President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president.
By Jeff Walsh
Telly Leung is a force of nature.
In Godspell, now playing at the Circle in the Square Theater on Broadway (see review), Leung has turned his role into an opportunity to showcase what seems to be almost too many talents. He acts, sings, dances, does impressions, and even when people are coming in after intermission, he's at the piano playing riffs from A Chorus Line, Wicked, Rent, and others, before launching into an Elton Johnesque reprise of "Learn Your Lessons Well" from Act One to get act two started.
When I recently ran into Stephen Schwartz, the composer of Godspell and Wicked, he had nothing but praise for Leung.
"His performance has become sort of famous. He's unbelievable, and the nice thing is he gets to show, in this particular production, the range of talents that he has," Schwartz said. "People who have seen him do one thing or another before, but here he gets to sing beautifully, he gets to be really funny, he gets to do amazing imitations, he gets to play the piano, you see a real range of just how much this guy can do. He's extraordinary in the show."
For how long Leung has been on my radar, it's amazing I'm just seeing him now. I originally planned to see him in Godspell years ago, but then the production was delayed. I planned to see him in an early version of Lysistrata Jones in Dallas, but I got delayed in Vegas instead. When the Rent tour came through the Bay Area, he had left the tour already.
So, for a while, I figured there was clearly some conspiracy at work here and I just wasn't meant to see Leung onstage. But once I moved to New York City, and he's in a show eight times a week, the odds greatly shifted in my favor, so we recently sat down in his dressing room before show time to chat about Godspell and his amazing path to Broadway (sorry Gleeks, I totally blanked on him being a Warbler during the interview):
By Jeff Walsh
Godspell is an odd mix of things that seemingly shouldn't work together: a series of parables from the Gospel of Matthew, amazing songs by Stephen Schwartz, and a lot of freedom in between on how to present both.
But somehow, the spare book, beautiful music, and lack of structure all combine to make something bigger than the sum of its parts. In its current Broadway incarnation, Godspell is a high-energy experience that barely lets you catch your breath.
Before I saw the show, in December, an elderly woman at the Patti Lupone/Mandy Patinkin show was giving me the rundown on all the new Broadway shows. When she came to Godspell, her demeanor changed and she clutched her chest, like even remembering the manic energy was exhausting her: "They keep running around, trying to make us have fun."
The most important reason I consider myself a smoker is because I am definately not a non-smoker. What do you call a half smoker? A social smoker? That sounds lame. I make the deliberate choice to spend part of my income on a vice of my choice. I understand the health implications and chose this anyway. As for having the paraphenalia on me most of the time, I always had a lighter. (I didn't smoker but I could *clink clink* take care of the ladies that did). My purse, backpack, pocket will likely have a cigarette in it whether I smoke it that night or not.
I decided last night that sometimes I really am crazy. My mind just doesn't know what's going on, and I completely lose it.
my head hurts. i hate stress. i'm sorry i don't have anything more interesting to say
Little well known that its been a year and a half since my father had a stroke. Untill today he had this nasty chest cold and went to the hospital. Bronconist, not unusual to me since I had it as a kid. But the xray shows otherwise, he also has some abcess on his lung. They are sending it to a speicalist.
I remember writing oasismag about my fathers anarysm and had small partual of his brain removed and how it was a biggest scare for all of us. A year and a half later hes still smoking and they found unknown abonomonly in his chest. How dumb is that? Part of me dont feel sorry, and I feel wicked for it. Hes my father. *Sigh* Men never changes.
yeah, today i was lighting a cigarette with a match in my car and somehow i thought that fire doesn't burn. So two fingers on my left hand have little burns on them. This means i can maturbate only with my right hand. Life's a bitch.
So boobs suck. Well, not everyone's, just my boobs. So recently I have been thinking about a breast reduction, because life would be much easier with smaller boobs. I probably wont get one, because I pride myself in loving myself for who I am, and I want to learn to love my breasts in all their bigness. If they were so big that they caused me serious health problems then I would be much more likley to go through with it, but the're not.
I had the most fabulous weekend. I went to a Margaret Cho show, and oh-my-fuckin-gosh, it was hilarious. She's so...amazing...and admirable. They way she delivers her material is so fresh. In short, Margaret Cho is my hero. She was also an outspoken gay rights supporter, which didnd't really matter to the audience since she had such a huge queer following. It was liberating.
Well, it's getting warm, about 34�F (stupid Fahrenheit, we (the U.S.) should adopt Celsius as our temperature scale of choice). Which means some of the snow is melting. Yay! We got hella lot of snow this year. In February alone we got a record 21.7 inches (yet another scale to replace). Yeah, I know, it may not be a lot to you Northeasterners, but it's still a lot to us. All in all, this has been the 3rd snowiest winter in recorded Indiana history and we have yet to have one single snow day. Bah! I'm sick of it. But, depending on Tuesday's temperature, we are either going to get snow or rain. I'm voting for rain because I simply adore rain, although I wouldn't mind the snow if and only if it came bundled with a SnowDay�. Rain...mmmm, rain....