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How Young Is Too Young to Play Transvestite in School Plays?
By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 17, 2010
Modified Jun 17, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 17, 2010
Modified Jun 17, 2010
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The best things in life are free, like reruns of All in the Family, and Andrea Peyser's rants on the NY Post website. This time she's fauxtraged about a special needs school on Roosevelt Island that put on a production of La Cage aux Folles, "a cross-dressing, limp-wristed, gay comic romp whose main characters are a pair of 'married' men." It's a big hit on Broadway now, but Peyser thinks it's weird to expose learning disabled and autistic kids—some as young as ten—to it. But maybe she's not so crazy to object to this? Like a handicapped child in drag, we're a little confused.
La Cage aux Folles is a comedy written for an adult audience, but it's not sexually graphic. The 1996 movie adaptation was rated R, but GLAAD praised the film for "going beyond the stereotypes to see the character's depth and humanity. The film celebrates differences and points out the outrageousness of hiding those differences." That's why Maari de Souza, founder of the private Child School, wanted students to do it. "Children tease each other about being gay," she tells the Post. "It's a common problem with our youngsters." To which Peyser replies, "Kids of 10?" Obviously, things were a little different when Peyser was ten, because kids definitely use words like "gay" pejoratively, starting basically the first day of kindergarten.
And yet, we can understand why parents might be a little uneasy about their pre-pubescent, learning disabled child portraying a drag queen in the school play. Not because there's anything wrong with that, but because the show already borders on gay minstrelsy, and one wonders if the ironic nuances of "La Cage" were fully unpacked for the students. Of course, parents are just freaking out because they don't want the show to turn their kids gay, which actually is offensive. "They're advocating for the gay lifestyle, giving them ideas," one dad told Peyser. "Saying, 'It's OK. If you're having these feelings, experiment with it.' " La Cage aux Folles: It's basically a gayteway drug!!!
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La Cage aux Folles
roosevelt island
the child school
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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