Tim Miller's Us: Musical Theatre and Life-Shaping Lessons

I suppose the only real difference between a gay male showtune queen and a straight male showtune queen is that the former grew up lip-syncing to Liza singing Cabaret on the movie soundtrack while the latter grew up lip-syncing to Jill Haworth on the original Broadway cast album. You know, it's all a matter of being naturally fabulous versus just trying really hard.

No wait, there's one more difference. A straight male showtune queen never has to worry about having to leave the United States because the Australian man he's in love with and has been in a committed relationship with for ten years is being deported because his work visa has expired and you can't keep him in the country by marrying him and letting him qualify for a green card. That's the situation now faced by performance artist Tim Miller, one of the founders of P.S. 122, a landmark performance venue which has been fostering alternative art for 25 years. Miller will be leaving the country October 4th because his homeland does not permit him to marry the person he loves and leaving America is the only way they can stay together.

This isn't the first time Miller has been in the middle of government controversy. In 1990, as one of the so-called "De-funded 4", Miller and three other artists were awarded NEA grants, only to have them revoked when Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) led a campaign to make Americans aware of art funding for works he and his followers considered "indecent". Miller and his colleagues sued the government and won a case which declared that denying government funding on the basis of opinions expressed in a work of art violated the 1st Amendment, a decision which was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Even as a ten year old boy during the 1960's who was just beginning to understand his sexuality, young Tim Miller considered fleeing to Canada if he were ever drafted into the army in order to avoid the possibility of being commanded to kill that cute Southeast Asian boy he saw on the cover of National Geographic that he wanted to kiss.

His new solo piece, most likely his last as a resident of The United States, is appropriately called Us; a pun commenting on U.S. domestic policy that more often than not has Miller feeling like "them". Make no mistake, this is not an anti-American tirade. What Miller makes clear is a deep love for his country, despite policy-makers that seem determined to exclude him.

But back to the showtunes...

After being treated to pre-show selections from The Ethel Merman Disco Album, the evening begins with Miller packing a suitcase for his impending exile (a situation so parallel to that of Fiddler on the Roof's Hodel that I expected a few bars of "Far From the Home I Love") and fretting over which Broadway cast albums to take with him and which to leave behind. (Purists will cringe at his inclusion of movie soundtracks for Cabaret and Oliver! instead of cast albums, but in these troubled times we must be open-minded.) As he explains, these shows taught him many important lessons in his youth, especially in forming his gay identity, and the first half of the show starts resembling the kind of discussions you'll often find in piano bars all over New York. (Or at least the ones I frequent.) I daresay most showtune queens have been involved in heated debates (especially with those who dismiss the art form as nothing more than fluff) discussing the same observations Miller makes as to how Fiddler on the Roof says marriage traditions, such as keeping them heterosexual, are not so important as true love. How 1776, showing our founding fathers fighting for liberty while keeping slaves, teaches that our leaders can be hypocritical. And how South Pacific says, as Miller puts it, "you could fight bigotry while being surrounded by hunky, naked sailors and drag queens." (Okay, my version of that lesson focuses more on the cute nurses in shorts but tomayto / tomahto.)

And although Miller's lecture on musical theatre morality is cleverly done by an appealingly quirky professor, the show gradually gets more and more personal as he discusses his current dilemma. A trip to Niagara Falls, where he and his intended once planned to legally marry in Canada, just inches away from the U.S., takes him to the unintentionally culturally sensitively named Rainbow Bridge. Here, at a landmark made famous as a destination to celebrate heterosexual wedded bliss, a gay couple can walk a span over the rushing water which takes them from a land where their relationships have no legal rights to one where they can be considered just as married as anyone else.

Miller keeps his presentation glib and charming throughout the monologue, despite the seriousness of the topics involved. Like the hero of Man of La Mancha, the musical which inspired his childhood draft-dodging fantasies, he clings to his impossible dream of an America where he is considered a citizen with equal rights, despite feeling more like the hero of Oliver!, meekly holding out his bowl of gruel and asking for more.

 

For more information visit ps122.com

For Michael Dale's "mad adventures of a straight boy living in a gay world" visit dry2olives.com

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