Torch Song Trilogy
by Harvey Fierstein

Torch Song Trilogy has won the Adelaide Theatre Guide's Curtain Call Award for best drama of 2006.

Accepting the award at the gala event, Sally Putnam said she was proud of the achievement which is a tribute to everyone who made a contribution to the show.

This is the third Curtain Call award for Mixed Salad. We previously won best comedy for Five Women Wearing the Same Dress in 2004, and Helen Geoffreys won the best female performance award for her role in Miracles in 2005.

Dave Simms was also nominated this year for Best Male Performance for his role as Arnold.

"We congratulate every single nominee and hope that they will be proud of this achievement," says Adelaide Theatre Guide's website.

Back in December, arts writer Matt Byrne delivered his annual bouquets to the people and events on the Adelaide stage in 2006.

"The Horatios are for the big, the bold and the beautiful and it's nice to be able to reward the shows and the artists that made theatre-going worth the effort in what has been a long and eventful year," said Byrne.

"In the Amateur Horatios, the award for Best Actor goes to Dave Simms in Torch Song Trilogy from Mixed Salad Productions."

Messenger drama critics also hand out awards to Adelaide's amateur theatre community for achievements throughout the year.

The awards, which are in name only, are an adjunct to the 2006 Light Year Awards published this week in The City Messenger.

The Light Year award for Best Drama was given to Torch Song Trilogy from Mixed Salad Productions.

This adds to the informal audience accolades passed on to the director, cast and crew.

Dave Simms is about to find life a drag in drag.

The portly actor is about to don size 9 stilettos, a purple wig, earrings, eyelashes and plenty of mascara and a feisty frock to play the central role of Arnold in Harvey Fierstein’s acclaimed Torch Song Trilogy.

“And the audience will watch me do it,” said Simms. “Arnold is a fading drag queen and I begin the show with a monologue where I put all the gear on as I talk about my life. Then I sing a song, a torch song, and the play really begins.”

Simms said the award-winning comedy/drama, brought to the stage by Mixed Salad Productions, was divided into three acts: “Sex, love and family.”

The three acts are: The International Stud; Fugue in a Nursery; and Widows and Children First, which cover 10 years in Arnold’s life. “It’s a play about mostly gay characters and the first act is all about sex and the pursuit of it,” Simms said.

“Then the second part moves on to love, when some of the characters start to fall in love and get serious. That’s when the complications of relationships begin, and Arnold finds a young fashion model called Alan (Paul Rodda). Finally comes the family, when Arnold decides to adopt David (Gabriel Partington) and looks at settling down.”

Simms said Arnold was a Jewish New Yorker.

“He’s quite a character and just when you think he’s settled, his Jewish mother turns up from Florida,” he said. “She is a real motor-mouth, can’t stop talking, and they have a good relationship, but they never mention the ‘G’ word.” Simms said although the play was about gays, “it’s not a gay play”.

“The different stages of love and life that the characters go through are the same as anybody,” he said. “They want sex, they want love and they want commitment – not necessarily in that order – just like the rest of society. It’s a very funny play, very human and there’s some wonderful poignant moments to go with the laughter.”

Simms said Mixed Salad had decided to present the classic because “the time seems right”.

“Issues like gay marriage and the resurgence of the religious right make it important that gay people are treated the same as any other member of society,” he said. “This play is about people who happen to be gay and the stages of life they go through to find their place and their peace.”

Sally Putnam directs the cast, which also includes Andrew Clark, Nicole Rutty, Paul Rodda, Gabriel Partington and Sue Wylie as Arnold’s mother.

Torch Song Trilogy will be at the Studio, Holden Street Theatres, from November 22 to December 2. Bookings 0439 533 173.

As a Jewish drag queen in New York, with the ironic stage name of ‘Virginia Hamm’, Arnold Beckoff’s life could never be straightforward.

His search for sex, love and family is chronicled in the Tony award-winning play Torch Song Trilogy to be staged this November by Mixed Salad Productions.
The play’s message is that self-respect, love and the importance of family are things we all crave, however conservative or outrageous we may be; a theme that has made this story a classic with both gay and straight audiences.

Torch Song Trilogy is a timely choice by Mixed Salad Productions, coming hot on the heels of the highly successful movie Brokeback Mountain and the debate on equality for same sex relationships in Australia.

It was one of the first Broadway shows to have a gay theme as its plot, winning a Tony award for best play while Harvey Fierstein won the award for best actor in a play. The movie version with Matthew Broderick and Anne Bancroft was also one of the first mainstream movies to feature a gay man, his lover and his mother as the central characters.

The play is in three Acts – The International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery and Widows and Children First – and covers 10 years in Arnold’s life. It follows Arnold's hilarious steps toward domestic bliss with a reluctant school teacher, to his first true love affair with a young fashion model, and his complicated relationship with his overbearing mother.

Mixed Salad Productions is a joint venture by local drama exponents Dave Simms and Sally Putnam. The company made an impressive debut on the local theatre scene with another gay classic: Terrence McNally’s Love! Valour! Compassion!

Sally Putnam will continue her run of successes as Mixed Salad’s principal director with this hilarious and poignant story.

“I believe that whoever you are, sex, love and family are worth carrying a torch for,” says Sally.

“Understanding and learning to accept each other means keeping dialogue open and this is one of the major themes that Torch Song Trilogy is about, for me. That the dialogue is fast, funny and at times emotional is one of the reasons that it is so well loved and makes it so interesting and challenging to direct.”

The cast features Dave Simms in the key role of Arnold. His fellow cast members are Andrew Clark, Gabriel Partington, Paul Rodda, Nicole Rutty and Sue Wylie.

The season runs from November 22 to December 2 at The Studio, Holden Street Theatres, Hindmarsh.

Performances are on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 7.30pm. Tickets: $25 or $17.50 concession. Bookings: on 0439 533 173.

Mixed Salad Productions' reputation precedes them - for both high quality theatre and their outstanding culinary generosity on opening night.

I'm pleased to report that the premiere of 'Torch Song Trilogy' lived up to and exceeded their enviable standards.

Company co-founder Dave Simms craved playing Arnold the Brave since he saw Harvey Fierstein in the movie version: a tough act to follow as Fierstein is no ordinary thespian. Not only did he take the lead, he adapted the screenplay from his play. He also starred in the Broadway production, and won the 1983 Tony awards for Best Play and Best Performance by a Leading Actor. He's no flash in the pan - only Fierstein and Tommy Tune have taken Tony awards in four categories.

Unlike the wild camp excesses of fellow New Yorkers Charles Busch and Charles Ludlam, Feirstein's script is semi-autobiographical and more prosaic. He charmingly makes Arnold the champion of our quest. After all, many of us are looking for love in all the wrong places, longing for a life partner, sniffing out great sex, yearning for children, and seeking respect if not approval from our parents.

After a nervy opening monologue, Simms won the audience over with his parody of a torch singing drag act using experimental voice work. It was all honey and roses after that. Andrew Clark played Arnold's lingering love interest with casual and effective realism. Only these two are in the opening act and in an interesting construction, they never speak face-to-face. Simms solo sojourn into the back room shenanigans at The International Stud with his imaginary friend Murray were hilarious.

A year later, they each take on new lovers - Arnold a young man and Ed a fiance. Their weekend away on a double date is a tetchy and bitchy affair. In the final act, Arnold and his Jewish mom slug it out while a surprise relationship is thrown into the mix.

Fierstein wrote Arnold as a raw molar nerve exposed to anxieties within and demons without. Simms throws everything he's got into the role and executes the script with comic timing and compelling veracity. You have to laugh through the tears. Fierstein also gives being queer a full examination and we get all sides of the arguments and lifestyles from Arnold and Ed, and from the excellent supporting performances in the guise of their lovers given by Nicole Rutty and Paul Rodda. Sue Wylie makes a great Jewish widow while ingenue-looking Gabriel Partington has a bright future - I hope it's as an actor.

Director Sally Putman's hand was a tiny bit obvious on opening night as some of the actors had yet to own all the business. Scene changes were seamless and leitmotif dance routines accented the action. The set couldn't have been plainer and costuming by Louise Dunn might have been inspired by the Wriggles.

Ok, it's a bit sitcom-ish and schmaltzy at times in that American way, but don't let a bad joke get in the way of fifty good ones. This is a cracker of a play - it's got zinger lines and a clear and importance message of love. Dave Simms is a star amongst stars. You'd be hardhearted not to love it.

David Grybowski, dB magazine, 6 December 2006

Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy is very long - so it has to be good. This production is.

It's fast, peppered with New York humor and laden with life, love and schmalz. Its three acts cover seven years in the life of Jewish drag queen Arnold and his poignant quest for true love.

He might appear to be a pithy, perky, bitchy gay guy, but its a facade over emotional baggage, unburdened as the play evolves. And, in this time, one comes to love him and wish there were more like him in the world.

The play is a cross between La Cage Aux Folles and Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice. Dave Simms assumes the massive role of Arnold. It's a mighty and very moving performance.

For smooth dysfunctionality, he is partnered by bisexual Ed, thoughtfuly underplayed by Andrew Clark. For blithe devotion, he is partnered by youthful Alan, engagingly embodied by Paul Rodda. Dysfunctional Ed weds dysfunctional Laurel, beautifully played by Nicole Rutty, to become the last in her disastrous line of bisexual men.

Climatically, Arnold's appaling mother turns up, in a Sue Wylie torrent of acrimony, and, in the middle of it all, there is the gay teen, David, succinctly characterised by one Gabriel Partington.

Some of the accents are uneven, but director Sally Putnam and her tech crew have given professional flourish to a shoe string production making it a nourishing course for feast.

Samela Harris, The Advertiser, 29 November 2006

Full justice

Director Sally Putnam does full justice to Harvey Fierstein's award-winning Broadway play.

The bittersweet script explores three stages in the life of a torch singer in his quest for respect, love and redemption.

It's an extraordinary journey with an extraordinary cast, led by Dave Simms as Arnold, the quick-witted female impersonator whose quest for happiness comes under the microscope. Tears of laughter are mixed with occasional tears of sadness as we pass through the highs and lows of romance, death and the ultimate confrontation between Arnold and his mother.

Andrew Clark is superbly three dimensional as bisexual teacher Ed, the focus of the first act. Ed's closeted life and insecurities turn their affair sour but the setbacks lead to a lifelong union that runs deeper than either can admit.

In her best performance in recent years, Sue Wylie is outstanding as Arnold's mother, while Nicole Rutty excels as Ed's neurotic wife Laurel. Paul Rodda nicely balances arrogance and playfulness as ill-fated lover Alan but is a little too similar to Matthew Broderick's characterisation in the 1988 film. Gabriel Partington turns streetwise teen David into an amusing, smart-mouthed juvenile who finds a home under Arnold's care.

Fierstein's script blends sharp comedy with gut-wrenching drama, expressing all views equally, and director Putnam keeps true to that intention.

Louise Dunn's simple black set disappoints at first but proves practical as it serves a variety of settings without distracting from the dialogue or action.

A powerful experience that lives on in the heart and mind.

Rod Lewis, Messenger Newspapers, 29 November 2006

Torch Song Trilogy was a groundbreaking piece of theatre when first produced. It had to carry a wide range of banners, of opinions, of revelations, of insights into the gay world to show it is as dysfunctional as the straight world.

Harvey Fierstein wrote from the heart about the life and times of Arnold Beckoff, a New York Jew whose professional and private life are a drag in the pre-AIDS era.

Director Sally Putnam has a strong cast and a simple, flexible black set from Louise Dunn.

As Arnold, Dave Simms gets his gear on in the dressing room, we hear about his life and his strife and he moves to the catwalk to sing a sardonic, twisted version of Love for Sale.

Simms takes no prisoners in a terrific performance that anchors an uneven night of honest theatre.

The first section is about sex and the constant pursuit of it by ineffectual Arnold and ever-ready Ed (Andrew Clark). The International Stud, Clark plays Arnold’s bisexual lover with the right amount of two-faced insecurity, doing well with the one-way phone call. The middle section, labelled the Nursery, also sees the arrival of Arnold’s model boyfriend, Alan, played with élan and understanding by Paul Rodda.

Nicole Rutty again enhances her reputation with a tremendous performance as Laurel, the predatory fag hag who’s more than happy to marry into the sexual maze by hooking Ed and grabbing whatever comes her way.

The show does become somewhat becalmed in the middle section as Putnam is happy to intertwine the actors, but things do get a little too dreamy and introspective.

Finally, Arnold moves from sex to family and we meet streetwise gay teen David (Gabriel Partington) who, ironically, finds a home in the hurricane of Arnold’s twister of a life.

Partington has plenty of stage presence but the accent is too much; he needs to play it straighter.

Alan has died – we are not initially told how – but Arnold has revealed a strong parental side, although having trouble being both mother and father.

Ed is back on the scene as he finally tires of the female side of bisexuality – is he about to change sides again, permanently? Sue Wylie arrives in burnt orange as the Florida-tanned Jewish mother and, like Partington, the accent rather overwhelms the character.

Once things settle, her showdown with Arnold is excellent theatre and Simms puts the icing on the cake of one of his best performances. He is the glue that holds this long, involved show together, always watchable, permanently neurotic, total in character and never in caricature. This is a slow boat to reality that clearly shows everyone’s life is complicated and everyone deserves to be themselves even in tortured torchlight.

Matt Byrne, Sunday Mail, 26 November 2006

Harvey Fierstein's "Torch Song Trilogy" is an epic work about love, betrayal, and drag queens!

Regarded as a turning point in theatre, and later in film, in that it deals with gay and bisexual characters in a natural and matter of fact way. Ultimately it does not matter if you are old, young, gay, or straight, our basic needs are the same.

The show is in fact an amalgamation of three plays that examine different stages in the life of the central character, Arnold Beckoff. A New York Jewish gay drag queen, we first meet him as he prepares for a show, and he sets the scene for the first act, where he embarks on a relationship with bisexual schoolteacher, Ed Reiss. Ed breaks off the relationship, and starts seeing Laurel.

This leads in to the second act, where Laurel invites Arnold and his new lover, Alan, a young model, to spend the weekend with her and Ed, at Ed's farmhouse.

The third act examines Arnold's desire to settle down and have kids, and introduces his mother – his very Jewish mother – into the mix.

Dave Simms, as Arnold, has resisted the temptation to imitate Harvey Fierstein in the role. His portrayal is touching and powerful, and his scene with his mother where he describes his sense of loss had more than a few audience members in tears.

Andrew Clark, as Ed, shows us his inner turmoil both vocally and physically. Paul Rodda, as Alan, strikes the balance between model and man very well. Nicole Rutty, as Laurel, is in fine form as the woman barely keeping on top of things.

Sue Wylie, as Mrs Beckoff, has a difficult task. How to play a stereotypical Jewish mother without resorting to stereotype. Generally she does well, but at times her accent gets in the way of the momentum of some lines, which with a character like this, is important. Gabriel Partington, as David, is a delight. His timing and his physicality are excellent, and he also excels in some of the more tender moments.

The set is a perfect example of a minimalist set that is not portraying minimalist settings. The lighting is a disappointment, with a poor focus detracting from the attempt to divide the stage.

Mixed Salad has excelled, producing a show that many companies have regarded as too long, too confronting, and just too hard.

Simon Slade, Adelaide Theatre Guide, 27 November 2006