Jeff
Whitty’s Broadway-bound Tales of the City
musical: Just how gay will it be?
Though only
officially announced March 13, and not even anticipated to
hit Broadway until the 2009–2010 season, Tales of
the City has already been touted by Entertainment
Weekly as “the gayest musical of the
decade.” Sure, the stage adaptation of Armistead
Maupin’s queer San Francisco–based 1978
serialized novel reunites Avenue Q’s out
Tony-winning playwright Jeff Whitty with out director
Jason Moore—and a composing team that includes
way-out Scissor Sisters front man Jake Shears—but
Whitty, for one, doesn’t necessarily agree that
Tales is as gay as all that. He is, however,
thankful for his largely gay team, and admits to favoring
gay actors for gay roles. We’d better let the
self-described gay “chauvinist” tell
this tale himself.
Congratulations! I hear you just had your very
first reading of the Tales of the City script.
Thanks. It was just supposed to be getting
friends and actors together in Jason
Moore’s—the director’s—living
room, but it’s been blown up into this huge
thing. It was totally casual. It wasn’t official at
all. The first draft was intentionally overwritten, so
we needed to hear it out loud to figure out what
we’re going to slenderize. It went very well.
Lots of work ahead, but there was a show there! I spent the
next day feeling like I returned from war; I had so
much anxiety beforehand.
When did you first discover the books?
1993. I’d just moved to New York and
didn’t know anybody, and those characters kind
of became my temporary friends.
How long before you approached Armistead Maupin
about securing the rights?
About two years ago, almost three years after
Avenue Q. There was no musical idea that I found
inspiring, and I didn’t want to work on anything that
I wasn’t excited about. Then a lightning bolt
hit me that Tales of the City was the right
project. So I called Avenue Q producers, and they
contacted Armistead, because I didn’t know him
at the time. Then he was totally on board, and it
started coming together really quite easily after that.
Did Maupin turn out to be a fan of yours also?
Yeah, he knew me, and I flew out to San
Francisco, and it was like hanging out with Mrs.
Madrigal. I gotta tell you, he has been the best
collaborator. I basically came in and gave him some ideas,
and he said, “Great. Go.” He’s
not been possessive, and he’s had fantastic ideas. He
even came up with a couple of song titles that have been
spun out into these fantastic numbers. The biggest
fear going in, as would be with any project dealing
with original material when the person’s still alive,
is that you’re going to have to deal with a big
box of crazy. But I thought, Is it possible that
everyone in this project is as cool and sane as
they seem? It’s rare.
One might argue that you’re too young to tackle
this project, not being one of the old queens who
actually lived through the period.
Gosh, I haven’t even though about that.
It’s never occurred to me because it’s
my favorite time period. In a way, I feel like it’s
more real to me than anything I’m living
through these days. I have such nostalgia for it. I
wish culture was where it was back then. And I’m
pretty much the same age Armistead was when he was writing
then -- maybe a little older.
Were you the first to request the rights for a
musical adaptation?
I think there had been nibbles in years past,
but maybe people would get daunted by the volume of
material. The minute I got the idea, I was already
shaping it in my head. Someone that read the books a year
ago will think, Oh, it’s all there, but
there are definitely secondary story lines that we
won’t be able to include. And my goal is to
never contradict the material; even though there may be a
plotline that’s not in the musical, it could just be
happening onstage. But it is daunting, I’ll say
that. It’s taken a lot of thought and
structure, which is ultimately the book writer’s job.
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