Born On This Day- August 8th... Michael Urie

Although it seems almost as if it as an aughts period piece, I still miss Ugly Betty, with its brash gay tone, over the top art direction, & terrific performances, especially by Birthday Boy Michael Urie.

Urie’s almost exclusive devotion to the Off-Broadway stage since Ugly Betty went off the air might seem bold, especially for a young Julliard trained actor whose portrayal of the spicy, sassy fashion assistant Marc St. James helped make the show a favorite at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia  for its entire 4 season run.

Urie’s performance as Rudi Gernreich (with whom he shares a birthday today), the Austrian gay rights activist & founding member of the Mattachine Society in the well-received- The Temperamentals in 2009,  brought him a Lucille Lortel Award, & his starring turn in the 2010 season revival of Tony Kushner's Angels In America brought more ecstatic reviews

This season Urie played the clumsy, lovesick Yepikhodov in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, alongside John Turturro & Dianne Wiest, in Classic Stage Company's production .

This fall Urie comes back to Gay TV with the new CBS sitcom- Partners, from the creators & writers of Will & Grace- David Kohan & openly gay- Max Mutchnick.  Urie & David Krumholtz play childhood friends, one gay & one straight, who have grown up to be business associates & basically soulmates, despite both being in relationships, with Sophia Bush & Brandon Routh, respectively. I like the idea of Mark St. John & Superman as boyfriends.

Urie identifies as "queer." He's lives in NYC with his boyfriend, actor Ryan Spahn. Urie: "I’ve been in a relationship for a while now, & if you just met the two of us together we’d be ‘gay.' But that somehow means anything that happened before we met didn’t count, & I don’t feel that way. I know that some people feel that way. They were with women, but it always felt wrong. But it didn’t for me. It felt right at the time. It didn’t work out, but it also didn’t work out with other men, many times. That’s why ‘gay’ never seemed right."

Urie & Spahn being adorable

Urie celebrates his 32^nd birthday today, August 8^th.

Born On This Day- May 27th... Actor/Singer Chris Colfer

I miss UGLY BETTY, which was for me, the gayest TV show ever. I don’t remember the wingnuts complaining or boycotting this show, & they shouldn’t have. Ugly Betty was represented nothing if not Family Values. For a” with it” show, Ugly Betty was at heart, very old fashioned.


Thank the TV Gods for Glee. Glee was made for me. The heightened, eccentric, & dare I say it- queer reality of the world of Glee, is the world I want to live in. I was meant to live in a universe where fully formed, orchestrated, & choreographed musical numbers burst forth as the modus operandi for expression.


Because, at a time when the ugliness of high school bullying is in the news, with tragic stories of kids victimized because they're different, Glee preaches that it's OK to be nerdy in high school. To love Broadway show tunes instead of football in high school. To be gay in high school.


It is easy for me to follow & identify with the characters on Glee. Jane Lynch’s masterful creation of Sue Sylvester is one of TV history’s top characters. I can relate to Emma’s OCD, & Rachel Berry’s Diva-ness; I had the heavy burden of simply being the best singer in my high school. I know how she suffers.


This season I have been most engaged by the character- Kurt Hummel. the fashionista & counter-tenor who is bullied by the jocks. He has a rigorous beauty regime & an impressive collection of designer attire by Marc Jacobs. Kurt is played by openly gay actor Chris Colfer. He originally auditioned for the role of Artie, singing Mr Cellophane from Chicago. Creator/Director/Producer- Ryan Murphy was so impressed by Colfer's audition he wrote the Kurt Hummel character into the show as a vehicle for him. Colfer: "It's good to have something positive, especially for kids in small towns, like myself, who need a little pick-me-up”.

Ryan Murphy: “When we started auditioning, I thought it was kind of ridiculous that we’re doing a musical about kids & expression & we don’t have the gay point of view. I thought it was important, but I would never want Chris to feel weird. More than the gay thing, he understood the thing about being the outsider because he felt that way in high school".

Growing up in Indianapolis, the son of a beauty queen and a semi-pro hockey player, Murphy asked his parents for a Vogue subscription at age 5, was ironing his own clothes at 7, & came out to his dad at 15: “Having a dad that loves you as a young man is a very powerful thing that you carry into the world. Because no matter what you do, in some weird, unconscious way, if you’re a guy, you always try to please your dad. I think it’s a great thing to put on television. You’ve seen the gay character that gets kicked out of the house or is beaten up. You haven’t seen the gay character that is teased a little bit, but wins & triumphs.”


When Chris Colfer auditioned for Murphy, the recent high school graduate with the big blue eyes & pale skin nervously walked into the audition & Ryan asked: “Why do I have the feeling you’ve been Rolf on The Sound of Music before?” Colfer: “I know I have Von Trapp written all over me, I actually was Kurt in The Sound of Music a long time ago.”


Colfer’s response to learning that his character is gay was fear. He grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, in a small town where most people wear cowboy hats & farm. Colfer: “no one has a sense of humor but they all drive trucks.” On a recent visit, Colfer noticed there were still many “Yes on 8” signs on lawns.


Colfer: “At first, I was absolutely terrified because I’m from a very conservative anti-gay town. Then people started saying, ‘Wow, your character is a lot like how Ryan Murphy would be,' & I didn’t know I was & that was good because that would also be terrifying. In the original script, they were leaning on him being overly flamboyant & I didn’t want to do that because it’s so overdone. So I made him more internal & superior.”


In the new century, TV has been representing gay people in non-stereotypical ways. We now have characters like Justin on Ugly Betty that embrace who they are & are in loving, fulfilling relationships. I was so moved by Justin’s coming out scene, which consisted of a tender dance with his BF at his sister-Hilda’s wedding. But, I have never witnessed anything as GAY as Kurt’s version of Roses’s Turn from the brilliant & complicated Laryngitis episode of Glee, earlier this month. Kurt can be a role model for young people who are just discovering who they are & also for adults who have been in Kurt’s shoes, albeit designer footwear.




Christopher Paul Colfer turns 20 years old today.