Douglas Carter Beane mines laughs in Hollywood hypocrisy
When Douglas Carter Beane is in the midst of writing a play, he often comes to a point where he wonders if the project has a valid purpose. "And," he said, "invariably someone comes along and says, ’Oh, shut up and just do it.’"
In the case of his most recent hit, the acerbic Hollywood comedy The Little Dog Laughed, the "shut up and do it" provocateur was Armistead Maupin. During a visit to San Francisco, Beane was telling the Tales of the City novelist about a play in progress that focused on a closeted politician whom Beane was considering turning into a rising young movie star.
But Beane was afraid the Hollywood closet was a dated destination until Maupin gave him an earful on specific cases on ongoing hypocrisy. "It’s so repulsive, yet it’s such a given that even a jaded sophisticate such as I buys into the myth," Beane said.
In 2006, The Little Dog Laughed became Beane’s first play to reach Broadway, and it has matched the success of his 1997 off-Broadway comedy As Bees in Honey Drown. New Conservatory Theatre Center presented the SF premiere of Bees last year, and is now doing the same with Little Dog.
The two plays are companion pieces of a sort. In Bees, a young gay novelist becomes the pigeon for a diva/con artist who lures her prey with promises of social fabulousness while draining their bank accounts. It’s a diva/agent who promises superstardom to a young actor if only he can stamp out his "slight recurring case of homosexuality." Her plans are complicated by the actor’s infatuation with a softhearted hustler who is newly interested in being gay without pay.
Comparisons to Coward
In fact, The Little Dog Laughed owes a direct debt to Beane’s efforts at seeing As Bees in Honey Drown turned into a movie. Or not turned, as it were. After he sold the movie rights to Universal and submitted a script, the studio began requesting changes that would tone down the gay elements. When Beane complained in an interview in The Advocate about this de-gaying of his play, the studio claimed he was in violation of his contract by defaming the project. The issue was settled privately, and Beane walked away from the adaptation, which ended up never being made.
"There was a time I cried about it," he said, "but I’m fine now. It was my first real hit play, and I was certain I’d never write as successful a play again."
In the new play, the avaricious agent Diane is trying to buy a gay-themed play for her protege, the sexually conflicted Mitchell, but knows it will only be marketable if he is seen as a straight actor daring to take on a gay role. The unseen playwright with the hot property and a lot of unwarranted trust in the Hollywood system is clearly based on Beane himself.
Beane’s plays have been compared to the sharply constructed, wittily dialogued plays by Philip Barry, Kaufman and Hart, and Noel Coward. There is a superficial veneer to many of his characters, but he sees it as armor rather than hubris. "I think there is a certain pain and hurt of all these people," he said, "and I think people recognize that."
Beane is one of the few high-profile playwrights to acknowledge the importance of camp in his work. "I use it very sparingly, but I use it when I want to make a point. Camp is a way of commenting on suffering in a joyous way. But it can be very disconcerting to people who need to know that everything is sincere. When we opened Xanadu [a send-up of the roller-skating goddess movie musical], it was an eye-opening experience."
Beane will soon be traveling to London and Paris for new productions of The Little Dog Laughed, and he will be balancing those rehearsals with his new play Mr. and Mrs. Fitch, about married gossip columnists opening at Second Stage in New York in January, and the musical Give It Up!, a modern variation on the classic Greek comedy Lysistrata, which also starts in January at the Dallas Theatre Center. Songs for the new musical are by Lewis Flinn, Beane’s partner for the past nine years, and the co-parent of two small children.
"It’s crazy busy," Beane said. "December and January have just blown up in my face in the last hour. I don’t know yet how it’s all going to work out."
But Beane, whose career has had potentially unnerving lulls between successes, isn’t going to complain about the abundance of work. "I think I was absolutely tone-deaf to any failures that I had," he said. "I’ve had bad losses, but I’ve had the best career. You have to keep coming back and just say you’re going to have to deal with me on my terms."
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