If you've seen the gay-themed stage musical Naked Boys Singing, you've probably walked out humming some of the tunes. Perhaps one of them was "Perky Little Porn Star," written by David Pevsner. Naked Boys Singing has now made the transition from the stage to the screen, so that you may enjoy the show in the privacy of your own home, clothing optional. Pevsner, who has appeared on stage, on television and on film, recently spoke with me.
Gregg Shapiro: Nearly 10 years after its premiere, what do you think of the phenomenon that Naked Boys Singing has become?
David Pevsner: The reason it started in the first place was that the Celebration Theater was going under. We thought, "What sells?" Musicals and nudity. I'm really not surprised that it's gone on as long as it has. I think that it has its place in entertainment. It's not the be-all and end-all. Everything shouldn't be musical, and everything shouldn't be naked. But it came at a time when there really wasn't anything like it, and it hit. For all of us, all the writers and everyone who has been involved, it's been a great thing. I've become friends with the songwriters.
It's become very popular with the bachelorette party circuit.
Unbelievable! I knew women were becoming the audience in New York, but I hadn't been there for a while. The doors open, and here comes this throng of very happy women, shrieking, laughing and covering their faces. I almost couldn't walk through the door. I was so awestruck by the fact that this thing had crossed over, but then I saw it with my own eyes!
Would you have ever imagined that Naked Boys Singing would be made into a movie?
Bob Schrock had a narrative script that took the songs and put them into the context of the boys backstage and what was going on. It was very fun. But I think when Funny Boy Films decided to shoot the movie, they said, No. Let's not take a chance. Let's just give people the show. Get some good guys in it, shoot it stylishly, and that'll be the movie.
As far as we understood, the film was going to be put out on DVD at Thanksgiving for Christmas, with the possibility of maybe a week in a theater somewhere. Then I was going through the L.A. Times fall preview piece, and sure enough, there was Naked Boys Singing with an opening date. I guess it's getting a full theatrical release. That sounds so funny.
A full-frontal theatrical release. "Fight the Urge," one of the songs you wrote for NBS, is a universal experience: fighting the urge to become aroused in a high school locker room.
"Fight the Urge" certainly came from a very real place. The way the showers were at Niles East High School, they were hell! It was a shower room. I used to be like, "Oh, my God, I can't take a shower!" But of course I did, because I was a little, anal, clean-freak gay boy. It unnerved me every time. Every single word in that song comes from what my inner monologue was.
"Perky Little Porn Star" not only speaks to empowerment, but also immortalized your hometown of Skokie, Illinois.
There's a moment towards the end of the musical The Drowsy Chaperone where the narrator, who is a loner and lives through his music, says something to the effect of, "What do you expect from a little gay boy from Skokie, Illinois?" I just started to bawl! I asked him afterwards if he was from Skokie, and he said, "No, we just thought it was a funny name." And it is! But for me, Skokie, Illinois represents everything suburban, everything that's covert. You were a good boy in Skokie, Illinois.
What can you tell me about your current projects?
We've done four readings of the new show, The Fancy Boys Follies. It's so much fun. It's sort of a low-rent, gay Ziegfeld Follies. It has burlesque/vaudeville qualities to it. I call it "vaudelesque." We're just looking for the right venue for it. The readings have gone incredibly well.
I just got back from Scotland, where I was doing a production of [the Terence McNally play] Corpus Christi as an actor, and we finally got a chance to do it at the Fringe Festival. It was an amazing experience. There's a movie I wrote that I've been pushing for a long time, called Musical Comedy Whore. But, as you know, it's difficult to get stuff made. It's a fun, sexy comedy with a dark edge to it. The Fancy Boys Follies actually started out as the fictional backdrop of the movie, a guy in a long-running off-Broadway show. Over the years, I've written the show. Ideally, I'd like to work the two projects together.
Naked Boys Singing makes its here! Networks debut on Sept. 26.