The Big Broadway show in Question was Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Yes – the latest rage is to take a screenplay and convert it to a Musical. With the resounding success of “ The Producer’s” and the lack of original ideas out there –this seems to be new direction for the American Musical. Now I happen to like Priscilla the movie so I was thinking I would enjoy the musical-and enjoy it I did. Our seats were a tad on the nosebleed side, but they were an excellent view of the entire stage. I had been told that the miraculously fast quick changes from straight men to in drag were achieved through the use of a cleverly devised skin-like masks with rouge and false eyelashes attached, that could be thrown on and just as easily peeled off. In the balcony there was no way Orlando and I could see that to tell you it is true, but the quick changes were extraordinary on a couple of occasions. If you are a hardcore fan of the movie you have to realize that there is already HUGE hit on Broadway that is “Abbalicious” so the music for PQOTD had to be reworked into…take a breath………….Madonna. Well the gal IS a Gay Icon and she has been around for a bit- so you can understand WHY they chose her-but still one does miss the ABBA. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I could ever get enough ABBA. My fondest memory was roller skating to dancing queen with my Church youth group to Dancing Queen. Actually that was a fairly terrifying moment being a roller skates and I was grateful that Pammy Hastings broke her wrist so we had to stop – but hey –I liked the music!
And I certainly have no problem with “Madge” (as the Brits call her). As a baby Gay, I was weaned on Madonna. There were just elements that were missed from the movie that we would’ve like to have seen in the musical. I will give one moment away and tell you that you DON’T ever see or hear about a small vial of Madonna’s excrement. Yet other moments impressed- like with the Opera blaring and the wild flowing costume on top of the bus. It was quite cleverly executed. Kudos! Today on Sirius Broadway I had heard that Priscilla had played "canned" string instruments instead of live. Their reasoning was that it was a show about lip synching after all so... Very sad to hear that.
Orlando and I got carried away in the momentous feeling of me seeing my FIRST BROADWAY SHOW (on Broadway), and spent an ungodly amount of money on booze in these little sippy cups. Yes…Sippy cups for a sippy cub. At intermission I was trying to make up for falling asleep on Saturday Night and was reaching out to all my NYC Bears for where the Sunday night Hot Spots was for our tribe via Facebook on my Droid Incredible. I had finally contacted Stephen. Stephen and I made friends years ago, originally on a website called Bear411 and then later we chatted more on Facebook. Maybe “made friends with” is a making light of how I actually feel about Stephen. I fell passionately in love with him to be more truthful. Point of fact when I had begun dating Orlando, I had mentioned that if we ever moved to New York he would have to consider making our relationship polyamorous because I loved Stephen so much and fully planned on making him one of my Brother Husbands. As far as I can see –Bigamy is the ONLY thing the Mormons got right. Orlando’s reaction to this was to nod and continue eating his French Toast and watching Sanctuary.
One only need to look at my dating history to see my fascination with Stephen. He is the prototype of what I find particularly aesthetically pleasing to my eye. He is fairly muscular, fairly broadshouldered and big armed African American Man who has a lovely shiny bald head and beautiful shiny brown eyes with long lashes and his derriere is something that inspires sonnets deep within my soul. I think A LOT about that derriere of his by the way. Ok Ok – so I don’t KNOW him as a “person” that deeply. I mean I know he loves music very much and fashion and bears. He’s just enough masculine to turn me on and just enough Diva not to turn me off. I learned rather recently that he is ALSO in a relationship. He’s got me beat by a mind blowing 11 years longer than mine. I don’t ask him much about his fella and he doesn’t chat that much with me about Orlando. Surprised? I bet you’re not. I suspect that his partner takes my fascination with him about as seriously as Orlando takes it. Perhaps we aren’t real? Maybe Stephen and I are just ” Internet Lovers” But ..what happens when you are partnered and you are GAY (very different from how the Hets handle it ) and you meet your long lusted after virtual Lover in the non-virtual world? There is one other thing I feel I should divulge in this running fountain of TMI and that’s -– my love for Stephen is er...well unrequited. While he doesn’t exactly spurn my attentions he didn’t exactly send me a plane ticket either in all these years of flirting. I had briefly considered buying one at one point to meet him before I met Lando, but I thought that flying to New York for a hook up was even too crazy for me. NOW we had found each other and after the Curtain lowered on Priscilla he texted that “ The Eagle” was THE Sunday Night hang out for Bears and that he would be there and was looking forward to meeting me. Yikes!
The Eagle in New York is nothing like the now defunct Eagle in San Francisco. It is darker and hotter (men and temperature) and more sex-filled. The SF Eagle seemed like a giant sunny Patio bar for Leather Queens but this place had three levels and each one had a different energy all geared for New York Gay Males to get their groove on. I am not sure if it was because I hadn’t been out hunting for a while or that the sexual energy of Gay New Yorkers is more intense then their West Coast counterparts but I remarked to Orlando that the sexual tension in the air was palpable. His response was to take off his shirt. And you thought I was the attention-whore in the relationship? Think again. Orlando had picked up on my anxiety about meeting my “friend”. The “friend card” is how I chose to play it but after all these years the Lando bear knew me and… well…. our relationship being what it was –jealousy wasn’t anything anyone needed to worry about tonight. After a bit of exploration and texting to Stephen I had learned there was a “deck” to the Eagle where there was an outdoor bar. We went up to the roof deck and I peered around for Stephen and BAM- there he was. He shot me a benign smile and it was like I was indeed seeing an old friend. There were no thunderbolts or vibrations thrumming through my heart. It was Stephen.
 |
| Stephen and P.A. together at last? |
He was with Al. This took me a while to figure out because AL was was one of my Facebook bears too. He was one of those heavy set men that photographed differently everytime and in real life looked a bit differently then he did on the internet. Not bad –just not as recognizable to me. I often hit “like” when Al found stuff to post on his Wall or showed a cool new shirt he bought. Al was a handsy gregarious Bear who appreciated a handsome man and definitely didn’t waste time saying so.
 |
| P.A. and Al |
Stephen couldn’t stay long, because he had to head to work early the next day, and seemed involved with the men he was keeping company with. Was that the partner of 14 years? No –didn’t think so. Everything was a blur. I wanted to hang with him but then an SF Bear recognized Lando and I and wondered what the hell we were doing in New York. We got engrossed in a conversation with him. Then I got excited because we realized I had nearly spilt my drink on Josh from Project Runway. Orlando looked over and said, “ How do we know that guy?” and I said, “ because you watched Project Runway with me the other night.” I didn’t say “Hey Josh!” ---and high five him. I did apologize for nearly spilling a drink on him and he was very sweet about it. Al got a serious case of Roman Hands and Russian Fingers and was all over Orlando and myself. I thought about saying something about” just because I pose for all those pictures doesn’t mean you can touch the merchandise” but he settled down after a while. Soon it became time for Stephen to leave. I thought maybe we could meet tomorrow when he got out of work? I got a maybe. I was meeting my friend (–real friend –as opposed to internet friend) at Happy Hour at The Gym Bar the following day. We hugged tightly. He smelled good. It was brief but that’s all. My heart didn’t thump wildly out of control at his touch like I thought it might. We said goodbye. Then I looked over at the furry Landobear chatting with AL as he looked back over at me and I went over and slipped in Lando’s arms. I guess I knew where I belonged. Maybe Stephen sensed it too? Who knows? . We chatted about it briefly on Facebook when I returned to the East Bay and I felt apologetic. I still think he is amazingly lovely and I also think he is a good guy. He cracked a joke about how guys meet him and then the “spell is broken”. Even though he didn’t mean it – I played along. I didn’t think that applied in our case. I just think I am under a stronger spell and well…at least we’ll always have Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment