Since this is Sunday Free-for-All Day, topic-wise, I fell I can put my two-cents in about Noel's Baby comments (My! What a lot of hypens!).
At the risk of losing my Gay Membership Card AND my complimentary toaster oven, I am a little stunned by my gay brothers' reactions. DR Noel, was after all expressing his opinion (the point of this here page) on some of the reasons he felt were responsible for the semi-failure of a show that opened over twenty years ago (1983), and not about a show that might be opening today.
First of all, Noel suggested that, back in 1983, that your average gay theater-goer might be more interested in seeing a show written by gay artists with a gay theme, instead of a musical about straight couples attempting to have a baby. I don’t find anything radical, inflammatory, or offensive with that statement, and I would say it was quite accurate. I was part of the gay theater going population of New York in 1983, and I remember clearly that La Cage was a theater event to the gay population. And why not? Here, we have a big-name, big-budget, mainstream musical comedy hit that focused on a committed gay couple. A musical that laughed, for the most part with the gay characters and, shock of all shocks, laughed at the heterosexual characters. I suspect that had one of one of the gay members of this site suggested this as a possible factor for the failure of Baby, no one would have thought twice about it.
However, I imagine the ire of some of our gay members may have more to do with Noel’s second assertion that gay men and women have less experience and therefore less interest in conception, child birth, etc. Perhaps the problem lies in Noel’s choice of the word most to describe the number off gays that have these experiences and these interests. DR SWW suggested that, I believe, about 10% of gay men and a larger share of gay women are indeed parents. That would leave 90% that are not parents. Perhaps Noel could have used the word, some or the word, majority or had he felt the need to clarify his statement even further, the phrase, 90% of might have been more accurate. But, again, we are talking about 1983. I would be interested to know what share of that 10% of men who were parents then, did so as a conscious choice of their gay lives, and how many became parents because of marriages and relationships that took place before they began to accept or live their lives as gay men. I would think that (again, back in 1983 terms) this has a lot more to say about the repression and unacceptability of homosexuality in the 50s, 60s, and 70s; than it does about gay's desire and needs, or of Noel’s disapproval or disdain of gay parents. I found nothing in Noel’s comments to suggest that he felt that gays were bad parents, unfit parents, or that their was any lack of love on either these parents or their children's part.
I know that Noel does not need me to defend his opinions or his intentions. I just felt it was unfortunate that several of us found the need to read something offensive into what was mrely offered as a possible explanation of a show's lack of success, which was exactly the topic of the day that had been put fourth by BK. Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to ramble.
