It's been 18 years since puppeteer Waylon Flowers died of complications from AIDS, but his most famous creation has not been laid to rest. "I've got too much personality to be stuck in a box," says Madame. "Open that box and get me the fuck out."
The voice may sound the same, but Madame is now under the jurisdiction of Joe Kovacs — who periodically steps aside during a phone interview to let Madame have her say. "Richard, I have to know something right off the bat," Madame brayed after first coming on the line. "Is it all right if I call you Dick? I'm always looking forward to meeting a big Dick."
But seriously, folks. Kovacs has been entrusted with both the puppet and the legacy left by Flowers, and it was not a decision that Marlena Shell, trustee of Flowers' estate, made easily. "I had other people working her for a while," Shell said in a conference call with Kovacs and, occasionally, Madame. "But the whole thing is finding that person who has the right attitude and understands her personality. So it took time before I found the right person."
Madame and Kovacs have made several low-key appearances, but an Empire Plush Room engagement that begins Nov. 30 is the real coming-out party for the duo. "There's something old, there's something new, there's something borrowed, and there's something blue," Madame said of the show titled It's Madame with an E! "It's just a lot of funny shit."
Although out of the limelight for nearly two decades, Madame still has her fans. "What we have found is that with straight audiences age 35 and upwards, most people remember her," Shell said. "From the gay audience, even 20-year-olds know who she is because she is part of the heritage and culture of the group."
Growing up in Ohio, Kovacs is just old enough to remember Madame's appearances on Hollywood Squares and Solid Gold. "I got my first puppets when I was 3," he said, "and I watched anything with puppets on it. To this day, I will watch Sesame Street just to see the art that is going on behind the fur and the fleece."
Kovacs has performed with his own puppet characters, but most of his steady income has come from puppeteering in live stage shows produced by the Muppets and the Disney Channel. "Most of my own stuff has been hand-and-rod puppets," he said, "so doing Madame is up the alley I was already going."
Shell first heard about Kovacs when she was looking to have a replacement Madame puppet made. "People who were with us at the time of Waylon feel that Joe is just the perfect person to bring Madame back," said Shell, who was Flowers' manager before he died.
But it wasn't just a matter of taking the puppet out of its box and walking on stage. "The difference between Madame and other puppets is that they're not puppets who go out and about," Shell said. "Waylon would take Madame to restaurants, bars, anyplace. She was always with him. Joe has been wonderful in going out on the town with Madame, and he has to be quick-witted because people talk to Madame just like she was a person."
At some point, Shell knows she will have to let Kovacs take over in an artistic sense. "I don't think it's been terribly easy for Joe," she said, "because first I was Waylon's friend, then I was his manager, and then I was his caretaker. But I have to relax a little bit, and the more Joe's out there and the more she's accepted, the happier I am, and it makes it easier for him. But he's a very even-tempered guy. It takes a lot of get under his feathers."
"I don't ruffle easily," Kovacs concurred, adding that he shares Shell's concern that he be an authentic channeler of what Flowers created. And he believes he is the one to do it. "I have friends who say they always knew something was coming for me. They're like, this is the perfect job because it encompasses everything I've ever done and wraps it all up into one tiny little three-foot package."
For info on the return of Madame, call (866) 468-3399 or go to www.empireplushroom.com.
Short scenes
Prince Gomolvilas and Brandon Patton are a theatrical odd couple whose collaboration has produced Jukebox Stories. The gay and dapper playwright and the straight and shaggy singer-songwriter take turns performing selections chosen by members of the audience each evening. It's inspired by their own nights entertaining one another in a messy living room that has been duplicated in LaVal's Subterranean. The Impact Theatre production will run through Dec. 13. Call (510) 464-4468 or go to www.impacttheatre.com.
SF Playhouse is getting a head start on the coming storm of holiday entertainment with Craig Lucas' Reckless, running now through Dec. 30 in the Sutter Street theater. It's the story of Rachel (played by Susi Damilano), who escapes a murderous husband on Christmas Eve to begin a bizarre journey where she finds a home with a succession of strangers. More info at 677-9596 or www.sfplayhouse.org.
Moliere provides the bones of The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue, a Jazz-Age re-rendering of his 1672 comedy Les Femmes Savantes. TheatreWorks is presenting the West Coast premiere of David Grimm's screwball comedy about high-society romance that he wrote in rhyming couplets. It runs Nov. 29-Dec. 23. Call (650) 903-6000.
Richard Dodds can be reached at [email protected].