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For our grand finale, I sang “I Miss Buffy T.V.S.,” which sums up my feelings about my favorite TV show ever. We got the crowd singing along, and it was truly a joyous noise of geektacular fandom. Watch my face when I ask the audience to sing along; I’m so happy they actually, like, sang along! Amazing.
A couple shout-outs: The backup dancers are, again, the icing on the cake. Their commitment is truly laudable. Also, that drummer? The one who’s been keeping that rock-steady beat this whole time? Fourteen. FOURTEEN. (Or possibly fifteen. You get my point, though, right? Incredible. The whole band is actually really gifted, but the rest of ‘em are in their 30s, so it’s less impressive.) (Sorry, old people.)
Thanks, Englert Theatre! Thanks, Joss! And thanks, you crazy Buffy fans! We are of one tribe!
Okay, fair warning: I’m really in love with my leather pants in this video.
This was the first time I ever wore leather pants and afterwords, I was like, Why am I not wearing leather pants every day for the rest of my life?
(Answer: leather pants are not conducive to aggressive cookie-eating. Their loss.)
This is the second of three clips I’m releasing from last year’s BUFFY LIVES! Tribute night at the Englert Theatre. This is a song about my favorite character on the show, Xander Harris. It’s pretty inside baseball, as they say, so if you don’t know who Xander Harris is, you may not dig it. Then again, I am wearing leather pants. There’s entertainment value in that simply for the novelty of it.
My favorite thing about this clip is the crowd noises. Listen for the “Awww…” Fantastic.
Last year, the Englert Theatre hosted a fan-friendly BUFFY LIVES! tribute night to our favorite vampire slayer. A big crowd assembled, many in costume, and we all watched and sang along to “Once More With Feeling.” It was, as the French say, tres awesome.
And in the “even more awesome” department, my friends and I performed a few numbers off my I Miss Buffy! Megan Gogerty’s Awesome Tribute Album to kick things off. It was the first and perhaps only time these songs had ever been performed live anywhere, and it was sort of a magical evening for me.
I’ve been threatening to put some selected video up for about a year now, if only to prove to the world how cool/nerdy we die-hard Buffy fans are, and here’s the first clip.
If you’re not a Buffy fan, then 1) Drop what you’re doing and go watch Buffy; and 2) You should know that “Mister Gordo” is Buffy’s stuffed pig who’s mentioned maybe twice in the whole show. So this song is less in-jokey and more silly-with-a-Buffy-gloss.
Also? The backup dancers kinda make the whole show for me. (Thanks, Schmanglins!)
The good people at Bread Loaf brought me down to do my solo show, Hillary Clinton Got Me Pregnant. It was the first time I’d ever done the show outside, and it was gorgeous. The sun was setting behind me, little birds twittered about overhead, and those people passing through the courtyard who had no idea a play was going on got a nice surprise.
The audience – Bread Loaf grad students and faculty – were so warm and lovely. And after the show, we all had pizza in the Santa Fe dusk. And if that’s not a perfect evening, I don’t know what is.
The Philadelphia NPR affiliate did a lovely piece outlining the basic facts of child sexual abuse and talking about my musical Love Jerry.
The journalist pronounces my name incorrectly, but since she doesn’t wrongly accuse me of apologizing for pedophiles like the Philadelphia Inquirer did, I’ll overlook it.
“These issues are complex and powerful and addressed with an impressive air of neutrality—not toward pedophilia, which everyone in the play (with the exception of Blatt’s character, Clowny) condemns, but toward the rush of confusing emotions that ensue from any traumatic experience. Love Jerry doesn’t condone pedophilia. It doesn’t brush it to the side. It is, in fact, an indictment of the act in no uncertain terms. But it presents us with the very real idea that sometimes people hate the sin and love the sinner.
Howard Gensler at the Philadelphia Daily News writes in his Tattle column, “The play no more endorses child abuse than ‘Macbeth’ endorses murder.” Which I’ll take as a compliment.
And Martha Wade Steketee over at Urban Excavations says, “[Love Jerry] deals with the intergenerational sexual abuse — the devastation and hope and possibilities of resilience and the pain of, in this case, young boys abused by adult men — with grace and beautiful music and spare theatricality. And power.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Wendy Rosenfield reviewed the play on opening night, and also attended the post-show talkback. I’m hesitant to link to the review because, in addition to giving away key plot points, it also paints a highly misleading portrait of the premise of the show. She also takes some of my quotes from the talkback out of context.
But what the hell! Read at your own spoiler-y risk:
The review came out on Monday, and I’ve been meaning to write a lengthy response. But before I could clear my schedule and get to it, the Philly.com readers and theatre-goers beat me to the punch.
There has been a flood of comments on the Philly.com website decrying the review as biased, inflammatory, insulting, and just plain wrong. I’m a bit stunned at how vigorously the play has been defended, to tell the truth.
Look, I know the play stirs up strong feelings in people. Some people love the play, and some people downright hate it (hi, Jill!). For every glowing, best-piece-of-theatre-ever rave, there’s been a wipe-this-filth-from-the-earth pan. I’ve been called all kinds of names in its brief history. And I wrote the play in part to spark a dialogue about these very important and polarizing issues. I believe that being fully and unflinchingly honest about the causes and effects of child sexual abuse, even if it makes us uncomfortable, is a strong and necessary step in eradicating the problem.
Not everybody agrees with me on this point.
In its professional premiere at Actors Express in Atlanta, there were picketers and TV cameras on opening night. People stood out in the rain with signs saying “Child Abuse Is Not Entertainment.” When I was developing the play at the University of Texas at Austin, some of my colleagues accused the play of every bad thing in the book: racist, anti-feminist, homophobic, anti-Christian, etc. I stand by my work, but that’s not the point. The point is, dialogue often means disagreement.
I don’t care that Wendy Rosenfield of the Philadelphia Inquirer hated the show. I take issue with her assessment of the play as “dangerously naive;” if anything, I’d argue that hers is the naive and blinkered point of view in this debate. And I strongly object to her contention that the play in any way “apologizes” for pedophiles. But we do agree on some things: In the brief space she allocates for discussion of the production, she recognizes the excellence in acting and directing. From an aesthetic point of view, Nice People Theatre Company should be rightly proud of their incredible, nuanced, and fearless production. Her problem appears to be that the play exists at all.
But that’s her right. It’s her right as an American to hold a dissenting opinion, and it’s her job as a critic to tell her readers what she thinks. Ms. Rosenfield happens to have a highly visible bully pulpit at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and it’s my hope that her review won’t keep would-be audiences from engaging with the play and coming to their own conclusions. If nothing else, it’s an outstandingly acted, deeply felt production.
Luckily for us, the Old Media bully pulpit ain’t what it used to be.
I am humbled and amazed at the sheer number of people championing this play and this production. I want to thank all its supporters from the bottom of my heart.
Love Jerry doesn’t condone child abuse. It fights child abuse by putting the lie to the myth that says abusers are strangers and bogey men rather than flesh-and-blood people in the child’s inner circle. Pedophiles don’t take by force, they take by coercion, and coercion requires they build a strong and intimate relationship with their victim. This relationship is often confusing for the survivor of abuse well into their adulthood, and it’s one of the many reasons these crimes are so difficult to prosecute. In the play, I attempt to examine both the abuser’s decision to abuse, and its long term, often-confusing consequences for both survivor and offender. Survivors often love their abusers as much as they hate them.
That’s the truth. Reluctance to face that truth leads to denial, which leads to putting our children further at risk.
That’s why this play has been endorsed by several child abuse prevention agencies such as Darkness To Light, Prevent Child Abuse, and Child Abuse Prevention Effort.
I sincerely hope the theatre-goers of Philadelphia will see this play and think about these issues in their own communities. It would be easy if we could round up all the sex offenders, ship them to a desert island, and not think about them anymore. But those of us who live in the real world know that solution just isn’t feasible. So we have to find another way forward. Love Jerry is my attempt to contribute to that conversation. I invite Philadelphians to join in, too.
You may be saying to yourselves, “The whole world stinks right now. The economy, the oil spill, Al and Tipper Gore splitting up – I feel so helpless!” And you’re half right. The world does stink a little bit. But here’s a chance to flip the script on the whole “helpless” thing and all you need to do is tell everyone you know the following story. It’s a story of double standards, timidity, and general boneheadedness, but with your help, it could also be a story about a power-to-the-people style uprising and folks coming together to do something good for a change.
This weekend, Nice People Theatre Company in Philadelphia is opening their production of my musical Love Jerry, which is a family drama about child sexual abuse. It’s also about forgiveness, love, and a bunch of other really good and powerful things. The production is amazing, the actors and musicians are top notch, and I couldn’t be prouder of their effort to bring this admittedly complicated work to Philadelphia audiences. To advertise the show, they made a video ad and tried to buy space on the website of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the major news outlet in the area.
Here’s where things get weird.
The Philadelphia Inquirer refuses to run the ad.
There’s nothing graphic or disturbing about it – watch it yourself and see. But the Philadelphia Inquirer advertising office objects to the use of the word “pedophile” in the ad. They’re afraid their viewers will see the word, not understand that it’s a theatre piece, and come to the conclusion that the Inquirer is advocating child abuse.
The producers offered to change the word to “child abuser.” No dice. Still too offensive.
Keep in mind this is the same Philadelphia Inquirer that routinely accepts ads from strip clubs.
So to recap: An ad for strip clubs? Fine and dandy. An ad for a serious theatre piece that attempts to educate the community about an important topic and that’s endorsed by several local and national child abuse provention organizations? Too controversial.
You would think, with all the reports of Old Media’s demise and the financial slow death of journalism, they’d be eager to take our money. But you’d be wrong.
But Nice People Theatre Company will not be silenced by fear. Because they are awesome.
We’re asking all our friends to forward the video to everyone you know. We made the ad to let people know about the show, and if the Inquirer won’t help us, maybe our friends will.
If you come to the show and mention the video, the box office will take a two bucks off your ticket price. It’s not much, but it’s our way of giving a little hat-tip to loyal patrons who are helping us spread the word.
But that’s not the cool part.
If the box office gets 50 people who mention the video when they buy their ticket, they’ll donate the $800 they would’ve given to the Philadelphia Inquirer directly to Child Abuse Provention Effort, the non-profit organization that fights child abuse in Philadelphia.
The theatre would need to sell 50 tickets in order to break even on buying the ad. So if we can get those 50 tickets without giving money to the scaredy cats at the Inquirer, and instead give the money to a really deserving charity that fights child abuse, all the better.
What’s ironic about all this is the fact that people are so skittish about talking about this issue when open honest dialogue is the only thing that will help eradicate it is kind of the whole point of the show. And here we have the exact same skittishness the play rails against, writ large and amplified by media censorship.
To be fair, I want to point out that the people at the Inquirer who are making this decision are not the Inquirer journalists. The arts critics, reviewers, and news people are covering the show in good faith and have shown us nothing but editorial respect and appreciation thus far. It’s the advertising office that’s making this baffling decision.
How you can help
If you’re in the Philadelphia area, come see the show. Mention the video and get $2 off the ticket price. If 50 people come to the show and mention the video, we’ll donate the ad price to a non-profit child abuse prevention charity. If you’re not in the Philly area, forward the video to anybody you can think of. At the very least, we can tell the world about the general squeamishness and double standard of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s advertising office.
The whole point of the ad is to tell people about the show. So help us tell people about the show, and stick it to the Man while you’re at it.
Let’s just take a minute and talk about the simple and arresting image they’re using to market the play.
Let’s take a second minute and praise the actor who’s got the courage to be like, “Not only will I play a pedophile, I’ll allow you to label me as such all over the Internets!”
And let’s take a third and final minute to contemplate how stoked I am to see this show.
I am so ridiculously excited about this production! No, seriously. FOR REALS. I mean, look at that postcard! Don’t you want to see this show just based on that postcard? Doesn’t it make you catch your breath? And then when you find out it’s a musical, doesn’t it twist your noodle a bit? Doesn’t it make you want to GO SEE IT? I want to see it, and I’ve seen it before in other cities, like, a bunch of times already. I wrote the dang thing, and I STILL want to know how it ends, based on that postcard. And I KNOW how it ends, because I wrote it.
That’s marketing, friends. Hats off to greatness.
Click the link below to download the whole postcard for your own selves. It’s got all the deets you could ever want.
I am humbled and amazed at the sheer number of people championing this play and this production. I want to thank all its supporters from the bottom of my heart.