| One of the things that never "worked" for me (and I saw the original in previews, so I'm that old!), is Charley's devotion to Frank, which did feel like a "crush" when Lonny Price played it (I saw Jim Weissenbach as Frank). I don't think adolescent or young adult same-sex crushes necessarily either equate to a conscious or lifelong gay identity (NOT that there's anything WRONG with that)--that period of life is filled with both directed and undirected strong waves of emotion that are often hard to understand when they are happening. So, I view Charley as straight, but deeply attached to Frank. That he doesn't write him often sooner is my main complaint. That's where the reverse chronology doesn't serve the plot for me (I understand it does for real devotees of the show): we start by seeing Frank at his worst, and there's a kind of regression to the beginning of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by the final curtain. As Eliot says in "Gerontion," "After such knowledge, what forgiveness?" |
