By Jeff Walsh
Tales of the City, the musical based on the beloved books by Armistead Maupin, opens in San Francisco tonight. The story is set in the 70s and brings together a magic group of characters for a timeless story of self-discovery, family, and community.
The show fuses Maupin's books with some of the creative team behind Avenue Q, and music written by singer Jake Shears and musician John Garden of the dance pop band, The Scissor Sisters (My review of the show will run later this week).
I recently spoke with Shears during the show's preview run, and here's what we had to say:
By Jeff Walsh
Violet Tendencies is a fun fag hag movie, starring Mindy Cohn (Natalie from TV's Facts of Life) as the hag in the starring role.
The movie, which comes out on DVD May 24, opens on a wedding, as a fag hag is getting married surrounded by hot gay men. The bride notes that she was the last fag left, quickly adding, well... except for Violet.
Violet is so surrounded by gay men that she barely knows how to navigate the straight world, and when she does meet straight guys through an online phone dating service, her gay-tuned candor and humor sends them packing.
Violet's gay friends are all in some state of taking their lives from where they are at present to a next level, whether that is monogamy or adopting children. When Violet finally meets someone interested in her, a Mormon architect with whom she doesn't share much of anything in common, she abandons her gay life for a chance at happiness.
By Jeff Walsh
Nick Adams has been in three of my favorite shows: A Chorus Line, La Cage Aux Folles, and now he is one of the leads in Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, a new musical on Broadway based on the Australian movie. Sadly at this point in time, I've only seen the movie version of Priscilla, which I've adored for years, but that will be remedied as soon as possible.
For those of you unfamiliar with the movie, Priscilla is a road trip picture with two drag queens and a transvestite on a road trip through the Australian outback with a lot of campy bitchery and disco anthems peppered throughout.
Nick, 27, became more visible when he appeared in the revivial of A Chorus Line. He got press when he landed a 2(x)st underwear campaign, landing the shoot over his Chorus Line co-star Mario Lopez, which the media turned into a feud that both actors deny (publicly, at least).
He then appeared as one of The Cagelles in La Cage, where he stole every scene he was in as the odd drag queen out. And now, he recently opened Priscilla on Broadway, landing one of the main roles in the show, as well as the funniest, bitchiest, showiest roles in the piece.
In the movie, his role was played by a young unknown Guy Pearce. There's a good chance that magic will repeat itself with Nick's career.
Nick and I chatted on a spotty phone connection this week, and here's what we had to say:
Today in my Acting class we were doing our autodramas
for those of you who don't know an Autodrama is when you create a play for your self and whoever you want to pull into it and really the only rule is that the play has to be about you or some part of your life, and I decided to make my play into a sort of coming out story.

http://youtu.be/lbHMRpdk3_4
I can only hope this link works correctly, otherwise feel free to watch this on youtube. The first game since the bombing and the fans took over the National Anthem from Rene Rencourt( The official Anthem singer for as long as I can remember). Typically, the fans force Rene to Drown-out the cheers toward the end of the Anthem. He increases his volume(He's an former opera singer), but this time he gestured for the fans to take over. You've got to check this out, it clearly illustrates the spirit of Bostonians. The video can also be seen on foxsports.com.

The Colombian congress is debating about approving gay marriage and it seems that it will be approved (I hope so!). I never thought that here something like that would be approved or even debated because we are a religious, mostly conservative country, but things are getting better.
Hi,
Just the fact that you are able to read this is a miracle, a side effect of four teens who overcame their deepest pain to try to do something positive.
If I've lost you here, bear with me. You may see a bit of yourself in what we have to say.
My name's Alex, I'm thirteen, and I live in the middle of nowhere in a small town just like many other small towns in our country. I can't use any real names here, but what I write is true. I have hopes, dreams, and secrets.
Actually, too many secrets. Which is part of why I'm here tonight, pouring out my soul.
My lost soul.

This is so wrong.
So very fucking wrong.
What happened in Boston... shocked me. Jarred me. Disturbed me. Honestly, I haven't a good word for the feeling.

i would just like to be quiet with someone who understands the ways of why i can't continue right now, i feel so anchored to something which wants to keep me unwell. how do you cope with such a strange and frightening body? i hate it, i hate it! i don't want to take too-many medicines. i don't want to be afraid of turning the page.
i need to believe in love like some people believe in faerie-tales but more often than not i find myself even more alone within it. i wish you could visit me more often, i can't stand waiting in this springtime.

I'm sure everyone has heard by now what happened at the hallowed Boston Marathon, so I won't bore you with the details. There's an inordinate amount of information online and elsewhere, some of which is true, some not exactly correct. Make no mistake, this was indeed an act of terror, it's just too early to make assumptions on who's responsible. Fortunately, the people of Boston and surrounding communities are pretty tough, Literally and figuratively. This is the kind of shit that just embolden's Bostonians to act.