Next week, I’ll have in the print edition of Dallas Voice a comprehensive story about the Fort Worth Opera’s production of the opera of “Angels in America.” But “Angels” isn’t the only show being staged this season by the FWO this month — they are doing three other productions, including “Of Mice and Men.”
So perhaps it wasn’t a surprise when a box-office worker at the opera had the following exchange with a patron:
Patron: “Now, George and Lennie — they aren’t gay, are they?”
Employee: “No, ma’am, they’re not gay.”
Patron: “They why do they live on a farm together?”
Good question. And if you ask me, George and Lennie are gay — I even said as much in my review a few years ago of the Dallas Theater Center’s production of the tale —then-artistic director Richard Hamburger even called me after the piece ran to discuss the homoerotic undertones in the story.
Consider: they do talk a lot about living together in a one-room farmhouse and they are always in each others’ company. You could make a case that they were the original “Brokeback Mountain” duo.Â
So what does it mean when the FWO, even accidentally, has two gay productions in one season?
‘Bout time is all I have to say.Â
