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Gay-themed musical embraced at St. Dunstan's Guild

By By Taras Berezowsky

BLOOMFIELD HILLS – Jeff Davison, Matt Horn and Anthony Marsalese are no strangers to edgy work. Since the three first met during a production of "La Cage Aux Folles" in 2001, they've been pushing the envelope at St. Dunstan's Guild of Cranbrook. This community theater, nestled in the old-growth pines of Bloomfield Hills, is perhaps more memorable for its parochial facade than for the plays and musicals staged within its walls. But what do these guys do? Embrace it.

"One thing I love about St. Dunstan's is that we're like a family. It's a club. When you're in a club, everyone pitches in for the greater good," says Davison, who directs the season's initial offering, "A Man of No Importance." This chamber musical, with music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and a book by Terrence McNally, follows the story of Alfie Byrne, a bus conductor in 1964 Dublin, whose goal is to direct his theater troupe, the St. Imelda Players, in a production of Oscar Wilde's "Salome" – in his church's Bingo hall.
"A lot of it deals with guilt," says Marsalese, Davison's partner of 21 years, who plays Alfie. "Part of his struggle is truly believing he'll go to hell if he comes out, so he chooses to surround himself with art and books."
Alfie nurtures such an infatuation with Wilde that the circumstances of his own life interweave with those of the famous playwright. "Even some of the characters' names in the musical are from Wilde's personal history," Marsalese notes. "Carson, Alfie's boss' name, happens to be the name of the defense attorney hired by the Marquess of Queensberry when Wilde sued him for slander."
While Wilde ended up in jail for gross indecency, Alfie's fortunes suffer their own downturns, as the church rejects his play and his troupe, and his crush on a younger bus driver goes unrequited, forcing him to finally confront his sexuality.
"It's a coming out story," says Horn, the musical director, "with a lot of humor thrown in, too."
Horn serves on the play reading committee, which assists in selecting scripts for the season. One consideration was to have the opening weekend of the show coincide with National Coming Out Day, founded in honor of the first gay march on Washington, D.C., and celebrating its 20th anniversary this year on Oct. 11. "So many recent coming out stories involve teenagers; a lot of people can relate to that," says Horn. "But to watch this ordinary guy thrown out there and forced to deal with this huge challenge…the first time I saw it was magical."
This universal appeal of Alfie Byrne as the Everyman solidified "A Man of No Importance" in the season's lineup. The intention of staging a musical with such far-reaching themes – and such unthinkable taboos, especially in early 1960s Dublin – is a not only a noble one, but one that deserves as broad an audience as possible. "Of course, we'd love to see the GLBT community at the show," Davison said. "But it's important to us that everyone see it."
In these unsure times, when we depend upon our neighbor more than ever, the message of love and acceptance is paramount to our survival. "There's a song in it, called 'Love Who You Love.' This is what draws me to the show: Love doesn't care who owns it," Davison explains. "Love doesn't care who you love. If you asked Love if it was prejudiced against anybody, it would say 'No.'"

PREVIEW:
'A Man of No Importance'
St. Dunstan's Guild of Cranbrook, 400 Lone Pine Rd., Bloomfield Hills. Oct. 10-12 & 16-18. Tickets: $18. For information: 248-737-3587 or http://www.stdunstanstheatre.com.

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