Jack & Bobby�s Gay Uncle

Contents:

• DO BOBBY NEED TO BE OPENLY GAY STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S REVISED ‘COMPANY’?
• 'BIGGT LOSER' TRAER BOB HARPER REVEALS HE'S GAY
• IS BOBBY LEE GAY? THE COMEDIAN’S LIFE STORY AND SEXUALY
• WHY HAVE SO MANY GAY ACTORS PLAYED THE ROLE OF "BOBBY" IN COMPANY?

DO BOBBY NEED TO BE OPENLY GAY STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S REVISED ‘COMPANY’?

Has anyone ever thought Bobby might be secretly gay? I was thkg about Bobby today and realized that a lot of his characteristics make sense for a young gay guy the closet.

This review ntas d spoilers for Eichner is stg an Adirondack chair, overlookg the scenic shor of Provcetown, a gay-iendly hamlet on the tip of Cape Cod where a summer getaway n st as much as a trip to Paris. His character Bobby has jt raised the $5 ln he needs to fully fund the LGBTQ+ history mm where he is the Head Gay Charge. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, whose tenacy and urage, borne out of the challeng they faced as Black and brown trans women and sex workers, sparked the morn-day movement for queer, ’s Eichner who is leadg what’s beg hailed as a historic, if long overdue, first — a big-stud, R-rated gay rom- wrten by and starrg an openly gay man, and wh a prcipal st of all LGBTQ+ actors.

'BIGGT LOSER' TRAER BOB HARPER REVEALS HE'S GAY

It’s impossible to make legible on screen a sprawlg and varied culture paradoxilly uned by, Bros is gnizant of the prsur and expectatns that e wh beg a cematic first, and tri to offer an clive tn, even as remas foced on a central love plot between cis whe gay men.

Bros, as befs s tle, stead centers gay culture and s fixatn on markers of masculy, an fatuatn wrtl wh but ultimately embrac rather than skewers. So many gay men (cludg myself) n relate, and ’s meangful to see that reflected on a big screen for a broad dience. But while there’s a lot of potg to the jtice of all, Bros don’t qutn the standards of attractivens — extreme fns, mascule prentatn, and y, whens — that Aaron embodi and by which Bobby (and so many gay men) measure would be an undue expectatn to pile on a movie already shoulrg too many if only Bros didn’t end up rercg the very obssn wh body image and masculy set out to crique.

Eichner has challenged what “gay edy” uld be. Now, he's brgg an all-gay rom to don’t help that there are almost no femme-actg gay male characters the movie, as if to make up for years of Hollywood history that refed to see any other way.

IS BOBBY LEE GAY? THE COMEDIAN’S LIFE STORY AND SEXUALY

The passg appearance of a flamg queen on the dance floor — which prompts Bobby to exclaim, “Gay guys are so stupid! Yterday afternoon was revealed that Stephen Sondheim (along wh director John Tiffany) has reworked his classic mil edy, Company, wh a major plot twist: Bobby, the central, sgle character, who spends the urse of the show alg wh his own abily to m, is gay. ” It’s an tertg revisn, as crics have long argued that Bobby was a closeted homosexual the first place.

There’s not much the text that suggts Bobby is gay, although people have certaly wonred: why else uldn’t a handsome sgle man settle down? “We don’t al wh gay marriage as such, but this versn lets explore the issu of mment a h way. ”Perhaps that’s why Sondheim is on board wh this openly gay productn — which will see a readg at Roundabout Theater Company this week, featurg Daniel Evans, Bobby Steggert, Michael Urie, and Alan Cummg, who will liver Joanne’s famo 11 o’clock number.

It’s promisg that this Company will be actually reworked to ment, possibly, on the gay experience; while marriage is an optn, ’s not the only optn, and generatns of men who were told was not a possibily have surely seen their social and romantic sensibili affected by what mastream society saw as the norm.

WHY HAVE SO MANY GAY ACTORS PLAYED THE ROLE OF "BOBBY" IN COMPANY?

To be homosexual surely meant somethg different 1970 than do today, too, which cric Jam Jorn poted out when he reviewed the New York Philharmonic’s all-star stagg of the mil 2011 (Neil Patrick Harris starred as Bobby) for Capal New York. When discsg a major lyril change the song “You Can Drive a Person Crazy, ” sung by Bobby’s three jilted lovers — “I uld unrstand a person if a person was a fag” turned to “I uld unrstand a person if he happened to be gay” when Roundabout revived the show 1995 — Jorn suggts that Bobby, who very well might be homosexual, wouldn’t be seen as such bee of the many layers of stigma attached to beg queer:Back the 1960s, the nventnal wisdom was that some men had sex wh other men ocsnally, and other men maybe fantasized om time to time about same-sex actn, but none of the guys were what you would ll homosexual.

A homosexual, on the other hand, was seen as a pletely different breed, a “boy the band” hairdrser or an terr signer or an opera queen wh some sort of twisted secret sire to be a woman, or at least to be treated like a woman by some big, butch (preferably workg-class) straight du. That kd of homosexual was a “fag, ” a mp joke, and a woman chasg after such a creature was obvly ridiculo, bee, the words of an early Sondheim lyric, “his troers [are] vern….

But the revisn “happened to be gay” isn’t really a joke bee ’s non-judgmental. The ia here is, y, some guys who don’t appear effemate do turn out to be gay sometim, not that there’s anythg wrong wh that.