, ” Richard Greenberg’s gay fantasia on the natnal to be a “five-tool player of such credible grace he ma you spect there was a sixth tool, ” Lemmg surpass even Derek Jeter — on whom he is to some gree moled — versatily, steads and the kd of arrogance that, arisg om excellence, adds up to charisma. He’s a natural star for baseball and, when he cis to e out as gay, a natural irrant for s bt, “Take Me Out, ” which opened on Monday a fe revival at the Helen Hay Theater, is a five-tool play. Perhaps pecially for gay men, is also a eful rrective to the feelg of banishment om a necsary Klwich/The New York TimBy that I don’t mean baseball self but the examatn of masculy through s lens.

JSE WILLIAMS MAK HIS BROADWAY DEBUT WH A GAY ROLE ‘TAKE ME OUT’

In “Take Me Out, ” Lemmg’s announcement that he’s gay, prompted by no sndal and volvg no lover, is sentially a pretext for a disquisn on malens. ” Lemmg assum that whatever he do will redound to his benef, and that unlike most people for whom g out is momento, his gayns will be jt another of “the irrelevanci” his life, like beg handsome and he hasn’t unted on is the way, for his teammat, the revelatn dims his ra of perfectn while exposg cracks their ls perfectly airtight psych. Homophobia bubbl up om the dark plac of other men’s souls; even Lemmg’s clost iend, Davey Battle, a relig man who plays for an opposg team more ways than one, unglued by .

Marzac, the kd of gay man who feels he has no place the heterosexual world or even the gay muny — “I’m outsi them. Still, Greenberg shows , is ccial to happs, and not jt for gay men, even if troduc immense difficulti.

Their fictnal team is known as the Empir, a major league baseball club on their way to the world seri who fd themselv stgglg to keep their eye on the ball after biracial Black star player Darren Lemmg — Jse Williams his Broadway but — publicly announc he’s gay.

'GREY'S ANATOMY' STAR JSE WILLIAMS MAK A SE FOR WHY STRAIGHT ACTORS N PLAY GAY ROL HIS BROADWAY BUT, 'TAKE ME OUT'

“I jt remember I’m stg there watchg as a gay man and thkg, ‘Wow, this is credible, the possibili of what’s gog to happen the next 20 years, '” Ellis relled. Even though there have been gay players — people have e out — no one really baseball. “He falls love wh the game jt bee he se himself reprented , ” says Fergon of his character Mason, a gay man whose love of baseball begs after he be Darren’s bs manager.

You’re stripped down, you’re vulnerable that sense, but if you’re gay, don’t get more vulnerable, ” Ellis tells THR. The former Grey’s Anatomy actor plays a biracial baseball player who out as gay at the height of his reer. Blatant homophobia and transphobia is rampant thanks to the lik of Republin policians like Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, Lren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and many others propagatg anti-LGBTQ hate Fierste on Love, Broadway, Secrets, Addictn, and Fightg Anti-LGBTQ BigotryLast year, almost 20 years after Take Me Out was first performed, Bryan Ruby ma history as the first out gay profsnal baseball player, tellg USA Today that he wanted “to help create a world where future generatns of baseball players don’t have to sacrifice thenticy or who they really are to play the game they love.

The gay baseball player is not alone, isolated, bullied, rejected. The tle of the play tak on many meangs—light and dark—as the play is easy to sell Take Me Out as “the gay baseball play.