'Take Me Out' Review: Jse Williams Is Powerful As Gay Baseball Star

Contents:

• JSE WILLIAMS WEIGHS ON BEG A STRAIGHT MAN PLAYG A GAY CHARACTER BROADWAY'S 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'
• STT ELLIS TALKS ABOUT THE BROADWAY GAY-THEMED BASEBALL PLAY 'TAKE ME OUT'
• TAKE ME OUT REVIEW. A GAY LOVE LETTER TO BASEBALL

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.

'GREY'S ANATOMY' STAR JSE WILLIAMS MAK A SE FOR WHY STRAIGHT ACTORS N PLAY GAY ROL HIS BROADWAY BUT, '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? But Jse Williams is well st as the gay baseball superstar Darren Lemmg.

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

"Dpe the monali, the media, cludg the New York Tim, has wonred whether Williams, a straight actor, should play a gay character. Bee straight men playg gay, everybody wants to give them an award, " Billy Porter, who is a member of the LGBTQ muny, told The Hollywood Reporter Neil Patrick Harris, who married his hband David Burtka 2014, told The Tim 2021 that he "would fely want to hire the bt actor" for any role.

"Take Me Out, " which opened April 4, centers Darren, a stellar profsnal baseball player, and what happens to him and his team — the fictnal Empir — after he out as script, viewed by Insir, lls Darren "a Black man who you uld image had never suffered" and Williams told Entertament Weekly that the character "don't nsir himself part of the gay muny" and has been "straight prentg" before he mak the somewhat impulsive cisn to share his sexual orientatn wh the world at a prs 's is a versn of a g-out story, there is no nyg that. Unfortunately, tryg to do so, he grossly unrtimat the power of racism and homophobia. We also see the shock Darren feels when 's clear the team manager Skip (Ken Marks) isn't gog to fight to keep Shane Mungt (Michael Oberholtzer) — the player who ed explic homophobic and racial slurs agast Darren — om beg restated on the team.

Williams has a lot to prove his Broadway but as Darren, and part of the reason he's succsful bee of his platonic chemistry wh stage veteran and "Morn Fay" star Jse Tyler Fergon as Darren's bs manager Mason "Marz" role, more than Williams', benefs om beg played by an openly gay actor who knows the stggle that many young people face bee of their sexualy.

TAKE ME OUT REVIEW. A GAY LOVE LETTER TO BASEBALL

Marz knows why 's important that Darren don't n away om baseball, bee he's facg the btal reali of racism and homophobia.