KRJY Announcer 0:02 K-R-J-Y St. Louis Deborah Law 0:18 Good morning, and welcome to this morning's edition of Lambda Reports program brought to you by and for the lesbian and gay community. My name is Deborah Law, and I'm here this morning with Joan Lipkin. Welcome again. Joan Lipkin 0:29 Well, thank you. Good morning. Deborah Law 0:30 Joan was with us last week as we were discussing the current production of Some of My Best Friends Are, which Joan is the writer and director. Some of My Best Friends Are is St. Louis's first gay and lesbian review and enjoying a very successful run at the other Fox, which is at 2102 Russell. For any of you who have not heard, Russell at McNair and any of you who have not yet seen it, get out and see it, it's super. Let me tell you a little bit about John Lipkin and Tom Clear, who is the lyricist for this production. They are both well known to the St. Louis theatrical community, and we're very honored that Joan has again joined us for today's show. Joan is a Joan is a former columnist for The Riverfront Times, a two time winner of St Louis Playwrights Festival and a theater reviewer for KDHX radio. This spring, she was the subject of a national story by the Associated Press for her touring production about foster care. Tom clear, is currently musical director and co star of Pump Boys and Dinettes at the Goldenrod show board showboat, excuse me, certainly, we have some fine folks putting on this production for us. This is super we were able last week to talk much about some of the inspiration for the show and things that have been happening with it. What has anything new come up in the last week? I assume you're still playing to playing to packed houses and … Deborah Law 0:33 We are. It's wonderful. We had, we sold out our first four weeks every performance, and right now we're just anticipating more of the same. Deb, right now we are extended through the Thanksgiving weekend. November 26 right now is our last performance. But one never knows. It changes from minute to minute. Tom and I are very pleased. Deborah Law 2:08 Great. Stay tuned. We will let you know if the show is again extended, and we certainly hope it will be Joan Lipkin 2:13 the Lambda Updates, right? Deborah Law 2:15 Let me tell you that box office number too, it's 361-1505, I would recommend that you do call for reservations. And as one who has seen the show and plans on seeing it again, I strongly recommend and urge that you go see it. One of the things that we would like to do today, really, is to feature some of the music from the show. Joan Lipkin 2:34 Great. Deborah Law 2:34 Yeah, maybe, I think what we had talked about opening with is something that's called Frank and Sheila meet, Joan Lipkin 2:42 Right. Well, Frank and Sheila Meet is not music, of course, it is. It is a sketch, but it kind of sets the tone for the whole for the stage here, so to speak, Frank and Sheila are our token heterosexual couple who are living in a gay world. And what I have done is to invert the so-called norm, to show intolerance and try and point up the absurdity of it. So Frank and Sheila have to meet surreptitiously and pick each other up in the park. And of course, they're worried about getting hauled in on some trumped up morals charge when they're in Forest Park. And then we watch the progression of their relationship. They try to find a movie to go to, one that reflects their lifestyle, and it's very difficult. All they can find are Lily Tomlin, Bette Midler films, or, you know, Burt Reynold, Clint Eastwood, romantic pairings. It's sort of a fun kind of a twist, a fun twist with with a little bit of a bitter edge, I think. And we watch the progression as Sheila tries to bring Frank to the office Christmas party to come out at the office Christmas party, as it were, by bringing her fiance, and she's hit on by her lesbian boss, and it goes on, I don't want to give away the punch line, but so Frank and Sheila meet, and we thought it would be fun if you could get a sense, it sort of sets the tone for the entire show with the sketch called Frank and Sheila Meet. Deborah Law 4:07 Let's listen. Gary 4:12 You see that. He looks like a "normal" guy, but I'm telling you, it's unbelievable. Those people are everywhere. Shiela 4:22 You work at Mac don't you in data processing? Frank 4:26 I used to. Now I'm at Emerson. Shiela 4:29 I knew I had seen you around. Do you come here often? Gary 4:35 Will you look at that and in broad daylight, it's disgusting. Martin 4:41 Oh, I don't know, Gary, I feel kind of sorry for them. Where are they supposed to meet? In bars. Gary 4:46 Oh, you're such a bleeding heart. Martin, watch, they have a special code. That's how they signal each other. See he's opening it. Frank 4:56 It's only baloney and cheese. Would you like some? Gary 4:59 That's it. I knew it. What did I tell you? Martin 5:00 Oh, you really are up on things. Gary, how do you do it? Gary 5:06 I read a lot. Bob likes to get Family Circle. Martin 5:09 You're kidding? Gary 5:10 Yeah, it's actually embarrassing. But he says he likes the recipes. Martin 5:14 Oh, geez, I hope it comes in a plain brown wrapper. Gary 5:16 Shh. Look. She's about to signal back. Shiela 5:20 No thanks. I'm on a diet. Gary 5:23 They're always on a diet. The women, that is, the men, don't get nearly enough exercise. Martin 5:30 No, you're telling me, Gary 5:31 And they wouldn't know a decent after shave lotion if it slapped them in the face. Martin 5:35 Please, Mark, I have a lover. Gary 5:38 You're exciting me. Shiela 5:40 I will take a part of that orange, though. Gary 5:44 These breeders are unbelievable. They meet, they share a sandwich, and before you know it, it's wedding bells and microwaves. I just wish they'd stay in their own part of town. Martin 5:58 Oh, I don't know, Gary. They're not really hurting anybody. I say live and let live. Gary 6:02 I am not unreasonable, Martin. I mean, it was fine when they stuck to Glendale and Webster Groves, but now, with the new tax credits, they're moving back to the city. Martin 6:16 bsee what you mean. Shiela 6:18 My name is Sheila. Frank 6:19 Hi. I'm Frank. Gary 6:21 We had one of them move on to our block last year, after we had done all the work, upped the property values, opened the restaurants and antique stores, rehabbed the houses, and all they can talk about is the school system. Oh, this is too much. Let's just go. This is just ruining my radicchio and angel hair pasta with balthenic vinaigrette. Frank 6:50 I'd better get back to work. Shiela 6:51 Oh, just five more minutes. I really like talking to you, and well, you know how hard it is for people like us to meet. Frank 6:59 Tell me about it, but I have to be really careful at work. I think my supervisor knows something is up. He's been watching me like a hawk. Shiela 7:08 Gee, that's tough. Frank 7:09 I think we'd better go. I've heard this park can be really dangerous, especially at lunchtime. Shiela 7:16 It's a free country. We have just as much right to be here as they do. Frank 7:22 I feel uncomfortable, and I can't afford to get hauled in again on some trumped up morals charge. Straight Gal 7:27 Ooh, look at the HETS. Shiela 7:30 Straight Gal 7:34 I'm talking to you feeling like a big man? Gonna get a little tonight? Shiela 7:41 Frank. Deborah Law 7:42 That was great. That was fun. And actually say Frank and Sheila will continue, are a part of the entire show as we come back to those little scenes that you had talked about. They're interspersed among other scenes throughout the show, right? One of the ties that bind, so we have to watch them struggle. Actually, I think next we're going to be listening to something called role playing, right? Singers 8:16 How do you do? That's with the check. I do believe in role playing. I've done them all, both Butch and Fem, and I don't like them. Singers 8:30 Like when I lived on the land in a house I built, getting over a nun and a lot of guilt, shoveling snow and falling trees yelling, at rednecks who yelled at me. Superwoman. I met a woman and became her wife. I thought that's all there was to life, cooking and shopping and bridge with the girls. Wearing lots of makeup and a string of pearls. Singers 9:05 I'm tired of people choosing roles for me. I've decided what I'm going to be. I want to be Tina Turner. That's a role that I want to play. You can be a Tina tomorrow, I want to be a Tina today, to be a spender and a learner. That can be a very good role when I play Tina Turner, the two sides of my soul. Then I can be strong when I wanna be sexy and motherly, sisterly, brotherly, dangerous. Singers 10:00 Not just Joan Lipkin 10:16 Okay, and that was Role Playing. And you might be interested to know that we are going to be issuing a personal invitation to Miss Turner herself, to come and see it in the flesh. Deborah Law 10:29 Great, great, an old St Louis woman I love. Joan Lipkin 10:32 Right. It's our tribute here, Deborah Law 10:36 Really, I guess it's the second act that opens with Hoosier Boy that we'll be listening to next. Joan Lipkin 10:42 Right. This song has fast become the Rave Fave of the show, although I have my personal favorites, such as Kitten with the Whip. But people really love Hoosier Boy, and it's sort of like our torchy it's our Torch Song. Deborah Law 10:57 That's great. Listen. This is wonderful. Gary 11:10 He works at the Amoco at Connecticut, and grand, and wears a dirty T-shirt of a heavy metal band. He also busses tables at the Steak and Shake on Gravios, he's my little Hoosier Boy. Gary 11:27 Hoosier Boy, I love you, but you never look at me when I look at you. Hoosier Boy, I love you so, when you're not at Grand and Gravios, where do you go? Gary 11:50 One Saturday night, I watched him get drunk, then he fought with somebody dressed like a punk. Mondays, he plays basketball with other Hoosier guys. I sit and watch for hours with tears in my eyes. Gary 12:08 Hoosier Boy, I love you, but you never look at me when I look at you. Hoosier Boy, I love you so. When you're not at Grand and Gravois, where do you go? Night falls on Tower Grove Park. Hoosier silhouette is standing in the dark. To see you there is all it would take to make me br forever out of Steak and Shake. Gary 12:37 Hoosier Boy.I love you, but you never look at me when I look at you, Hoosier Boy? I love you. So, wherever you go, whatever you do, when you look a-way, I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there, my Hoosier Boy. Ah-hh. Deborah Law 13:31 My thinking that this show needs to go on the road and should be on the road, and folks everywhere need to see it. I've always had people say to me, Well, what about all these references to St. Louis, you know? And I say every show that comes here from New York, nobody changes any references. It's about time people know a little bit more about St. Louis. I think this show, this song, would be a hit wherever. Joan Lipkin 13:51 Hooiser Boy. Yeah, except in Indiana, maybe people who love it, people had a different concept of a Hoosier Boy, I think in Indiana, but yeah. And then, of course, I think references can be changed, but a lot of this stuff is really universal, Deborah Law 14:05 Yeah, okay. And I guess, really, the last one that we're going to be listening to today is judge in my bedroom, right? Joan Lipkin 14:15 And this song was, is our finale, and it actually takes us all the way back to the beginning of the show, because the show was based on the the idea for the show is based on Missouri sexual misconduct law, which of as you know, makes it a Class A misdemeanor, for people of the same sex to be intimate in the state of Missouri. And we thought this was just a little bit on the outrageous side, so we wrote a real fun, uplifting, rousing, kind of song called judge in my bedroom, and it's kind of like our Hollywood finale. Singers 14:55 There's a judge in my bedroom. There's a cop at the door. There's Governor Ashcroft debating gestation without my approval or representation. Gary 15:08 Gonna send to Mr. Rehnquist names of everyone I ever kissed. Gonna throw it open to congressional debate whenever I decide to accept a date beside the judge in my bedroom, besides a cop at the door, there's a crowd of porch who are experts on sin, and they seem determined to come right on in. It's a William F Buckley, how you doing, Bill? Who's that with you? Why it's been George Will. Phyllis Schlafley coming tonight with Jesse Helms on her right. Shiela 15:48 They want to clean up my bookcase and get rid of anybody gay like May, Sergeant Foucault, she and a Janae Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde and Verena May, Singers 16:01 They want to go through my artwork. And if they're not straight, they gotta go. Goodbye to Sappho and salvadio Elton John, ?? Thomas, Valentino. Singers 16:14 They want to decide who would be my spouse and get Barney Frank out of the House. I'm getting out of my bedroom trying to call up all my friends, take 300,000 to Washington to raise some hell and have some fun. What you do in your bedroom is up to you. Your private life is no one's affairs. Everybody out of my pubic hair. No one's allowed in my bedroom, unless I invite them in. Deborah Law 16:59 Marvelous, to say, one of the things that is a part of the show, and in kind of response to this, has been the petitions are available for people to sign so for the repeal of this section of the penal code of Missouri and get this sexual misconduct law off the books. So there's a tremendous amount of good work that's being done while we enjoy ourselves at the review. Joan Lipkin 17:25 I would hope so. You know, one of the things that I've told people when when they've come to see the show is that I really want people to feel comfortable about signing the petition. Obviously, we don't. We don't hammer at anybody to do so. It's their choice. But we tell them that all sorts of people are signing this petition, gay people, straight people, people, basically, who feel that the government has no no right to pass legislation over our private lives. And we feel that this petition is very important, and we would really like to get this one off the books. Deborah Law 17:56 We're working on it hard and fast. So as we close this show, I thank you again for joining us and for sharing this music. Course, this is great fun. I again urge anyone who has not seen the show to get out there and see it. And I know I don't have to urge any of you who have seen it to go see it again, again. In just playing at the other Fox there are shows Friday and Saturday night starting at eight, Sunday matinees that start at four, the Other Fox Is at 2102 Russell, Russell and McNair in the St. Marcus Church. And please do call the box office at 361-1505, to make your reservations. As we indicated earlier, this show is playing to packed houses. Great. Thanks again. Joan, Joan Lipkin 18:41 Thank you. Deb. KRJY Announcer 19:14 K-R-J-Y St. Louis. Transcribed by https://otter.ai