P.A. Cooley Photo

From: Photo Flash: Sneak Peek at P.A. Cooley in the Regional Premiere of THE NANCE at NCTC

This October, New Conservatory Theatre Center presents the return of Douglas Carter Beane's sophisticated wit and thrilling theatrical ambition with the regional premiere of The Nance. After hit productions of Beane's The Little Dog Laughed and As Bees in Honey Drown, NCTC bring his latest and "finest" (Time Out NY), what The New York Times calls "a heartfelt new play set in the twilight of burlesque." This "bold, brave play" (Backstage) - which debuted at Lincoln Center Theater on Broadway in 2013 - recreates the naughty, raucous world of burlesque's heyday and tells the backstage story of headliner Chauncey Miles, who plays "the nance," a flamboyantly effeminate stock character - usually played by a straight man. Set amid Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's crackdown on burlesque before the 1939 World's Fair, a time when it was easy to play gay yet dangerous to be gay, Chauncey's uproarious antics on the stage stand out in marked contrast to his offstage life.