SLEAZY STREET | Redneck Tenor Matthew Lord takes more potshots at the Bush Administration than gay people in his parody of ‘Annie.’
What’s a straight guy doing mocking a classic with the word ‘Trannie’? Making people laugh, that’s what
MARK LOWRY | Contributing Writer
marklowry@theaterjones.com
It’s a beloved tale of musical theater: girl escapes orphanage, goes on quest for her parents, sings about tomorrow and ends up with a life of luxury and love — not to mention a spiffy red ’fro — with her new Daddy.
Make that two daddies. Trannie, a full-out parody of the aw-shucks family musical Annie, makes its world premiere this weekend in a tiny shed in the shadow of Grapevine’s squeaky-clean Main Street district.
The show follows the adventures of a transvestite (not transsexual) who leaves behind her prostitute pals and searches for the men who gave her up when gay couples were denied adoption rights. She sings in a nightclub called the Manhole, eventually discovering her dads, thanks to a cherished pearl necklace they once gave her.
Songs in the show include “I’m Gonna Come Out Tomorrow,” “It’s a Knocked-Up Life,” “S.T.D.” and “Sleazy Street,” which any musical queen will recognize as trash parodies of Annie hits. But despite being created by a heterosexual man, this is not a case of straight folks making fun of the T in LGBT. Nor of the G, L or B.
“I’ve been on the phone with my gay friends about this for a year, asking them ‘Can I write this?’” says Matthew Lord, the straight guy who created it. “I didn’t write this lightly. But I decided that if everybody wrote to whom they are, then nothing would ever get written.”
Lord grew up in San Francisco in the ’70s and ’80s, using his vocal talents to make a career of musical theater and opera. He has performed at the Met, originated a role in Andre Previn’s opera A Streetcar Named Desire and, as Nero, made out with three countertenors nightly in a production of Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea. But he’s best known as a founding member of the locally based 3 Redneck Tenors. That group, which made it to the semi-finals of America’s Got Talent in 2007, performs opera, Broadway and popular as trailer-dwelling mullet-heads, so satire is in Lord’s veins.
As for credibility with the gay community, he knows he has nothing to worry about.
“I was one of two straight men in the San Francisco Opera chorus in the ’80s, I would go to their birthday parties at The Stud,” he says. “I grew to have this incredible understanding of not understanding why the rest of the world [didn’t accept] homosexuality. Except for the sex part, I’m as gay as they come.”
Trannie was born from a casual conversation after Ohlook, Lord’s theater company, had performed Annie. The theater is a school that performs more traditional musicals, but also does a late-night series with shows like Evil Dead the Musical, Reefer Madness and The Rocky Horror Show (Ohlook’s two-time Rocky was Jeff Walters, now Clay Aiken’s boyfriend).
For anyone upset about the use of the un-P.C. title, it’s all in good fun.
“Trannie is the most sane character in the show,” Lord says, adding that it addresses issues like prostitution, homelessness and closed-minded politicians. “It makes fun of everything and it makes fun of nothing, you know what I mean? There’s nothing hurtful in it.”
Well, there are slams at the Bush administration, with a parody of the Annie song “We’d Like to Thank You Herbert Hoover,” substituting the lyrics for the policies of George W. Bush.
Will it be irreverent, filthy and touching? Yes, yes and that’s the plan. Will it be funny? Bet your bottom dollar.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition Feb. 25, 2011.
“Will it be irreverent, filthy and touching? Yes, yes and that’s the plan. Will it be funny? Bet your bottom dollar.”
you forgot to add, “At least it will be for everyone who isn’t a trannie! HAR HAR HAR HAR!!!”
This is yet another affront to transgender LGB and straight people and once again, like the whole Luna fiasco, the Dallas Voice is right in the middle of it. Shame on you for promoting this kind of trans-misogynistic minstrel show.
Tell me – would the Voice call it “all good fun” if some straights put on a play called “Faggot”?
Your post is irrelevant Zoe. “What if’s” don’t matter. The point is, “some straights” are putting on a play and it’s called Trannie. Get over it. Go see it, then make a judgement call. Until you’ve seen it, your judgements and comments are utter crap and not reliable.
Jake, your dismissal of our concerns reeks of male, cisgender privilege and I think you need to try the thought experiment that Ms Brain suggested. How would you feel about a play put on by straight people called, “Faggot!” Would you be offended? If so why? If not, why not?
Our criticism of the play has nothing to do with its content. We don’t need to see it to know its title is an insulting slur, a pejorative used by the cisgender LGB and straight population to denigrate, marginalize and oppress transgender LGB and straight people. Your post in its defense furthers that oppression.
Words matter, as most people will acknowledge (at least when those words are applied to them). Instead of dismissing the concerns of an oppressed minority as unimportant, why won;t you try to see it from their point of view?
Its a play on words. That’s it. If there was an iconic musical about a family of maggots that was as well known as Annie, and a group of people had an idea to write a brilliant show that, by the way, preaches a message of tolerance, acceptance, and love, I would be perfectly ok with a show going from “Maggots: The Musical” to “Faggots.” Your narrow-mindedness towards the word trannie, as well as your apparent desire to have to constantly be the “victim” of society is completely blocking your ability to see what the show is really about. Does the fact that they used the word trannie because it sounds like Annie really make it “trans-misogynistic”? No, it is simply used to maintain the semblance of the musical that they are parodying. Why do you have to insist on attacking that one issue with this, instead of recognizing the piece for all of the good things it could be doing for the transgender and LGB community. I couldnt agree with you less when saying you don’t need to see the show to be able to form these concrete opinions about it, or the people who wrote it. It is irresponsible for you to come onto a website like this and libel a group of people who have done nothing wrong, other than give a light-hearted edge to a serious topic, and make it so that maybe (just maybe) they can bring an issue to light to an audience who might never have seen it otherwise. I just cannot understand why it is so unacceptable for you to see all the good that can come from this, and only focus on the one possible negative you could latch onto.
By the way, a new article about the same show came out yesterday. Everyone has the right to their own opinions, and I support that. What I can’t support however is people knocking something that has the potential to be great, just because they’re too afraid to go see it for themselves because it just might prove everything they’ve been saying about it wrong.
https://dallasvoice.com/thin-red-line-1067505.html
A day late and a dollar short, but I agree that although there may be good intention, the title is exploitation of trans individuals. If we had equality, maybe it would not be a big deal. But we don’t, so this diminutive use of “trannie” is not acceptable, even in jest.