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October 8, 2015
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Press contact: Brett Oberman at Keith Sherman & Assoc.,212-764-7900, [email protected]
OPENING NIGHT – THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15
PRESENTS
A NEW YORK PREMIERE BY TOPHER
FEATURING
JULIA COFFEY
CHRISTOPHER J. HANKE
PAYNE
DIRECTED BY MICHAEL
ROBERT ELI
KELLY MCANDREW
BARAKIVA
MIKAELA FEELY-LEHMANN
KEVIN O’ROURKE
JENNIFER VAN DYCK
SEPT. 29 – NOV. 6 AT PRIMARY STAGES AT THE DUKE ON 42ND STREET
WWW.PRIMARYSTAGES.ORG
Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Founder & Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director;) in
association with Amy Danis, Mark Johannes, and Dan Shaheen, presents Perfect Arrangement, a
New York premiere by Topher Payne (Swell Party, The Only Light in Reno) and directed by Michael
Barakiva (White People). The limited engagement runs through November 6, 2015 at Primary Stages at
The Duke on 42nd Street – a NEW 42ND STREET® project. Opening night is Thursday, October 15 at 7PM.
Perfect Arrangement features Drama Desk nominee Julia Coffey (London Wall), Robert Eli (Saturn
Returns, Tartuffe on Broadway), Mikaela Feely-Lehmann (Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway),
Christopher J. Hanke (How to Succeed…, Buyer and Cellar), Kelly McAndrew (Abundance, Almost,
Maine), Kevin O’Rourke (The City of Conversation, “Boardwalk Empire”) and Jennifer Van Dyck (The
Divine Sister, Hedda Gabler).
In Topher Payne’s biting comedy, Perfect Arrangement, it's 1950 and new colors are being added to the
Red Scare. Two U.S. State Department employees, Bob and Norma, have been tasked with identifying
sexual deviants within their ranks. The twist: Both Bob and Norma are gay, and have married each other’s
partners as a carefully constructed cover. Inspired by the true story of the earliest stirrings of the American
gay rights movement, madcap “I Love Lucy” sitcom-style laughs give way to provocative drama as two
“All-American” couples are forced to stare down the closet door, confronting the very struggles facing
society today.
Perfect Arrangement features scenic design by Neil Patel, costume design by Jennifer Caprio, lighting
design by Traci Klainer Polimeni, sound design by Ryan Rumery, hair and wig design by J. Jared
Janas, and casting by Stephanie Klapper Casting.
“Topher Payne has been receiving raves in the regions for his plays and now we’re very excited for him to
make his New York playwriting debut with the smart and witty Perfect Arrangement,” says Primary Stages
Artistic Director Andrew Leynse. “With the recent legalization of gay marriage and LGBTQ rights at the
forefront of today’s politics, this play couldn’t be more of-the-moment as we explore just how far we’ve
come as a nation and what we have sacrificed to get where we are today.”
LISTINGS INFORMATION: Perfect Arrangement plays a limited engagement through November 6,
2015 at Primary Stages at The Duke on 42nd Street – a NEW 42ND STREET® project (229 W 42nd St.)
Opening night is Thursday, October 15 at 7PM. Performances are Tuesday -Thursday at 7PM; Friday at
8PM; Saturday at 2 and 8PM; Sun 3PM. There is an added 2PM performance on Wednesday, October
28. No performances on October 21 and 31. Tickets for Perfect Arrangement are $70 and can be
purchased online at PrimaryStages.org or at Dukeon42.org, by phone at 646-223-3010, or at the box
office. Regular box office hours at The Duke on 42nd Street are: Tues-Fri 4pm-7pm; Saturday 12pm6pm. Box Office hours are extended on performance days. Group Tickets (10+) are $45 each ($35 for
student groups) for all performances and available by calling (212) 840-9705, ext. 204.
For press releases, high-res artwork and photos visit the Primary Stages online press kit, www.PrimaryStages.org/presskit
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
JULIA COFFEY (Norma Baxter). Off-Broadway: London Wall (Drama Desk Nomination), The
Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd (Drama League Nomination) (The Mint Theater).
Regional: Arcadia, Maple & Vine, Once in a Lifetime (A.C.T.); Tales from Hollywood (The
Guthrie); The Merchant of Venice, The Beaux Stratagem (The Shakespeare Theatre,
DC); As You Like It, (Santa Cruz Shakespeare); Romeo & Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare
Theater). Training: Florida State University; London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
ROBERT ELI (Bob Martindale). Television credits include “Blindspot,” “House of Cards,”
“Elementary,” “Odd Mom Out,” “Hostages” and “Fringe.” Stage credits include Tartuffe
(Roundabout), Saturn Returns (Lincoln Center) and the World Premiere of The Pretty Trap
as well as Williamstown, Westport Country Playhouse, Long Wharf, The Old Globe and
Hartford Stage. Juilliard graduate.
MIKAELA FEELY-LEHMANN (Millie Martindale). Broadway: Cyrano de Bergerac
(Roundabout Theatre Company). Off-Broadway/Other: Stay (Rattlestick), 10x25, The New
York Idea (Atlantic Theater Company), The Cloud (HERE Arts), L(y)re (ArsNova ANTfest),
West Lethargy (59E59/Edinburgh Fringe/FringeNYC), Unrequited (Public Theater
Shakespeare Lab). Regional: The Children's Hour (Rep Stage) Training: B.F.A NYU Tisch
(Atlantic/Stonestreet), Public Theater Shakespeare Lab Alum.
CHRISTOPHER J. HANKE (Jim Baxter) has starred in several Broadway shows: How To
Succeed..., Cry-Baby, Rent, In My Life. His favorite role is either Claude in Hair at The
Public’s Delacorte Theater in Central Park or Alex in Buyer & Cellar in NYC/Toronto. He
plays Devon on the hit comedy “Odd Mom Out” on Bravo and sometimes gets recognized
from his short-lived CBS TV series, Three Rivers. Improv nerd – UCB.
KELLY McANDREW (Barbara Grant). Recent NY credits include: Men On Boats (Clubbed
Thumb), Abundance (TACT), Almost, Maine (Transport Group) and Good Television (Atlantic
Theatre Company). Broadway: Maggie the Cat, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Off-Broadway: Still
Life (MCC), The Cataract (The Women’s Project), Book of Days (Signature Theatre). TV:
"Orange is the New Black", “Smash,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Gossip Girl.”
Film: When the Moon Was Twice as Big (filming), Appropriate Behavior (Sundance 2014), In the
Family (2011 SPIRIT nomination), Everybody's Fine. Member: TACT. Training: UMKC.
KEVIN O’ROURKE (Theodore Sunderson). Broadway: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Spoils of War,
Alone Together. New York/Regional: MTC, The Public, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons,
Roundabout, Primary Stages, Arena, Centerstage, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Williamstown and
Lincoln Center. Film: The Aviator, Vice Versa, Turbulence, Freeheld (upcoming). TV:
“Remember Wenn” (SAG nom.), “Law & Order,” “The Good Wife,” “Blue Bloods,”
“Elementary,” “Veep,” “The Sopranos,” “Boardwalk Empire” (SAG Award, Ensemble), “Outsiders”
(upcoming).
JENNIFER VAN DYCK (Kitty Sunderson). Recent collaborations: playwrights Sarah
Schulman, Sinan Unel, Charles Busch; directors Melia Bensussen, Melinda Lopez, Carl
Andress. Broadway: Hedda Gabler, Dancing at Lughnasa, Two Shakespearean Actors, The
Secret Rapture. Off Broadway: The Castle, Judith of Bethulia, The Divine Sister, The Third
Story. Film/TV: “The Blacklist,” “Royal Pains,” “Elementary,” “Person of Interest,” Michael Clayton, Across
the Universe.
TOPHER PAYNE (Perfect Arrangement, playwright) is an unapologetic eavesdropper and
collector of stories who makes his home in Atlanta. His works for the stage include Swell
Party, The Only Light in Reno, Above the Fold (Metro Atlanta Theatre Award, Best Original
Work & Best Play of the Year), Angry Fags (Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award), Evelyn
in Purgatory (Essential Theatre Playwriting Award), and Perfect Arrangement (American
Theatre Critics Association Osborn Award). He has been named Atlanta’s Best Playwright by The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, Creative Loafing, and The Sunday Paper, and was featured as one of “Ten
Playwrights You Should Know” by Southern Theatre Magazine. His column for The Georgia Voice,
Domestically Disturbed, won the 2012 National Newspaper Association award for Best Humor Column.
He is an artistic associate with Flying Carpet Theatre in New York, and The Process Theatre in Atlanta.
His audiobook, Funny Story: The Incomplete Works of Topher Payne, is available on iTunes, Audible, and
Amazon. Topher and his beagle, Daisy, were both born in Mississippi, but they didn’t fit in there.
MICHAEL BARAKIVA (Director) is an Armenian/Israeli theater director and writer based in
New York City. His first novel, One Man Guy, published by Macmillan (Farrar, Straus &
Giroux), was named to the Rainbow List and will be released in Brazil by LeYa. Michael also
serves as the Artistic Director of The Upstart Creatures (www.upstartcreatures.com), a
theater company dedicated to creating unique artistic events combining theater and food.
New York: White People by Neil Cuthbert, They Float Up by Jacquelyn Reingold (both at Ensemble Studio
Theater), The Usher’s Ball by Fengar Gael (CAP 21), as well as workshops/readings at the Roundabout
Theater Company, ARS Nova, New Dramatists, NY Stage & Film and New York Theater Workshop.
Regionally, he was directed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Syracuse Stage, Shakespeare Santa
Cruz, Theater J, the Hangar Theater, Eugene O’Neill Theater Conference, Premiere Stages and the
Nevada Conservatory Theater. Michael is a recipient of the David Merrick Prize in Drama, a Drama
League Summer Fellowship, a Granada Fellowship at UC Davis and the Phil Killian Fellowship in
Directing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He is an avid board-game player, and a proud member of
the New York Ramblers, the world’s first openly-gay soccer club. He is a graduate of Vassar College and
the Juilliard School, where he studied as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Directing.
www.michaelbarakiva.com
is an Off-Broadway not-for-profit theater company dedicated to inspiring,
supporting, and sharing the art of playwriting. We operate on the strongly held belief that the future of
American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to create new
work. Since our founding in 1984, we have produced more than 120 new plays, including Donald
Margulies’ The Model Apartment (1995 premiere and 2013 revival); David Ives’ Lives of the Saints and All
in the Timing (original 1993 production and 2013 revival); Billy Porter’s While I Yet Live; Kate Fodor’s Rx;
Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist and Olive and the Bitter Herbs; A.R. Gurney’s Black Tie; Horton
Foote’s Harrison, TX and Dividing the Estate (Two 2009 Tony Award® nominations); Theresa Rebeck’s
Poor Behavior; Brooke Berman’s Hunting and Gathering; Terrence McNally’s Dedication or the Stuff of
Dreams and The Stendhal Syndrome; Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter’s In the Continuum (which went on
to tour the U.S., Africa, and Scotland); and Conor McPherson’s St. Nicholas (which marked the
playwright’s U.S. debut). Our productions and artists have received critical acclaim, including Tony, Obie,
Lortel, AUDELCO, Outer Critics’ Circle, Drama League, and Drama Desk awards and nominations.
Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops,
readings, and our education and training programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group,
the Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA in
Playwriting, and the newly launched Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project. Through these
programs, Primary Stages advocates for our artists, helping them make important—and often
transformative—connections within the theater community.
About The New 42nd Street
Building on the foundation of seven historic theaters, The New 42nd Street leads the dynamic evolution of
the reinvented 42nd Street, cultivating a unique New York City cultural and entertainment destination
through its three projects: The New Victory Theater, a performing arts theater devoted to kids and
families; the NEW 42ND STREET Studios, a state-of-the-art, 10-story performing arts complex for
rehearsal, performance and arts administration; and The Duke on 42nd Street, an intimate black-box
theater. An independent, nonprofit organization, The New 42nd Street is committed to the transformational
power of the arts.
About The Duke on 42nd Street
The Duke on 42nd Street is an intimate black-box theater available for rental to both domestic and
international nonprofit and commercial organizations. Featuring a gallery along all four walls and a
custom-built, state-of-the-art seating system, the flexible-use space offers full light, sound and support
systems in various configurations. The Duke on 42nd Street is a fully-staffed, full service facility in the
heart of the theater district. Many performing arts companies have called the space their home, including
The Royal Court Theatre, Transport Group, Theatre for a New Audience, Lincoln Center Theater,
Steppenwolf Theater Company, Armitage Gone! Dance, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Naked Angels,
Classical Theater of Harlem, Playwrights Horizons, 92nd Street Y’s Harkness Dance Project, The NYC
Tap Festival and Lincoln Center Great Performers and the National Theater of Great Britain.
WWW.PRIMARYSTAGES.ORG
Photos © 2015 James Leynse
High-res production photos are now available
from the Primary Stages online press kit:
www.PrimaryStages.org/presskit
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/theater/exploring-the-cold-war-history-behind-perfect-arrangement.html?_r=0
Matthew Coffey with his daughter, Julia Coffey, who stars in “Perfect Arrangement.” Credit Edwin Tse for The New York Times
Exploring the Cold War History
Behind ‘Perfect Arrangement’
By LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES
Julia Coffey wasn’t even born yet when her father
worked for the federal government, but a distant bell
rang in her mind when she read the script for Topher
Payne’s “Perfect Arrangement,” a frothy but ultimately
dark comedy set in 1950 Washington. It reminded her of
something her father used to do.
Ms. Coffey, 39, plays Norma Baxter, a State Department
employee whose job involves rooting out communists
and other supposed menaces from the ranks of the
government. “It’s my duty as an American to identify
threats to our way of life,” Norma says, fitting right in as
McCarthyism takes hold. “When your country calls, you
answer.”
The actress’s father, Matthew Coffey, sounded not so
different in recollecting a job he held in the early ’60s —
a chapter of his past that, for Ms. Coffey, personalized
the play, lending it “a certain sort of believability factor.”
Before he went to work in personnel at the White House
during the Johnson administration, he spent less than a
year as an investigator, and then an interrogator, for the
Civil Service Commission, looking deep into the lives of
people who sought or held jobs that required security
clearances.
“If you’re considered for a sensitive position, they want
to know every aspect of your life,” Mr. Coffey, 74, said
one October morning at the Duke on 42nd Street, his 6foot-8 frame settled into a mustard-colored armchair on
the set, his daughter beside him. “At the tender age of 22,
my whole feeling was that I was protecting the United
States. I was doing the things that the government
needed done.”
“I’m not defending the activity and behavior of the
federal government at that time,” Mr. Coffey said, but he
believes it “takes a little bit of an excessive rap” in
“Perfect Arrangement.”
In midcentury America, as in the play, to be accused of
homosexuality or a homosexual act could have ruinous
consequences. Lester Hunt, a senator from Wyoming,
killed himself in 1954 after his son was arrested in
Lafayette Park, a popular cruising spot across from the
White House. Walter W. Jenkins, an aide to Lyndon B.
Johnson, resigned after he was caught with another man
in a YMCA bathroom in 1964.
From left, Julia Coffey, Christopher J. Hanke and Robert Eli in “Perfect Arrangement” at the
Duke on 42nd Street. Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
“Perfect Arrangement,” which opened this week in a
Primary Stages production, hangs on a symbiotic ruse:
Two sham marriages meant to camouflage a pair of
same-sex relationships. Wedded to a teacher named Jim,
Norma has in fact built a life with a housewife named
Millie, while Norma’s boss, Bob, is both Millie’s
husband and Jim’s significant other.
For all four of them, living in a pair of side-by-side
Georgetown duplexes connected by a secret closet
passageway, alarm strikes when a federal directive adds
gay employees to the list of targeted groups, ostensibly
because they could be vulnerable to blackmail. By
continuing in their jobs on the Personnel Security Board,
Norma and Bob help to end the careers and damage the
lives of people much like themselves, even as they cling
to the charade they’ve cultivated.
Then Norma, exhausted from “staging this elaborate
display for the comfort of strangers,” relaxes her grip.
“Topher has written a play about masks,” said Ms.
Coffey, an Off Broadway actor (“London Wall”) who
spent a decade working in Los Angeles before moving to
New York. “This is a story about people who are tired of
living under those very heavy masks. It’s about
liberation from hiding.”
Ms. Coffey’s mother, Sharon West Coffey, and father go
to every production she’s in. “Even when it’s
Bloomington, Indiana,” Julia Coffey said.
“Or that crazy Dracula thing you did in Cleveland,” her
father said, and laughed. “We’re a trio in the sense of her
career.”
But when the senior Coffeys went to see “Perfect
Arrangement,” he watched it with both the warm gaze of
a parent and the critical eye of experience.
The next morning, in the role of doting daughter, Ms.
Coffey listened respectfully as her father told her and a
reporter what bothered him about the play — partly that
it gives little Cold War context for the paranoia of
postwar America, which had recently seen the
destruction nuclear bombs could wreak.
“The D.C. police department had a very active vice
squad under a guy named Roy Blick,” Mr. Coffey
recalled. “He was a very aggressive guy at identifying
people soliciting in public places. Anyone who got an
arrest of any kind, their file got sent to us, and then we
had to go investigate what the police file showed and
whether or not that was a violation of the trust that had
been placed in them.
“Oh, sure, you pick up gossip,” he added, but among the
testimony from different sectors of a person’s life —
colleagues, classmates, neighbors — the quantity of
similar assertions could help to determine the truth.
“When you hear from 40 people, and you get 10 or 12
saying the same thing, it gives you a pretty good picture
of what’s the gossip and what isn’t.”
Whether someone posed a danger to the country was a
different matter. That people could lose their jobs based
on the information Mr. Coffey collected wasn’t clear to
him until nearly the end of his tenure with the Civil
Service, he said. By then, he was an interrogator working
on a case in “the so-called Lavender Files,” involving a
man who had been fired.
Mr. Coffey’s own last government job was under
President Johnson. In the decades that followed, he spent
most of his career as an executive in Washington, yet he
retains an investigator’s disdain for webs of deceit —
which makes him not terribly sympathetic to the
situation of the characters in the play.
In real life, the problem of closeted people living in fear
has not disappeared from contemporary Washington, he
said. He and his wife “know four or five couples” whose
opposite-sex spouses are their shields.
“And they’re very prominent people,” he said. “They
bought into hiding their identity. The higher up you are,
the more you hide.”
A version of this article appears in print on October 25,
2015, on page AR19 of the New York edition with the
headline: Father Knows Best. Really. Order Reprints|
Today's Paper|Subscribe
© 2015 The New York Times Company
http://www.wnyc.org/story/perfect-arrangement-topher-payne-mikaela-feely-lehmann-and-christopher-j-hanke/
Playwright Topher Payne and actors Mikaela Feely-Lehmann and Christopher J. Hanke discuss the New York premiere of their comedic
play, “Perfect Arrangement,” with Leonard’s guest host, Arun Venugopal. It's 1950 and two U.S. State Department employees, Bob and
Norma, have been tasked with identifying sexual deviants within their ranks. The twist: Both Bob and Norma are gay, and have married
each other's partners as a carefully constructed cover. At Primary Stages at The Duke on 42nd Street, October 15 - November 6.
ARUN VENUGOPAL: This is Arun Venugopal sitting in for
Leonard today. In a year when the Supreme Court legalized
same-sex marriage in this country, it may be hard for some
people to believe there was a time not all that long ago when a
person could be fired from their job for being gay. Topher
Payne’s new comedy Perfect Arrangement looks at the
Lavender Scare of the 1950’s, when suspected homosexuals
were deemed security threats and purged from the State
Department. It won the American Theatre Critics Association
Osborn Award for Best New Play last year, and it is now being
presented by Primary Stages at the Duke on 42nd Street. I’m
delighted it’s brought Topher Payne to our show today, along
with two of the play’s stars, Mikaela Feely-Lehmann and
Christopher J. Hanke. Hi. So Topher, you were clearly not
around in the 1950’s, am I right?
of removing communist threats from government service, they
expanded the definition of a security threat to include
drunkards, loose women, and suspected sexual deviants, so
basically anyone you would want to know. I was so intrigued
that there was this piece of our history from 65 years ago which
really marked the first moment the American government
specifically singled out homosexuals as a class rather than a
behavior. It was considered an immutable trait, and that was
why you were unfit for government service.
TOPHER PAYNE: I appreciate that. I mean I’d love to say that
it’s just clean living, but no.
MIKAELA FEELY-LEHMAN: Women who live their life.
AV: Hydration, it’s all about hydration. So what got you thinking
about the Lavender Scare?
AV: Did “sexual deviant” equal homosexual or was it broader
than that?
TP: Yes, official euphemism for homosexual. And then “loose
women” covered all single women; basically, women who date.
TP: Women who live their life and are free to make their own
choices.
AV: Scandalous women.
TP: I first became aware of it probably about ten years ago, in
a book called The Lavender Scare, which reveals the
extension of the Red Scare when after the perceived success
TP: Yes, exactly.
everyone was in collective agreement to treat those as being
purely decorative documents. Until this summer that was the
reality we were living with. Now the marriages are recognized,
but there are still concerns about the raising of children and of
parentage, and of housing rights, and of employment
discrimination. And so the fight very, very much continues. And
with this play, I was really interested in exploring the moment
just before American citizens started to take ownership of
those identities. And what we find in moments just before great
social change is that it takes being placed in a position of
having nothing left to lose, and when you’ve got nowhere to go
but up, that’s when things start to get really interesting. That’s
what they explore in the show.
CHRISTOPHER J. HANKE: When you look back at the writing
in the newspaper articles, they never say “homosexual” or
“gay,” they say all these other clever phrases, and “sexual
deviants” was one of them.
AV: So the characters, Mikaela and Christopher, you all are a
part of two couples, correct?
TP: As was “lavender lads,” which I thought was rather nice.
AV: Correct. Seemingly heterosexual.
AV: I am kind of curious, who came up with the label “Lavender
Scare”?
CJH & MFL: Seemingly heterosexual.
CJH: I said once that I’m just scared of lavender, period. I don’t
want to wear it.
AV: There is a phobia somewhere.
CJH: Yeah, yeah.
AV: I’m just curious. It’s an interesting label. It doesn’t have
quite the same heft of “Red Scare.”
TP: Well, a lot of it is a holdover from the Victorian Era, where
lavender ascots or a sprig of lavender in a lapel would be used
as a signifier.
AV: Was there something that happened in your own life that
made you wonder what life was like in the 1950’s for gay
people?
TP: I make my career and my life in the south, and it was
interesting when you were saying in the intro how we have to
cast our minds back to a time when someone could be fired
from their job for being gay. I live in Georgia. That’s today, and
if we don’t do something about it, that’s tomorrow. So I am
keenly aware of that concept of passing in order to make life a
little easier for everyone else. I was raised in Mississippi and I
live in Atlanta, which is a beautiful, blue island, and there is a
ten-block radius where my boyfriend and I can walk around
holding hands. Then outside of that ten-block radius it
becomes somewhat ill-advised. So I wish my play was a little
less relevant to my own existence and to the existence of the
people I know and love. But the issues that are raised in the
show are very much still issues that we are dealing with today.
AV: In terms of your everyday life, is it talking about attitudes or
the ways in which you interact with the official establishment,
where you are reminded of this problem of being gay in the
south or in a homophobic environment?
TP: Well, up until this summer, if you were married as a samesex couple who got a marriage license in another state and
then came home to the south, or to several other states in the
country, but really the south is a just very special place where
CJH: Two heterosexual couples.
AV: Who go to great lengths to keep these appearances up,
correct?
CJH: They need to self-protect in that time.
MFL: And to defend the true romantic relationships that they
actually have.
AV: So you’re living in these seemingly straight, but actually
not, households. They’re connected by a secret passageway,
is that right?
CJH: Yeah, you know we don’t want to give all the gems away
of the play. But in Georgetown, D.C., and on the East Coast a
lot, there are these beautiful brownstones that are all
connected. We live in two different houses that share the same
wall.
AV: And tell me a little more about your character, Christopher.
CJH: I play Jimmy Baxter, who is a schoolteacher.
AV: Jimmy Baxter.
CJH: Jimmy Baxter. It’s so 1950’s, right?
AV: Did they outlaw those names after that? You don’t hear
those names anymore.
MFL: You don’t. It’s so sad.
AV: And Mikaela?
MFL: I play Millie Martindale, whose is the most housewife-y of
housewives.
AV: And you get to wear some really great dresses in this.
MFL: Oh, yeah. We all get to wear fantastic costumes. You
know, the skirt that takes up twice of my actual circumference,
and some fantastic hats and great shoes and four different
purses and gloves. I mean, it’s just a dream.
AV: How much were you drawing your character upon what our
image is of the 1950’s, with these amazing, perfect housewives
of the era from the sitcoms?
MFL: One of the things that we talk about a lot is I Love Lucy,
because we all get to be funny and real, which is one of the
best things about doing this play. So really this sort of idealized
housewife, all those people that you know, that image you
have in your mind of ads selling you bread or cleaning supplies
or everything that’s lovely. And then what’s actually underneath
that. It was amazing to be able to play on people’s perception
of what that time looked like, and then the actual meat that
happens and what someone would really go through if they
were in this situation, which I think a lot of people actually
were.
AV: Were there particular shows or other references that you
were really studying to get it down?
MFL: I watched so much I Love Lucy preparing for this show. I
mean also just for my life, because who doesn’t love Lucille
Ball? She’s the best.
TP: What a great way to spend a day.
MFL: Oh my gosh, I was marathoning, binge-watching. And we
have a swinging kitchen door too, so that really affected a lot of
my… because I come in and out of the kitchen a lot in the play.
It was a lot of, “How do you deal with a door? How do you deal
with a prop?” Oh, she’s so funny, but she too has that you
never believe that anything she’s doing is only for the sake of
comedy. It all comes out of a very honest thing. That’s what I
think is funny too. What is so wonderful about Millie is that I get
to live that life and toe that line too.
AV: How about you, Christopher? Was it similar, or were you
drawing upon something else for your own character?
CJH: Similar. I also watched I Love Lucy episodes. And to be
fair, so that Mikaela and I don’t sound like we’re total idiots,
before the play I think that you wrote somewhere that this has
a little bit of an I Love Lucy vibe, in the synopsis or something. I
remember reading that when preparing for my audition, so I too
watched I Love Lucy episodes. But for me, I feel like you could
just pick me up and put me in the 1950’s right now and I would
just be like “Okay,” just walking the street and I feel like I
assimilate. So I didn’t feel like I had to TP: The man looks good in a cardigan, he does.
MFL: Oh man, he wears that cardigan.
TP: And a bowtie. He can rock a bowtie.
CJH: What I do want to say is that even though our play is
about the Lavender Scare and some really dark times in
American history that weren’t that long ago, it’s a funny play.
MFL: Man, it is.
CJH: It’s joke, after joke, after joke, after joke, and then we
punch you in the gut, which is a great way to send a really
poignant, provocative message. It’s like invite people to the
party with jokes and cocktails and jokes, and jokes, and jokes,
and then really hit them with the true reason you’re here.
AV: And were a lot of people, Topher, actually aggressively
outed at that time?
TP: Oh, yeah. And it happened so fast. One of the jokes we tell
in the show that is a joke that isn’t a joke is “Why is the
Personnel Security Board the only government agency capable
of doing things quickly?” So as soon as the new criteria were
listed, the Personnel Security Board was removing people left
and right, because there was immense pressure to show
results and to show that we are keeping America safe. Look
how many more of these deviants we found. That’s part of the
horror of it, and also part of the farce. There’s this interesting
thing that I observe, and I’m sure it affects a lot of my writing, is
that idea that whenever people are longing for “their America to
be restored,” they are talking about a period of time when they
were in charge and someone else wasn’t.
AV: And you’re talking about in the current political climate,
where, let’s say, “let’s make America great again”…
TP: Exactly. What they’re saying is “Let’s push these people
back down and get them to know their place again.” Or put
them on a plane and get them out of the country. Or maybe
build a wall, a lovely wall. Which absolutely ties into Perfect
Arrangement. Perfect Arrangement is a play about building
lovely walls, and the absurdity of attempting to pass as
something that is seen as aspirational and is actually so
restrictive and prevents any kind of genuine human connection.
One of the glorious things about the play is the revelation of
unexpected allies as we go along. People that are open to the
idea of a world beyond their own limited range of experience
once they’re given the opportunity. And that part’s on us.
AV: Both Millie and Jim are married to State Department
employees, and it takes place in Washington D.C. Was D.C. an
especially hard place to be gay because of all this kind of
upcurrent?
TP: Up until this happened, D.C. was an excellent place to be
gay. It was a great place to be single and career-oriented and
well-educated, and so it drew many people from all over the
country, taking government positions where no one questioned
why you didn’t have marriage and family as part of your
existence, because you were dedicated to your country. So
when they started doing this grand sweep of sending
everybody back out into the streets with these blotches on their
resumes, where they’ve been accused of sodomy, which was a
criminal act, and they’re lucky not to be in jail. They’re rendered
unemployable, schoolteachers are rendered unemployable,
and you create, as we say in the play, a force of people with
nothing left to lose.
CJH: There’s this great cartoon in The Lavender Scare, the
book that Topher referenced earlier about reading and getting
some ideas about this play, where there is a gentleman at a job
interview, and the person who is interviewing him says, “Oh, I
see you worked at the State Department,” and the man says,
“Yes, but I was fired for incompetence.”
AV: Very darkly funny.
CJH: Very darkly funny.
MFL: That was in The New Yorker too, right? Wasn’t it a New
Yorker cartoon, or just a newspaper cartoon?
CJH: It was definitely a cartoon, I remember seeing it in the
book The Lavender Scare, but it might have been a New
Yorker.
MFL: We had it on our wall. We had this beautiful research wall
in our rehearsal room, filled with images of the time and things
like that.
TP: This was front page of the paper everyday. These were
victories. The New York Post was running an extensive,
months-long investigation and examination of “how many did
we get today?”
CJH: Really, The New York Post?
TP: Yeah, The New York Post.
AV: This is the previous New York Post.
TP: They’re still very committed to being revelatory.
AV: So names were named.
TP: Named were absolutely named. Photos were printed. And
things like, “Arrested for loitering in Lafayette Park.” Even if the
charges were dropped, you were now a security risk because
of the implication of what you were doing in a park late at night.
It was all about maintaining a proper public perception.
Department. There’s an argument to be made for it, and you
know there are no clear black and white, right and wrong, in
here. It’s everyone trying to figure out a changing world.
AV: Now, Stonewall just came out in theaters near you. To
what extent was there an act of resistance happening in public,
a sort of a gay rights movement, during this period? Was it very
much under the radar?
CJH: The Mattachine Society was born out of this part of
history, because of this…
TP: This purge.
CJH: Yeah, I was going to use a different word, and I edited
myself, but yeah, this purge. The Mattachine Society started
picketing in front of the White House. They first of all had
secret meetings where they withheld their identity, and then
they slowly started to march in front of the White House in the
late 50’s, early 60’s, and actually more the early 60’s. And this
started a gay rights movement strongly. Which we say in the
play is when you ostracize a bunch of people, they have
nothing to lose and they’re at the bottom, they’re going to voice
up and band together, which is amazing.
TP: Because unfortunately, the act of being closeted, in
whatever permutation that means in your life, but the act of
attempting to pass as something you are not means you are
effectively colluding with your oppressors. You’re
acknowledging that their judgment of you has value, and until
you step forward and claim your own identity, nothing changes.
TP: The enemy. “Them.” That great “them.”
AV: I’ve been speaking with playwright Topher Payne and
actors Mikaela Feely-Lehmann and Christopher J. Hanke
about their play Perfect Arrangement, which is running at
Primary Stages at the Duke through November 6. We have a
link to tickets on our show page at wnyc.org. Topher, Mikaela,
Christopher, thanks for joining us today.
CJH: It was like, are you a security risk? And if so, you’re out.
CJH & MFL: Thank you.
MFL: You were dangerous to your country.
TP: Thank you, it’s been a pleasure.
AV: So the idea is to ostensibly make sure that you don’t have
people who can be exploited by the communists, is that right,
or the enemy?
AV: How much of this was just the personal vendetta by
somebody in the State Department or above?
TP: You know, it gets a little dangerous when somebody’s a
climber, as McCarthy was. Before McCarthy started his Red
Scare statistics, trumpeting them out into the world, he was
considered a very minor figure. And then the success of the
Red Scare elevated him to such a position in the American
consciousness that I don't think it wasn’t willing to let that go
easily. And if that meant expanding the definition of a security
threat, then so be it. And we have the characters of Bob and of
Theodore in the show, who are State Department employees,
who can see that side of it. If you are vulnerable to blackmail, if
your personal activities and proclivities make you vulnerable to
exposure, then that is of great concern to the State
© 2015 New York Public Radio
The following interview originally aired on “Good Day Street Talk,” Fox5 Television, October 17, 2015. Playwright
Topher Payne and actor Kelly McAndrew sit down with host Antwan Lewis to discuss the new Primary Stages
production, Perfect Arrangement.
ANTWAN LEWIS: Hello and welcome to Good Day Street Talk,
Antwan Lewis reporting. Here’s what we’re working on today. A
new play with a different take on the Red Scare of the 1950’s
and shedding the spotlight on sexual politics of that era. We’re
going to tell you about that. … Up next we have a different take
on the 1950’s Red Scare that resonates on issues making
headlines today. … So it’s 1950 and the Red Scare has swept
the country, but a new play has shifted the focus from
communism to sex in a way that’s very relevant even today.
Now the play is called Perfect Arrangement. It’s playing now
through November 6 at Primary Stages. Joining me to tell us
more about it are playwright Topher Payne and actor Kelly
McAndrew. Hello and welcome to both of you.
KELLY MCANDREW: Hi.
TOPHER PAYNE: It’s great to be here.
AL: So, Perfect Arrangement.
TP: Perfect Arrangement.
AL: Interesting title.
TP: It’s the story of two couples that are doing absolutely
everything they can to present lives as perfect as a 1950’s
sitcom or a layout in House Beautiful, and the challenges of
keeping that up.
AL: So we’re talking, Topher, it’s set in the midst of the 1950’s
during the Red Scare, which for those who may not know their
history, they may be younger, we’re talking about when the
country was going through identifying communist threats, and
McCarthy and those likes. So transition us to what’s going on.
TP: So they were very successful in their enterprise in rooting
out, first, people who were definitely members of the
communist party, then people who sympathized with the
communist party, then people who seemed like they sort of
sympathized with the communist party, and on down the line.
Thousands of government employees were removed from their
positions from that. And Senator McCarthy, in the spring of
1950, expanded the definition of security threat to include
“drunkards, loose women, and suspected homosexuals.” And
so then they started looking for those. In the story of our play
we have Bob and Norma, who are members of the Personnel
Security Board for the State Department, and they have been
tasked with rooting out communists, and now they are tasked
with this new hunt for protecting our national security. What
people don’t realize is that Bob is gay and Norma is a lesbian,
and they have married each other’s partners as the perfect
cover. They live in a duplex in Georgetown that is connected
by a closet. They can present the exact lives they need to
present to the world and then have the legitimate lives they
choose to have behind closed doors. And for a few years, that
works great until they’re hunting for themselves.
AL: Oh, wow. Kelly, you play Barbara.
KM: I play Barbara Grant. I am not one of the couples. I am
somebody who also works for the State Department, as a
translator, and discover I am on the list, my character is on the
list, because I am a “loose woman.”
TP: Meaning single and dating.
TP: Right. And her statement is just consistently that it’s none
of anyone’s business.
AL: Meaning if she’s single, and she shows up to work and
she’s quiet and she speaks six languages, it’s her right to be
that person.
KM: Meaning single and dating. And it’s very interesting
because we learn about my character that I keep to myself. I’m
very private about my affairs, but everyone talks about me. It’s
actually an amazing thing to play somebody who is someone
who is spoken about more than actually speaks in the play.
That people talk about how many lovers I’ve had, and what I
wear, that I speak six languages and that the first phrase I
learned in all of them was “don’t get me pregnant.” These are
things people are saying.
TP: But if the moment arises where she has to stand up and
take ownership of who she is and what she believes is right
versus what she believes is undeniably wrong, then she’ll do it,
and she’ll start recruiting allies in that cause.
AL: He wrote that?
KM: And she’s being shamed for that. That happens a lot, even
today, so I think it’s very telling.
KM: Yes, he wrote that. It’s a way into sort of looking at the
women’s movement in the midst of looking at this Lavender
Scare that’s happening.
KM: Because what Barbara is doing - there is nothing wrong
with what Barbara is doing. She’s living her life.
AL: As a single woman.
AL: It’s like a scarlet letter on her or something.
KM: Exactly.
AL: It also speaks to the early stages of the American gay
rights movement. Is there not a connection?
TP: One of the interesting things about this time is this was the
first moment when the United States government recognized
homosexuality as an inherent trait, rather than just behavior.
Prior to that point you could be removed from military service
for homosexual acts, but in defining suspected homosexuals it
was considered now an immutable trait. It was something
effectively that could not be fixed, and that’s why you were
ineligible for government service, because at the time
homosexuality was still a criminal act.
AL: In London they were still arresting people at the time, right?
TP: In America they were still arresting people. Of course, I live
in Georgia so we arrested people for a lot longer. It’s one of
those interesting moments where the tactics of your
oppressors end up being the very thing that motivates you,
because in removing all of these well-educated, articulate
American citizens from government service and rendering
them effectively unemployable, because of what they were
fired for, they created a mass of people with nothing left to
lose. That’s when great change can actually happen. When
you,ve got nowhere to go but up, that’s the moment when you
organize. We start to see the first stirrings of that in the play.
AL: Barbara - Kelly. She’s still in character.
TP: She just slides right in the role. She has such poise.
AL: Kelly, the play runs through…
KM: November 6 at Primary Stages.
AL: Quick resume. What else have you been in?
KM: Just most recently I was in a production at Clubbed
Thumb called Men on Boats. I was in Abundance at Tact. I
played Maggie the Cat on Broadway, years and years and
years ago.
AL: Wow, there’s a role.
KM: Yeah, it was. It’s a good one.
TP: You broke some hearts in Orange is the New Black.
KM: Oh, that’s right, I was Amish on Orange is the New Black. I
was an Amish mother. Thanks for remembering.
AL: November 6, Primary Stages.
AL: Was it hard to get into character for you?
TP: Yes, we open October 15, and run through November 6.
KM: I will say this. Topher has written an extraordinary play,
and he has written me an extraordinary part. I really love this
role. I love wrapping myself around her language, the way she
moves, the way she dresses, and I feel a great empathy for
her. I think she’s a very full character, three-dimensional, and
not what she appears to be at first. What’s so exciting about
Barbara is that she becomes part of the vanguard of the gay
rights movement, while not even identifying as any sexuality.
AL: So nice to meet you both.
KM: So nice to meet you too.
TP: Great to meet you, thanks for having us.
AL: Come back and see us. Have a safe trip back to Georgia.
TP: Thank you.
http://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/news/a-perfect-arrangement-of-communists-and-gays_74408.html
A Perfect Arrangement of Communists and Gays
Julia Coffey, Christopher J. Hanke, Jennifer Van Dyck, Kevin O'Rourke, Robert Eli, and Mikaela Feely-Lehmann star in Topher Payne's Perfect Arrangement, directed by
Michael Barakiva for Primary Stages at the Duke on 42nd Street. (© James Leynse)
Atlanta-based playwright
Topher Payne makes his
New York City debut with
a play about the Lavender
Scare of the 1950s.
Zachary Stewart
Off-Broadway • Sep 30, 2015
On February 20, 1950, as the Cold War
was heating up, Wisconsin Senator
Joseph McCarthy delivered an address
in the Senate chamber about the
Communist threat facing the U.S. State
Department. Quoting an anonymous
top intelligence officer, he remarked,
"You will find that practically every
active Communist is twisted mentally
or physically in some way." While the
phrase "twisted physically" conjures up
an image of Shakespeare's Richard III,
there could be little doubt in 1950 what
McCarthy
meant
by
"twisted
mentally": The State Department was
overrun by homosexuals. As reported
by historian David K. Johnson in his
book The Lavender Scare , by the
following November nearly 600 people
had been dismissed from the federal
civil service for alleged "perversion."
Homosexuality would continue to be
grounds for dismissal by the federal
government until President Clinton
ended the practice with an executive
order in 1995.
""When I found out about it, it pissed
me off that I didn't already know about
it," says Atlanta-based playwright
Topher Payne. "The Red Scare is part
of the public lexicon; the Lavender
Scare is a lesser-known, but really
embarrassing chapter in American
history." That's what led him to write
Perfect Arrangement, a play about two
straitlaced State Department employees
who root out Commies by day and go
home to their gay lovers at night. The
play
begins
performances
on
September 29 with Primary Stages at
the Duke on 42nd Street, marking
Payne's first production in New York
City.
The story follows Bob Martindale
(Robert Eli) and Norma Baxter (Julia
Coffey), two model State Department
employees (seriously, they look like
models). While Bob is wed to Millie
(Mikaela Feely-Lehman) and Norma is
wed to Jim (Christopher J. Hanke),
these marriages are just an elaborate
ruse to disguise the truth: Bob is with
Jim and Norma is with Millie. When
Bob is tasked with finding and
eliminating homosexuals within the
State Department, their house of cards
looks like it might collapse around
them.
Roy Cohn whispers into the ear of Senator Joseph
McCarthy during a committee hearing.
thing red about Lucy — and even that
is not legitimate."
Payne finds that strange episode of
television lore fascinating: "That's one
of the craziest things about this
difference between what's on-screen
and what's in the paper…we're talking
about the same person!" He tries to
create a similar effect with Perfect
Arrangement, as the terror of the era
slowly seeps into Bob and Norma's
1950s wonder world.
Topher Payne is the playwright of Perfect
Arrangement . © Shannon Carroll/Primary Stages)
Serious as this topic is, don't expect a
lecture on LGBT history and
McCarthyism. Perfect Arrangement
takes the form of a sitcom-style farce.
"Popular entertainment of the time (I
Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, Burns
and Allen) contrasted highly with the
nightmares parading across the front
page of the newspaper," Payne
explains. "America was selling a
picture of domestic bliss while the
press was frantically telling us, 'The
Rosenbergs are out to get us; the gays
are out to get us; the Russians are
absolutely out to get us.' I was
fascinated by that interplay of
perfection and paranoia."
The delicate dance of perfection and
paranoia occasionally became an
awkward collision in real life, like
when Lucille Ball (star of TV's most
popular show, I Love Lucy) was
implicated as a Communist to the
House
Un-American
Activities
Committee in 1953. While she had
indeed registered with the Communist
Party in 1936, she testified to HUAC
that she never voted that way and even
supported a Republican candidate for
President (Eisenhower) in 1952.
Speaking in front of a live studio
audience before a taping of I Love
Lucy, Ball's husband and executive
producer, Desi Arnaz, squelched
rumors about the alleged Communist
sympathies of America's favorite
redhead by stating, "That's the only
"We bring the audience into this sitcom
land which is beautiful and hilarious,"
says Christopher J. Hanke, who plays
Bob's lover, Jim. "Slowly that starts to
erode and we see the cracks." All of the
actors talk about what a joy it is to play
real, fully fleshed-out characters while
also performing slapstick antics and
door-slamming comedy.
is now best remembered through Tony
Kushner's acidic immortalization in
Angels in America.) With that in mind,
Payne chose to take this true incident
involving misanthropic gays and
significantly raise the stakes for the
audience.
"Who the hell's going to find Roy
Cohn appealing?" he asks. "Have you
seen a photo of McCarthy? He looks
like a potato. I was thinking of how
much more dangerous it would be if it
were Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell
[stars of the 1940 comedy His Girl
Friday]: the kind of folks that when
other people meet them, they want to
be more like them. That is so much
more insidious." And truly, Bob and
Norma are incredibly attractive people,
presenting an image of perfect
heteronormativity that diverges greatly
from their real private lives
That level of hypocrisy would seem to
put them firmly in the category of
villains, but director Michael Barakiva
is not so sure. "The great thing about
Topher's play is that all of his
characters really want something and
pursue it vigorously," he notes. "The
character who we believe is the hero
becomes the antagonist and then it
shifts again. There's never an easy
answer."
Christopher J. Hanke plays Bob Martindale's secret
gay lover Jim in Perfect Arrangement.
(© Shannon Carroll/Primary Stages)
Farcical as Perfect Arrangement may
be, its premise of closeted gays going
after other gays in the federal
government
for
their
alleged
Communist ties is not nearly so
ludicrous: Closeted homosexual Roy
Cohn served as chief counsel to the
Senate Committee on Government
Operations. Together with Senator
McCarthy
(who
chaired
the
committee), he viciously went after
alleged Communists and homosexuals
within the federal government. (Cohn
While audiences will disagree on who's
a sinner and who's a saint in Perfect
Arrangement, Payne has no doubt in
his mind that the real Lavender Scare
actually had an unexpected positive
consequence: It helped jumpstart the
gay rights movement in the United
States. "By branding all of these welleducated and outspoken closeted
homosexuals with a scarlet letter, the
government inadvertently created a
force of talented people with nothing
left to lose," he insists. "That's when
you see the earliest stirrings of genuine
organization and a movement toward
visibility." Instead of celebrating the
1969 Stonewall Riots as the beginning
of the gay rights movement, perhaps
we should be commemorating the
1950's so-called purge of the perverts.
©1999-2015 TheaterMania.com, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The following conversation is excerpted form Keith Price’s conversation with Robert Eli and Christopher J.
Hanke, cast members in the new production from Primary Stages, ‘Perfect Arrangement.’
KEITH PRICE: I have Christopher J. Hanke and Robert Eli with me on “The Backstage
Skinny.” And we’re talking about the play Perfect Arrangement. Tell me Robert, who do
you play?
ROBERT ELI: I play Bob Martindale who is a veteran of WWII. Bob and Jim are lovers.
But Bob is in charge of a State Department witch-hunt going after homosexuals. So it's a
moral dilemma when what he is fighting for every day at home is against what he is
fighting for at work.
PRICE: How about you Christopher?
CHRISTOPHER J. HANKE: I play Jim Baxter, who is a 1950s schoolteacher in
Washington DC and married to a woman. My wife is Norma. And Bob also has wife, her
name is Millie. The two heterosexual couples are best friends. But their real relationships
are their homosexual relationships. These heterosexual relationships that we maintain for
the public are sort of a mask. A costume for society. For self-preservation. For selfprotection. Being closeted and living a lie was at that time a necessity. At the time it is
what had to be done.
PRICE: We’re talking about how this play resonates so deeply with the issues that we are
having today. I can’t have this conversation about “married” gay men in the 1950’s with
out acknowledging that we’re aligning now living in an age where we have Kim Davis and
she’s recognized as…
HANKE: …a hero?
PRICE: Yes, a hero. I mean, as you step into the rehearsal process, how does that make
you feel?
ELI: I found myself very upset, very angry, and wanting to judge her. But my job, as an
actor, before jumping in, is to take a step back and try to ask questions. How? And Why?
She gets out of prison, there are people cheering and they are playing “Eye of the Tiger.” I
mean, this is an America that I don’t know. It's confusing, but at the same time I don't want
to be quick to judge. As a society we were very quick to bring up her past and to blacklist
and smear her name in the same way that she was denying people’s basic civil rights. So
I asked, “how can I be a better person, not do that, and try to understand how we, as a
country, can have this person who half the country agrees with and half of a country
opposes. What she did is wrong. It's criminal. It's against the law. But morally, she is doing
what she believes to be the right thing.
HANKE: And you were able to tap into that, because that is what your character is
struggling with.
ELI: Right. My character struggles with having to do something that is morally wrong, but
Constitutionally right. It's hard because I don't agree with her. But I want to find out more
about what's going on this part of the country where people have the belief that they can
stop the law because of their faith.
PRICE: Your character is not just a person is trying to hold back his gay identity himself,
but he is also enforcing the law. You are in the position of being the enemy who is
charged with going after himself.
ELI: There is a defining moment in the play where Bob tries to explain the situation at
hand. He says to his wife Millie, this is my family and I am trying to protect us. And I am
and American I am trying to protect the country.” It is just a question, which he is trying to
do more of at a given time. As an American he believes he is doing what is right. But as a
homosexual, he believes he is doing what is right for his family.
PRICE: So for those if you who are listening, this is your opportunity to go and see what is
happening Off-Broadway. When you go Off-Broadway, you see shows like this that are
having a conversation that are so relevant and so fertile. Because of the commercial
energy that Broadway creates, sometimes there is not room for these kinds of shows and
these kinds of conversations. This is a show you need to see; you need to put on your list.
Go to www.PrimaryStages.org for more information and to get tickets. Robert Eli and
Christopher J. Hanke, thank you for spending time with me.
This, and other conversations with the company of ‘Perfect Arrangement’ air in Keith Price’s “Backstage
Skinny” segments on Sirius XM Radio this October.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/perfect-arrangement-off-broadway_56129a17e4b0dd85030c9a1a?80bpgb9
Christopher J. Hanke (left) and Robert Eli star in "Perfect Arrangement," which opens Oct. 15.
(c) 2015 James Leynse.
'Perfect Arrangement' Finds Comedy
In A 'Scary' Time For LGBT People
Because "everybody knows
what it's like to have a secret."
Curtis M. Wong
Gay Voices Senior Editor
Posted: 10/6/2015 11:28 AM EDT
Broadway and television actor Christopher J. Hanke sees
his new theatrical project, "Perfect Arrangement," as an
opportunity to "dive into a scary moment in [lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender] history" that was well
before his time.
Still, Hanke is quick to clarify that the play, which opens
at the Duke on 42nd Street in New York on Oct. 15 and
is being produced by Primary Stages, is very much an
ensemble comedy that offers "tons of laughs." Written
by Topher Payne, "Perfect Arrangement" follows Bob
Martindale (played by Robert Eli) and Norma Baxter
(Julia Coffey) two U.S. State Department employees
who are tasked with identifying "sexual deviants" within
their ranks during the "Lavender Scare," the years
between 1945 and 1969 when homosexuality was
grounds for dismissal from the federal government. The
twist? Bob and Norma are both in sham marriages to
hide the fact that they, too, are gay.
"When people have secrets that they're trying to cover
up, there's great comedy in that," Hanke, who plays a
straight-laced, married schoolteacher who happens to be
Bob's secret lover, told The Huffington Post in an
interview. "The way that these characters find
themselves trying to spin those plates is very, very
delightful to see."
The show also marks Payne's New York debut. Produced
last year in Atlanta, "Perfect Arrangement" is giving the
playwright, who has penned more than a dozen plays, a
chance to "sneak a little social agenda" into an OffBroadway comedy with a 1950s sitcom feel.
Best known for the 2011 Broadway revival of "How To
Succeed In Business Without Really Trying," Hanke is
no stranger to tackling modern gay roles, having recently
starred as a sassy Hollywood hopeful who lands a job
working for Barbra Streisand in the Off-Broadway solo
comedy "Buyer and Cellar." While he's quick to tout the
social progress the LGBT community has enjoyed,
Hanke hopes theatergoers will walk away from the show
with their "eyes opened."
"I'm always intrigued by the moment just before
extraordinary social change happens, either for the
positive or negative, and when you can attach a human
experience to a social issue, really wonderful things can
happen," he said. The ultimate goal of "Perfect
Arrangement" is to "get people laughing, so that you can
then engage in a conversation about something that
matters."
__________________________________
"I'm always intrigued by the moment
just before extraordinary social change
happens, either for the positive or
negative, and when you can attach a
human experience to a social issue,
really wonderful things can happen."
"I think that people will be able to see that the words,
verbiage, attitudes and finger-pointing [that took place
during the Lavender Scare] sound pretty similar to the
words, verbiage, attitudes and finger-pointing that
happens today," he said. "To show them a little piece of
American history that's not pretty to see is really
awesome as an actor."
__________________________________
Sounds like a must-see to us!
Calling the show "a non-stop carnival of delight,"
director Michael Barakiva felt similarly, and believes
"Arrangement" will resonate with both LGBT and
heterosexual audiences because "everybody knows what
it's like to have a secret."
Currently in previews, the Primary Stages production of
"Perfect Arrangement" opens Oct. 15 at The Duke on
42nd Street in New York. Head here for more details.
The company of "Perfect Arrangement," which opens Oct. 15.
(c) 2015 James Leynse.
September 26, 2015
Playwright Topher Payne talks about his play, “Perfect Arrangement,”
the new production from Primary Stages at the Duke on 42nd Street.
The segment first aired Saturday, 9/26/15 on NY1's weekly theatre
news program, “On Stage.” Transcript follows.
DONNA KARGER: We turn now to the Off Broadway scene this
coming week Primary Stages begins previews for the New York
Premiere of Perfect Arrangement. That is a comedy set in the
1950s dealing with what is known as “The Lavender Scare.” The
Perfect Arrangement company met the media and we got the
chance to check in with Perfect Arrangement playwright Topher
Payne.
TOPHER PAYNE: Perfect Arrangement is set in the spring of the
1950’s, Senator McCarthy had such success with rooting out
communists in government service that he expanded the definition
of security risk to include drunkards, loose women and suspects
homosexuals, so basically anyone that makes a party worth
attending. The story centers on Bob and Norma who work for the
security board in the state department and have dutifully rued out
communists for years, what people do not understand is that Bob
and Norma are closeted themselves and have married each other’s
partners as this perfect cover and now Bob and Norma are hunting
themselves and wackiness ensues.
LISA FUHRMAN: What inspirited you to put this all together?
TP: I was so intrigued when I was reading about the period called
the Lavender scare, which has not made it into the history books
like the Red scare did. I was really intrigued by what was being
beamed into people’s living rooms at that time with “I Love Lucy”
and “Burns and Allen” versus what was on the front page of the
paper and I was interested in exploring a story people trying to live
up to that perfect sitcom life and it grew from there.
nd
DK: Perfect Arrangement begins previews at The Duke on 42
th
Street this Tuesday, September 29 in advance of a October 15
opening.
https://www.nextmagazine.com/content/fear-working-gays-broadway
http://www.edgenewyork.com/entertainment/theatre/news//186038/reliving_the_'lavender_scare'_in_'perfect_arrangement'
Friday Oct 2, 2015
Entertainment » Theatre
Reliving the 'Lavender Scare' in 'Perfect Arrangement'
by Frank J. Avella
Contributor
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Christopher J. Hanke (Source:James Leynse)
Julia Coffey and Mikaela Feely-Lehmann (Source:James Leynse)
Stain on American society
Fantasy vs. Reality
"I think it's a stain on American society,
too," adds Robert Eli ("Tartuffe" on
Broadway), who embodies the enigmatic
Bob Martindale, a WWII vet placed in
charge of the hunt. "This is happening
right after World War II and we're not as
bad as Nazi's killing all the Jews, but
we're persecuting our own people. And
this went on until 1975."
The author imparts, "If you can say it
with a line, good. If you can say it with a
look, better."
"Also on that list were women who slept
around," McAndrew shares. "And a lot of
the people who were creating these lists
couldn't wrap their head around lesbians.
They didn't really believe that women had
sex with each other."
"I had to be reminded what was taboo
back then," states Julia Coffey ("London
Wall") who plays closeted lesbian Norma
Baxter, a woman at a crossroads.
"Homosexuality back then was almost
akin to pedophilia today. It had the same
stigma."
Besides the intense history lesson, the
director and cast have been experiencing
the evolution of the play since Payne
continues to rewrite during the rehearsal
process. "The play is a living breathing
thing. In the rehearsal room, Michael has
been so amazing with the table work. We
spent time picking it apart line by line."
"After the first week, one scene wasn't
working," O'Rourke accounts, "And the
next day Topher came in with seventeen
new pages!"
"What's nice about working on a new
piece is that you can see the playwright
shaping their sculpture," Hanke offers.
Topher
Payne,
playwright,
director (Source:James Leynse)
and
Michael
Barakiva,
"Topher's done a whole round of rewrites,
after hearing these actors," Barakiva says.
The director's own process began with
immersing himself in research including
reading David K. Johnson's book, "The
Lavender Scare" (which is being made
into a feature documentary). "I looked at
advertisements from the period. It's pure
fantasy. So I start with that visual world."
Jennifer Van Dyck ("The Divine Sister"),
who plays the "blissfully heterosexual,"
Kitty Sunderson, comments on the irony
of that American dream being peddled,
"Those Life magazine pictures we see,
and all the ads, how it was being sold in
1950 as the perfect life -- the white picket
fence, the cocktails, the woman wearing
the apron. Topher is playing with all
these prescribed roles -- the illusion is
that everything is perfect. Everyone
knows who they are, what they stand for
and what their beliefs are but during the
course of the play all of that gets turned
on its head."
Watching these wonderful actors at work,
one can feel the passion they all have for
the material and experience how generous
they are with one another, in terms being
giving and reacting to each other. In
addition, the power of the piece obviously
still moves them as certain actors were
brought to tears watching their fellow
thesps and the strange sequence of events
that ruined lives and created heroes.
"But part of that is on us because it's so
much easier to dismiss them, to ignore
them, to fight them, instead of finding a
way to engage them. It's humbling to
realize how little is gained by matching
shouting with shouting. As a playwright
my job is not to shout. It's to start a
dialogue, a conversation. To make them
laugh so they hopefully lean in and
listen." He pauses, then adds, "And then
sneak in with my gay agenda!"
(Hysterical laughter).
Payne's admirable philosophy is one of
empathy and responsibility:
Jennifer Van Dyck (Source:James Leynse)
Obvious parallels
Playwright Payne sees the obvious
parallels with the themes explored in his
play and our world today: "Why is Trump
happening? There is a segment of the
American population who are terrified.
Who see the world changing and don't
understand what their place in that world
will be. And so their instinct is to fight as
anyone would if they felt their sense of
self was being threatened. That's what's
happening with these Trump followers.
That's what's happening with those
rallying and yelling Kim Davis for
President. They're afraid and they feel
their fears are not being addressed. Most
of that is on them.
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234 West 44th Street
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212-764-7900
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October 8, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Brett Oberman at Keith Sherman & Associates 212-764-7900, [email protected]
LOOKING AHEAD AT THE
THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN
A NEW YORK PREMIERE
BY DAN O’BRIEN
DIRECTED BY JO BONNEY
FEBRUARY – MARCH, 2016
SEASON
EXIT STRATEGY
BY IKE
A NEW YORK PREMIERE
HOLTER
DIRECTED BY KIP FAGAN
MARCH – MAY, 2015
WWW.PRIMARYSTAGES.ORG
Following Perfect Arrangement, Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Founder &
Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director) continues their 31st Season
with two more exciting productions:
T HE BODY OF AN AMERICAN
New York premiere by DAN O’BRIEN, Directed by JO BONNEY
February - March, 2016 at the Cherry Lane Theatre
Winner of the 2014 Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play and the
Inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Award (shared with All The Way). The Body of an
American tells the true story of an extraordinary friendship as two men, a war
photojournalist and playwright, journey from some of the most dangerous places on earth
to the depths of the human soul. Winning rave reviews for its previous productions in
London and elsewhere, The Body of an American by Dan O’Brien is “a play that tightens
its grip as it probes where war lives, and discovers we each carry it inside ourselves.”
(The Guardian) The play will be directed by Obie winner Jo Bonney (Father Comes
Home from the Wars…, Small Engine Repair) in association with Hartford Stage.
EXIT STRATEGY
New York premiere by IKE HOLTER, Directed by KIP FAGAN
March - May, 2016 at the Cherry Lane Theatre
A fiery, riveting work from the award-winning writer of Hit the Wall, about the chaotic final
days of a Chicago public school, Exit Strategy is a taut, edge-of-your-seat drama about
the future of public education from a vital new voice in American playwriting. Named
“Chicagoan of the Year in Theater” by the Chicago Tribune, Ike Holter brings his “thrilling,
beautiful” new play to Primary Stages for its New York Premiere after winning rave
reviews for a thrice-extended sold-out run in Chicago. Produced in association with
Philadelphia Theatre Company, Exit Strategy will be directed by Kip Fagan, whose recent
credits include Grand Concourse and The Revisionist.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PRIMARY STAGES 2015/16 SEASON:
Subscriptions for the Primary Stages 2015/16 season range from $140 to $180.
Flex Pass subscriptions are also offered and begin at $45 per ticket (with a minimum
purchase of 5 Flex Pass tickets for the season.) All subscription packages can be
purchased by visiting PrimaryStages.org or by calling Ticket Central at
212.279.4200. Single tickets for Perfect Arrangement are now on sale at The Duke
on 42nd Street box office and online at: primarystages.org. Single tickets all other
productions will go on sale at a later date with the Cherry Lane Theatre box offices.
FOR PRESS RELEASES, PRODUCTION ART & ARTISTS HEADSHOTS, VISIT WWW.PRIMARYSTAGES.ORG/PRESSKIT
127 productions.
65 world premieres.
50 New York premieres.
31 seasons.
28 Drama Desk nominations.
18 Tony Award® nominations (and 5 wins) collectively
earned by Primary Stages ESPA Faculty.
13 Obie Awards.
7 days of the week ESPA classes are offered to writers,
actors, and directors in all stages of their careers.
6 Outer Critics Circle Awards.
5 ESPA writing students produced in New York alone
by companies including The Public Theater,
The New Group, LAByrinth Theater Company,
and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.
3 Lucille Lortel Awards.
2 Tony Award® nominations.
1 incredi.bnley
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www.PrimaryStages.org
…
Praise for
“
provided a home for me for many years.
I will always be grateful for their kindness and generosity.
is a wonderful environment for a playwright.”
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is a
serious, nurturing and fun place to work at your craft,
with people who are as passionate as you are about their work.”
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and Primary Stages ESPA faculty member
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playwrights are daring, original and human.
This is my lasting artistic home, and home is where the heart is.
My heart will always be with
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themselves part of a process of learning, growing, taking root, and
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