Take Me Out Review. A gay love letter to baseball – New York Theater

Contents:

• '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
• STT ELLIS TALKS ABOUT THE BROADWAY GAY-THEMED BASEBALL PLAY 'TAKE ME OUT'
• TAKE ME OUT REVIEW. A GAY LOVE LETTER TO BASEBALL
• REVIEW: TAKE ME OUT, STARRG JSE WILLIAMS, LAYS BARE THE PRICE OF BEG GAY THE MAJOR LEAGU

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

But Jse Williams is well st as the gay baseball superstar Darren Lemmg. "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. Marz knows why 's important that Darren don't n away om baseball, bee he's facg the btal reali of racism and homophobia. Gay people need Darren to keep playg so they n keep dreamg.

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

Marz has the right to ll the gay jock out for not botherg to notice a lot of the homophobia that moners the queer muny face. 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. 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? Facg some hostile teammat and ght iendships, Darren is forced to ntend wh the challeng of beg a gay person of lor wh the nf of a classic Amerin stutn. 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'

Stt Ellis Talks About the Broadway Gay-Themed Baseball Play ‘Take Me Out’. “Everythg buts, [’s] not a partial but, ” Williams joked wh ET about takg all off as Darren Lemmg, who cis to e out as a gay durg the height of his reer, oppose of Adams as his teammate, Kippy Sunrstrom, who warns him agast that cisn. Joan MarcJoan MarcFirst wrten 20 years ago, Richard Greenberg’s Tony Award-wng play explor what would happen if a player Major League Baseball had ever e out publicly durg their reer, while also tacklg them of prejudice, race and homophobia.

TAKE ME OUT REVIEW. A GAY LOVE LETTER TO BASEBALL

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.

“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.

REVIEW: TAKE ME OUT, STARRG JSE WILLIAMS, LAYS BARE THE PRICE OF BEG GAY THE MAJOR LEAGU

“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.

For all the bety of a well-executed h and n and the ceremony of a home n, there is also the off-the-field snipg, a hateful Twter rant and an ocsnal work one hand, Take Me Out is the story of Mason Marzac (aka Marz, played by Jse Tyler Fergon), a gay fancial adviser whose volvement the re cint has led him, to fall love wh the game. Avery on Grey's Anatomy, who makg his Broadway but), the gay superstar and a person of lor who out the closet and the mayhem that rults.