Ryan Landry :: Letting His Freak Flag Fly (Still)

When I first saw Ryan Landry he was an egg - a giant egg that sat, Humpty-Dumpty-like, precariously on a fence with a look of terror in his eyes. Little wonder he was afraid: He was an embryo whose parents were the Devil and Mia Farrow.

Well, not Mia Farrow for real, but the character Rosemary, made famous in "Rosemary's Baby." Actor/director/writer and all-round provocateur Landry had taken the Polanski horror classic and gave it songs. "Rosemary's Baby: the Musical" was one of the first hits that Landry and his troupe, called The Gold Dust Orphans, brought to a Boston stage. That was in 1998 in a broom-closet of a performance venue - the Dollhouse Theater - in an artists' space in the (then still gay) South End. The place filled 70 at best, but word-of-mouth spread and an audience twice that size packed the makeshift theater, spilling out into the alley behind the building.

Dismissed as a drag show

Inevitably the city stepped in, turning the Dollhouse back to its original use; but Landry and the Orphans were not undone. They took over the dance club Machine, located beneath the leather bar, Ramrod, and turned it into the Ramrod Center for the Performing Arts. That was in 1998. Since then (save for a hiatus in Los Angeles), Landry and the Orphans have skewed pop culture icons, Disney fairy tales, Hitchcock movies, Greek tragedies, and the plays of Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Arthur Miller and Lillian Hellman to the delight of an ever-growing audience.

The shows often took a popular play or movie, then put it through the inspired Cuisinart that is his imagination. With more one-liners than a Mel Brooks movie, satiric lyrics every bit as funny as those from "Forbidden Broadway" and gender-bending twists on classics that made them unique works of their own, Landry found his audience. It took more time, though, to get the respect of the Boston theater community. For years the Orphans were dismissed as a drag show, but when in "Pussy on the House", he distilled "Cat on the Hot Tin Roof "and played with its sexual subtexts for ludicrous comedy; or turned to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and made it the story of Mary and Joseph in the manger; the critics began to take notice. Numerous awards followed; even academics seek Landry out as a subject of their dissertations.

Ptown to NYC

Throughout these years, Landry also set up shop for the summer in Provincetown where his shows soon became the must-see theatrical event of the summer. He also plays the outrageous host to "Showgirls" - a talent show where local acts come under the scrutiny of Landry's scabrous wit. With one pithy comment, he can deflate the inner Celine Dion in anyone. To this day, Showgirls is still the most popular attraction on Commercial Street.

New York followed. In the past few years he's brought shows, starring Varla Jean Merman to the East Village, getting a rave review from the New York Times and (again) selling out largely through the reputation of his company.

"A breeze from distant Provincetown just blew into the East Village, bringing audiences with a taste for lowdown drag a last chance at a summer fling," reviewed Charles Isherwood in the Times. " 'Mildred Fierce,' a musical spoof of - really, do I need to tell you? ... It's the kind of goofy, bawdy, anything-goes diversion that might kick off a festive night on the town in that popular gay resort destination."

Too hot a topic?

For more than a decade, Landry teased his audiences with shows that succinctly take a familiar title and give them a contemporary spin so brilliant, they elicit chuckles with the images they evoke: "Willie Wanker and the Hershey Highway," "Pornocchio," "Phantom of the Oprah," "Mary Poppers," "Peter Pansy," "All About Christmas Eve," "Silent Night of the Lambs," "The Exorsissy." This month his latest, "Thoroughly Muslim Millie," has hit the stage at Machine before a run in Provincetown and New York.

While some may hesitate to see a show that brings up Middle Eastern politics, Landry's more interested in satirizing popular musical theater tropes than the headlines. Indeed, politics has little to do with his show, which is more "Kismet" than "American Sniper."

"I would mention it (the title) and some of the actors would shudder, thinking that it was just too controversial, too hot a topic," Landry explained recently. "But our decision to do 'Thoroughly Muslim Millie' now, believe it or not, has nothing to do with the current socio-political climate but more to do with the fact that we just recently ran out of fairy tales. After covering nearly all our Disney favorites, we realized it was finally time to make up our own. And though we have indeed had this title kicking around for quite some time we never ended up putting it into production mostly due to fear."

Long controversial

He describes the show as follows. "A cartoon fantasy fed through a glitter machine. A call to action and a plead for understanding. It is a mash up of bad jokes, social commentary, romance, sex, silliness, politics, wonder and pre-recorded tap dancing! It is a fortune cookie full of entertainment. To get the message you simply need to crack it open."

But this isn't the first time Landry and his Orphans faced controversy for his shows. Conservative Catholics condemned 'Who's Afraid of the Virgin Mary?' without, of course, seeing it. If they had, they would have likely laughed at his clever mashup of Albee and the Christmas story. Nevertheless, there is no fear factor with the Orphans.

"I felt that we should not be afraid. We began this company unafraid of just about everyone and everything. And in order to continue to be true to ourselves and our audience we needed to stay the course no matter what. I knew that the writing was certainly not going to come from a hateful place and that what we would be offering wouldn't be a mocking of Muslims but more an Orphan's view of a culture that is indeed foreign to most of us - a vast landscape, dangerous in some places true and in some places quite beautiful. So after some convincing, we got the others on board and it was full steam ahead."

A tough skin

It turns out the villain is Dick Cheney, replete and his maniacal Middle East policies. If the show is going to offend anyone, it would be those folks at Fox News. "Anne Coulter and Sean Hannity would like be offended, though they haven't written to say they are coming so I'm not all that worried about it. I have sent the script to several Muslim friends and they seem to find it not only funny but quite touching. I'm not so sure how ISIS would feel about it but then I do not believe I want to know. I am sure that some people automatically assume that the Muslims will be the villains but that is simply not the case, in this show anyway."

And if some do, Landry has developed a tough skin over the years. "I grew up being teased for the way I walked, talked, dressed, you name it. One day I decided to turn it all around and instead of crying about it, I simply let my freak flag fly and began to laugh at myself. This gave me a better perspective on life and a much tougher skin. No one could destroy me like they did back when I took nearly everything they said to heart. I let go of at least one side of my ego. The side that got hurt every time someone said something I didn't like. That's why I recommend this plan of action to any young person out there today who can't seem to cope with the negative that life is bound to thrust upon them."

Changing demographics

But, he adds, he doesn't feel his advice will be taken by today's Millennials. "This will no doubt fall on deaf ears. I have never seen a generation so convinced that they are 'special.' Whether or not the advice is taken, there will be no formal apologies issued from the desk of this middle-aged, flatfooted, gay clown. Period."

What has made Landry a sometimes decisive figure in the Boston LGBT community is his willingness to take on what he sees as a sort of bourgeoise superficiality. When Provincetown unwittingly transformed from a sleepy gay resort to a slick Hamptons strip mall made for the subtext to "The Gulls," his brilliant take on Hitchcock's "The Birds." He's even threatened to bring us a take on "The Diary of Anne Frank" (called "She's In The Attic" ) in which his heroine is being terrorized by muscle-bound circuit porn queens, whom he equates with the Nazis.

Landry has seen his audience change from those who would frequent the leather bar upstairs to the Dolce & Gabbana-attired ladies who lunch from the Back Bay oddly charmed by being in the Ramrod's basement. "We started with a one hundred percent gay male audience. We now play to people from all walks of life. People fly in from California to see our shows. Parents bring their grownup kids and the grownup kids bring their parents. We play to thousands of people during any given run so naturally there will be a mixing of demographics. I really love the older ladies who giggle at the dirty jokes. And of course several Professors bring their students to every show. Schools are actually studying the Orphans now and that is perhaps the greatest compliment we could hope to receive."

Couldn't believe

Still, that respect was a long-time coming. For years he would implore his audiences to petition the Boston Globe and other leading media outlets to attend his show. Eventually they turned around, but by that time they were fighting for seats in his makeshift performance space.

"They just couldn't believe that theater could happen in a gay bar and that 'drag queens' were the stars. It's sort of sad that most reviewers back in the day choose to keep the Orphans out of the papers. But in some ways they did us a favor. It just made us work all the harder and actually strengthened us as a group. We knew we had something to offer and simply kept going no matter how much we were ignored. Many nights we were out until all hours handing out flyers and begging people to come to the shows. Now we don't even put up posters. We simply post on Facebook that we are doing a show and the people come out in droves. So to any of those snooty reviewers who chose to ignore us all those years ago and hoped that we'd just go away ... Thank you!"

And Landry, it turns out, has had the last laugh. The rancor that marked his relationship with the critics has mellowed in recent years. He's been acknowledged with rave reviews and accolades. Earlier this month the Boston Theater Critics Association chose Landry for its most prestigious award: The Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence which will top a ceremony at the Shubert Theatre on May 11. In receiving the honor, Landry only laughed and said ... "What the fuck took 'em so long?"

"Thoroughly Muslim Millie" continues through May 20 at Machine, 1254 Bolyston Street, Boston, MA. For more information, visit the Gold Dust Orphans Facebook page.