obamica

Last night I went to bed very sad.  I felt sad that people seem to not be able to see the bigger picture.  The Obama administration still seems to be being blamed for the mess Bush left behind.  How could the economy have recovered in such a short time?  The whole world financial infrastructure nearly collapsed on Bush's watch.  The defecit was huge under him, and it is bigger now because Obama and the Democrats have been trying to create jobs and kick start the decrepit economy they inherited. 

Oh, and whilst they were doing that they managed to pass a health care bill that will ensure more people than ever who never had access to healthcare now will. And yet, they have been punished. Punished for not clearing up their predecessors' shit quickly and effeciently enough. And punished for daring to ensure poor people won't languish in ill health.

But today, I don't feel so bad. It could have been a lot worse. When any country takes a quite radical political turn (like electing a black, left-wing man) there is always a response that is askew in its intensity and, hopefully, longevity (like the Tea Party, who must be one of the few political groups of modern times whose rallying call to take to the streets and demonstrate was the terrifying prospect of poor people living longer).

As you know I have my issues with Obama on his timeline for gay equality.  But I think his vision for this country is the kindest, fairest and most thoughtful of any politician out there. I just think he needs to be better at selling his message, sort out his adminstration's PR blunders, be louder and prouder.

The Tea Party is evidence that people can have the wool pulled over their eyes so easily here. Its basic tenets of less government and a lower defecit are ridiculous considering what less government did last time and, as I mentioned above, the defecit problem was of their own side's making. So it is all the more important to make sure that our side is better at communicating to these people about issues that they connect to, and not to try and engage with the propaganda they are being fed.

Yestedray America did tell Obama that it was not happy with how things are going. I think it needs to be reminded of what he is about, and especially that he is going to stop engaging in the political griping and territory marking that he promised us he would try to snuff out.

Ok, here's a picture of me at my Halloween party at the Soho Grand hotel last Saturday.  I opted for dead flapper girl. This is kind of how I felt last night.

PS If anyone lives in Barcelona, please read this and give the Pope a heart attack (or a hard on).

Happy Halloween!

Here's a video I made in Sydney last year with my friend Queenie.  It is a hoot.

After much response from my friends and the studio audience at Jimmy Fallon's show on Wednesday I have decided to listen to the public and go to my Halloween party as a flapper girl.  Or more accurately, a version of the person wearing the dress I wore in Cabaret on Broadway.

You see I rather bizarrely kept the vintage dress as a memento when I left the show.  I reasoned that it was so frail and frayed by the end of my run that it wouldn't be of any use to the next actor who played the part, and indeed it didn't fit Michael C Hall, who replaced me.  And also it's nice to have something that you can just look at and remember so much more than the sum of its parts.

A few months ago I found it in a box.  It looks pretty shabby but it still has some lustre.  You can see the white make up I wore all over my body still there on the inside of it, and the ripped bits by the armpits where it was a little too tight.  I am slightly anxious that my body shape is not utterly the same as it was when I wore it last.  Also I am sensing that the slight lack of lustre might better be parlayed, in a make some lemonadee sort of way, into a dead flapper girl?!

I will post pictures of whatever variation I plump for.

Wow

My post about my frustration with the Obama administration and its mixed messages regarding DADT and the repeal of the Defence of Marriage act has caused a sensation! 

Last night I performed a benefit for Fight Back New York at Joe's Pub and was joined on stage by Cynthia Nixon to talk about this organisation that has been borne out of the same frustration I feel, Bridget Everett who sang Miley Cyrus in a way we will never forget, and Dan Choi who again echoed my feelings that although we are told that change is coming it is not good enough for people to be fired and ostracised for being honest about who they are.  As Dan said, there should be no time schedule for integrity.

I was dismayed to read my blog entry as part of some articles saying that gay people are not going to vote or are thinking about voting for a party other than the Democrats next week.  Despite my frustration and anger at the way we are being treated, or more accurately derided or ignored, I would never consider voting for anyone other than a Democratic candidate.  I will vote for Obama next time too.  I think in America there is a very knee-jerk reaction to political outrage: if we are unhappy then we turn away completely.  I know how important it is for all our welfares to keep the Democrats in power in both houses, and I am striving to do that.

I really hate the idea that people think not voting is some sort of feasible protest.  It isn't. It is stupid and irresponsible.  Let's discuss, cajole and yes, be angry, but never forget the horrific political alternative that is all too recent.

vids from this week

I went to Chicago the other day to get an award from the film festival and had a gay old time. Below is a video of me discussing the bullying issue as part of the Q and A after the screening of The Tempest. And then there's me ranting on about Shakespeare in America. And then something for our Spanish speaking friends

 And immediately below I am discussing my show on Sunday at Joe's Pub, a benefit for Fight Back NY.

Help Lance!

My friend and musical husband Lance Horne is making an album but needs help funding it.  It is an album of all his songs, sung by a variety of peeps including moi.  I do American, and I laid it down, as we say in the trade, last week). Here's a little vid telling you all about it.  Lance is a really amazing musician, composer and just all round crazy talented and lovely man, so please help him.  There are kickbacks galore!!

what I've been up to...

I'm in a film called Into The Woods, and i did a day on it a couple of years ago when I went into the woods with director Jenifer Elster. She has written a piece about it all here for the Huffington Post and I have to say I am more confused than I was when I did it. The website is equally oblique and opaque.  But it is very intriguing. I can't wait to see the film if only to see if she really did include a story I told about teenage masturbation.

I went to the opening of David Mamet's  A Life In The Theater and saw my old pal Patrick Stewart who was amazing, starring alongside T R Knight.  I had never seen this play and found it really funny and touching and unexpected. I thought the NY Times review was mean and, not to labour a point on this post but here goes, masturbatory.

I also caught up with my dear friend and former roomate Matthew Bourne when his utterly stunning production of Swan Lake returned to NYC at City Center.  Run, kill, do whatever you can to see this amazing evening in the theater. I will give you your money back if you don't get swept up in it.  And also there are multitudes of utterly ravishing young men playing swans, sweating and hissing, so it's a win win situation in my book.

I totally forgot that I had actually gone on one night in this production, playing an autograph hunter in the Act 2 opening scene , when it was first mounted in London in 1997. So I can say I have appeared in Matthew Bourne's West End production of Swan Lake!  Life is complete!

In The Good Wife this week Eli nearly choked when he saw Alicia's brother saying that her husband was homophobic. he was especially bummed as he was about to get a big contribution for the campaign from the Chicago gay community. This storyline kind of tramsmogrified into a Jewish/Palestine debate after that.  So the gays and the jews covered in one fell swoop! And yes, I too appreciate the irony of me saying 'I'm not gay' on national television. But it's called acting, people!!

Finally here's a PSA I took part in recently for Hollywood Arts...