Favorite It Girl dishes on new jazz CD, her gay fans and what’s next before her State Fair of Texas debut
DALLAS DEBUT | Molly Ringwald has come to Dallas a few times before, but never for the State Fair of Texas. She’ll be in town next week to perform hits from her new jazz CD — and to see all of her gay fans.
While Molly Ringwald is most known for defining a generation, she’s continued to redefine herself throughout her career.
And through it all, the actress, author, singer and mother has spoken out proudly on LGBT issues, making her as much of a gay icon as a teen icon.
Of her two books, Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family, and Finding the Perfect Lipstick and When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories, the latter featured a story about transgender youth.
Her supporting role on ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager led to her character coming out as lesbian late in life.
The show ended earlier this year, but Ringwald wasted no time delving into something new: her first jazz album, Except Sometimes.
Ringwald, 45, began singing before her acting career, which shot her to stardom after the trifecta of John Hughes films in the 1980s Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.
The Brat Pack star added a touch of nostalgia to the disc with a jazz cover of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me),”which was featured in The Breakfast Club.
She sat down with us before her Oct. 4 show at the State Fair to talk jazz, her love for the gays, future TV shows and another CD.
Dallas Voice: Is this your first time at the State Fair or in Texas? Molly Ringwald: Not my first time in Texas. I was in Dallas for like two nights but not for a while. And I just got back from Austin last weekend.
How was that? It was fun. I’d never been to Austin before. It was really a blast. I like Texas. I’ve always had a good time there.
What was the inspiration behind your jazz album? I started out as a jazz singer before I did anything else because my dad’s a jazz musician. I love all different kinds of music but [jazz has] been something that’s always kind of been my go-to. It’s like my musical version of comfort food, I guess. And I had wanted to get a jazz album together — actually like a jazz group together — for a really long time.
I didn’t even think that I was necessarily going to record an album. But I started to record with these guys and was having a great time and our sound was really good and so we ended up doing the album. So that’s kind of how it came about. It was just sort of an organic, creative venture.
One of the tracks on the album is a version of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” which was on The Breakfast Club soundtrack. Why did you decide to include that song? When I was in the middle of putting the songs together and doing the arrangements and everything, John Hughes, who I’d done three films with, had passed away. And he was in my mind and thoughts a lot. So one day I just thought, “Hey, do you think there’d be any way that we could do a jazz version of this?” I didn’t even know it was possible, but Peter, my pianist and arranger, started working on it and it sounded really cool and I just thought it’d be a nice tribute to him and also kind of a nice bridge in terms of what I’m most known for into some stuff that I’m doing now.
You were a vocal opponent of Prop 8 and even appeared in a PSA. What was your reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court rulings in June? It was awesome. I always felt like it was just sort of a matter of time. Even when Prop 8 went through — even though it was incredibly disappointing and disheartening — I always felt it was like losing the battle but not the war. I always felt like people would come to their senses. I mean you really can’t stop history and I really felt — even though I don’t put my kids in anything that I do — I really felt like it would be really cool for my daughter to have been a part of that.
You were the grand marshal of L.A. Pride parade last year. What was that experience like? It was crazy. It was really fun. It was a real honor for me to be asked and also to feel the love back from this community that I feel like I’ve really been a part of for so long. I did it with a bunch of my friends and I had all my kids there because I want them to feel like a part of it, but it was really hot. I had so much sunscreen on and I still got burned.
It’s been said that you played a part in your character on The Secret Life an American Teenager coming out as a lesbian late in life. Why was that storyline important? I just thought it would be an interesting thing to show my character going through. And also just the fact that I have so many associations, people know me from so long and people have kind of related to me in so many different ways that I thought it would really have a special impact.
What has motivated you to be an outspoken ally for the LGBT community? I think a couple things. I think intellectually I feel that everybody needs to be treated equally despite the color of their skin or their sexual preference. We all need to be treated equally, and I feel that very strongly. On top of that, I have so many friends, for many, many years, who are gay, lesbian and trans, so for me it’s also an emotional issue.
Why do you think you have such a big gay following? Well, I think the movies that I did. I think I sort of had this outsider aura, for lack of a better word. My characters didn’t feel like they quite fit in, they were a little bit different and I think that the gay community feels that way. I don’t know why exactly somebody becomes a gay icon but I definitely have.
What’s next for you, another album or book? Probably both. I don’t know what I’m going to get to first. I’m also working on some pilots for TV, so I think all of these different things I do are going to have to arm wrestle and somebody’s going to win. I don’t who the victor is going to be. But eventually, yes, I’d like to both do another album and another book.
An Evening with Molly Ringwald takes place on the Main Stage at 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 4 at the State Fair of Texas, 3921 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
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Molly Ringwald is just one of the many attractions of interest to the LGBT community at this year’s State Fair of Texas. Here are five other examples:
FLAMING QUEENS | Fort Worth couple Kevin Reichenstein and Jim Forrester, who have attended the fair together for 15 years, went as a flaming Big Tex and a firefighter to the Halloween block party last year.
1. Restoring iconic Big Tex
We didn’t think the State Fair could get any gayer after Big Tex was consumed in flames last year. While Dallasites always knew he was flaming, they’ll get to see his new look unveiled at a special ceremony at 2 p.m. on opening day this Friday. And an exhibit at the Hall of State will celebrate The Life and Times of Big Tex.
An electrical glitch caused the fire that destroyed the 52-foot icon last October during his 60th State Fair. Design work since then has focused on his framework constructions, clothing design by Dickies and molding his face and hands. His roughly half a million-dollar makeover will make him a few inches taller to accommodate a fire-supression system. No word yet on whether the makeover included Botox for the now 61-year-old.
Hundreds of donors who’d felt like they lost part of a Texas tradition chipped in to donate to Big Tex’s restoration. Among them, of course, were the gays.
Fort Worth couple Kevin Reichenstein and Jim Forrester have attended the State Fair together every year for 15 years.
While they made it out to the fairgrounds last year before Big Tex was destroyed, Reichenstein said it was “a numbing moment” when he heard the news.
He donated to the fund to restore Big Tex in February, in part for the memories the two had shared at the fair and also because it was Forrester’s birthday.
“It was such a tradition we wanted to be a part of the rebuilding of the icon,” Reichenstein said.
Forrester said he was “ecstatic” when he learned about the donation in their names.
“I felt very honored to be a part of the last of the first Big Tex,” he said. “And part of the end of an era and the beginning of a new era.”
The couple, who even attended last year’s Halloween block party on Cedar Springs as a firefighter and a burning Big Tex, are planning to attend the State Fair again this fall to enjoy the food and witness the return of the icon they helped rebuild.
Kacey Musgraves
2. The good bad girl
Kacey Musgraves has a knack for going against the grain. Her smash album Same Trailer Different Park, released earlier this year, touched on some nontraditional topics for country music, including smoking pot and LGBT rights. But that hasn’t stopped the country bad girl one bit.
In fact, she likes that country stations won’t play her gay anthem “Follow Your Arrow.” The song has the line “Kiss lots of boys, or kiss lots of girls if that’s something you’re into” and would shock many fans of the often-conservative genre.
But for Musgraves, a Texas native from Sulphur Springs, the song was about expression and being proud of who you are, what you do and who you love.
While she’s busy shaking up the norms in country music, encouraging country stars to come out as LGBT and others to be supportive of equality, she’ll be bringing her inclusive music to the fairgrounds when she performs on the Main Stage on Friday, Oct. 18, at 8:30 p.m.
This is one bad girl it’s good to like.
Past examples from the Shoe & Glue contest
3. High-heeled decorators
Take a high heel pump and glue nickels all over it and the result is pumpernickel and a blue ribbon.
Shoe & Glue is a creative arts contest held in the crafts building during the State Fair.
“It’s completely off the wall,” Friends of Fair Park Executive Director Craig Holcomb said. “The most camp part of the State Fair.”
Friends of Fair Park helps preserve the buildings, art and sculpture in Fair Park from the 1936 Centennial Exposition and promotes use of the park year round. Holcomb, who is gay, served on the Dallas City Council.
He explained his favorite contest as get a shoe, a glue gun and decorate.
“It is not officially gay, but it is soooo gay,” he said.
That would include one of last year’s winners –— Honey Boot Boot.
Shoe & Glue is one of the first contests of the fair.
Check in is on opening day this Friday from 10-11:30 a.m. The judging begins at 11:30 a.m. Entry fee is $2. Only one decorated shoe accepted per class — boot, high-heeled shoe, sandal or flip flop, tennis shoe and slip on. Edible substances may not be used. All entries must be no more than 24”x24”x24” and made from purchased or handmade decorations.
Winning entries will be on display through the run of the fair and may be picked up after the fair closes on Oct. 20.
4. King of the gays
The tradition of the State Fair musical — the four-week long national tour from Dallas Summer Musicals that takes place at the Fair Park Music Hall during most of the run of the fair — is so engrained, it’s hard to imagine a world without it. But starting next year, you won’t have to imagine: This is the final year DSM will run a show during the fair. (The company’s contract with Big Tex expired, and the DSM chose not to renew.)
It’s nice, though, to be able to go out on a high note — and a gay one at that. The last-ever musical is Disney’s stage adaptation of The Lion King, the Tony Award-winning behemoth that has played on Broadway for well more than a decade and shows no signs of slowing down. And why would it? It has the pageantry of a Fashion Week runway show, the spectacle of Halloween on Cedar Springs and most of all, the songs of that gay master of the catchy pop hook, Elton John.
And it doesn’t hurt that the hot actor who plays Simba, B’way veteran Dashaun Young, makes our eyes pop out of our heads with lust. But no — it’s a family musical. We’ll keep it clean.
Dragon at the Chinese Lantern Festival
5. Festival of light
If your idea of a exhibit featuring Chinese lanterns is a wire holding up pieces of colored paper hanging from trees while strands of Christmas light bulbs weakly illuminate them, then clearly you haven’t see the State Fair’s eye-popping outdoor festival of light.
The Chinese Lantern Festival is back again and bigger than last year. Life-sized (and more-than-life-sized) castles, dragons and even dinosaurs are draped in vibrant silks, dotting a substantial portion of acreage near the Natural History Museum.
During the day, it’s a spectacular explosion of pastels, but after the sun goes down, it becomes something even greater: An explosion of shimmering energy, with water-spouting boats, Animatronic dancing girls, a palace made, literally, out of china (the porcelain kind) and even a roaring T-rex.
For fabulousness, there’s simply no comparison (and that includes Big Tex).
Staff writer David Taffet and Life+Style editor Arnold Wayne Jones contributed to this report.
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State Fair of Texas
The State Fair of Texas runs Sept. 27 through Oct. 20. Exhibit buildings are open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. For more, visit BigTex.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 27, 2013.