Happy Birthday, Neil Patrick Harris!

He avoided the fate of most child actors; he did not slide into drugs or obscurity. He has not been featured on Where Are They Now or Celebrity Rehab.

Instead, he is nominated for Emmy Awards for convincingly playing a ladies' man on How I Met Your Mother. He beats even the great Billy Crystal for best award show host of all time; just let him host the Oscars. Please?!? He is brave & fearless… how about that rap at the end of the Tonys on Sunday night? He plays a very demented version of himself in the Harold & Kumar movies, including the upcoming A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. NPH sings, dances, does magic, he has a sly sense of humor, & spot on timing. Along with his impossibly cute partner- David Burtka, he is the father of 8 month old twins.

NPH turns 38 today. Is he a gay hero. I think so, he lives his life with his head held high & with a certain elegance. I simply love him to pieces. On Sunday, Gay Pride Day in Portland, we are going to see him in a film version of his stage turn in Sondheim's Company from this spring.

Born On This Day In 1564... Will.I.Am Shakespeare

In my 45 years of working on stage I only played in a few works by The Bard of Stratford-On -Avon, all of them small roles: Prince of Aarogon in The Merchant Of Venice, Verges in Much Ado About Nothing, Andrew Auecheek in Twelfth Night, Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream & 3rd witch in the Scottish Play. Among the list of roles I never got to play, at the top would be: Malvolio, Shylock, & Caliban... I was probably short on talent & short on chances in my short lifetime. 

More has been written about William Shakespeare than any other writer, & it is still being debated whether Shakespeare was Shakespeare. Entire books have been dedicated to the subject, on both sides of the issue. The 3 strongest possibilities for the true identity of the Bard: Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, & Christopher Marlowe were all homosexual.

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, apparently not intended for publication. 126 of these sonnets address the poet's love for a young man. I, of course, claim him as one of the gays: handsome, dressed well, preferred to live, work & travel with male companions rather than be home in Stratford with his wife, wrote & acted in plays, & enjoyed cocktails, gossip & shopping. But the real tip off is when he outed himself at the Tony Awards when he thanked his boyfriend with this acceptance speech:

A woman's face with nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion:
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
& for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
& by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love & thy love's use their treasure.

Born On This Day- February 3rd... Talented Nathan Lane

The Husband & I channel surfed on to the The Birdcage the recently, a movie that I don’t actually think is very good, but whenever I chance upon it, the movie seemingly gets my full attention.

This got me thinking about Nathan Lane… & he ended up with my career! I wanted to establish myself as the "go to" guy for comic musical roles. I wanted to make my home on the Broadway stage, but not be afraid to venture into films, some Disney voice work would be nice & maybe do a sitcom at some point. I wanted to make room for all those Tony Awards on my mantle. When I was firmly established as a comic leading man, I would come out of the closet & hope for the best. I wanted to play opposite Matthew Broderick in one of the biggest hit musicals of all time, & follow that with turns in a Beckett classic & a new Mamet play. I wanted to be Terrance McNally's muse & have him write roles just for me like: The Lisbon Traviata, as Mendy- a gay man with an obsession with the opera singer Maria Callas, Bad Habits, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, the Tony-winning Love! Valour! Compassion!, & a film version of Frankie & Johnnie. I would have even been unapologetic when I starred opposite Bette Midler in the Jacqueline Susann biopic Isn't She Great.

I never got to star opposite Bebe Neuwirth in The Addams Family on Broadway. Oh well, Nathan Lane is the toast of Broadway, & I am the toast of Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, with a big ol' chip on my shoulder. I hope he is happy as he turns 55 today!