After Chauncey's Pansies, Meet The Nance's Chauncey

By coincidence, Douglas Carter Beane's new play The Nance, which brings to life the era of pansy acts and burgeoning antigay blacklash described in Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 by George Chauncey, is about a nelly performer named Chauncey Miles (Nathan Lane). Chauncey, a middle-aged Republican actor, plays a superswish character in a fading New York burlesque lifted by the sudden popularity of his pansy act beloved by both gay and straight audiences. It is 1937 and in advance of the coming World's Fair and a tight mayoral race, officials want to clean up the city: Police raids on gay bars expand to theaters, with fines, raids, and ultimately a ban on degenerate performers. In typically twisted tradition, the city official leading the ban on pansy performances is himself a closet case, and the law he's pushing to ban gay performers will still allow cross-dressing. I don't think The Nance mentions it, but of course the spreading antigay sentiment was also enshrined in Hollywood's infamous Hays Code of 1934 banning, among other things, "sex perversion."

Offstage, either from this growing repression, his long self-hatred, or simple preference, Chauncey prefers one night stands, yet he agrees to a relationship with Ned, a much younger naive newcomer he picks up in a lavender automat. The untenable imbalances of their situation (Chauncey wants an open relationship; Ned needs monogamy) combined with the stress of neverending fear of police raids and the probability of Chauncey losing his career are juggled with other plot strands emphasizing hopes raised and dashed -- notably unions, strikes, and Communism. Already groaning with too much material, the play is constantly interrupted by burlesque performances that overstay their welcome. Corny routines compete with unsexy strip numbers. Even without the edits it craves, The Nance has some powerful moments and makes important points about a forgotten era in our history.

Comments

[Ryan]

He's named Chauncey by design, as a nod to George Chauncey.

I found the play's ease with the casual racism of the 1930s at odds with its 2010s moralistic attitudes about monogamy.

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