Unprotected by Billy Porter

Author:Billy Porter [Billy Porter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams Press
Published: 2021-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

I turned down the gig three times!

And now I sat in the historic room of Joe Allen restaurant. A Broadway institution, Joe Allen has been a staple for Broadway performers, creatives, and fans of the Great White Way for decades. Posters of Broadway flops line the cavernous brick walls. My heart was fluttering as I awaited my meeting with the director. Fifteen minutes early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable. I can be a bit of a perfectionist, so I had gotten there twenty-five minutes early.

The director appeared, towering over my table like the Jolly Green Giant. Although Jeff Calhoun was far from green. He was actually blond, and stunningly beautiful. But that’s beside the point. This man sat across from me, and I could barely get out a greeting before he dove right in.

“You must do our show!” he shouted with glee. “It’s gonna make you a star! I’m gonna make you a star!”

Grease is the musical of which he spoke. And by 1994, while Grease had been successful both critically and commercially, becoming the highest-grossing musical film ever at the time and arguably the most culturally penetrative crossover musical in history, I simply cared not. I understood the appeal in theory, but there was nothing about the music, characters, or story line that spoke to me or my experience in any way. I found the ultimate message of the piece, which essentially is telling women to give in to peer pressure and dress like a hooker to be accepted by the popular kids, to be toxic and problematic at best.

I turned that shit down three times.

I tried to throw the audition. Mainly because my white counterparts were being called in for specific characters like Danny Zuko, Rizzo, Sandy Dumbrowski, Kenickie—archetypes that had been immortalized by the Caucasian likes of John Travolta, Stockard Channing, Olivia Newton-John, and Jeff Conaway, respectively, in the 1978 film version of Grease. I was just being called in to audition for . . . whatever? Unacceptable! “Audition for what role?” I barked at Bill Butler after the third time the casting director called to gauge my interest.

“They said you can audition for whatever role you want except for Danny Zuko. I truly do think this will be an amazing opportunity for you. Tommy Tune himself is overseeing the production. Rosie O’Donnell is already attached.”

“Can Rosie O’Donnell even sing?”

No response.

I greased my overprocessed, dry-ass relaxed hair up into a fifties conch and prepared to audition for the role of Kenickie, singing the 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis hit “Great Balls of Fire.” I figured, go big or go home! The request for a callback audition came swift. “They are asking that you come back in with an eye toward the roles of Roger or the Teen Angel.”

Roger? Who the fuck is that?

Bill Butler, in all of his visionary acumen, suggested Teen Angel: “One song, in-out, stop the show and you’re done. Very little work for lots of exposure.”

I thought about it.

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