Steve Hayes: Tired Old Queen at the Movies: Live!

By Brooklyn Bill

Last night, Tony and I caught Steve Hayes: Tired Old Queen at the Movies: Live!, a stage show derived from the YouTube video series. It was every bit as fun as I'd hoped it would be.

SHTOQATML is part of Gayfest NYC 2010, a series of original plays whose proceeds benefit Harvey Milk High School.

John Bixler—who's familiar to fans of the videos as "Johnny," Hayes's friend who introduces each episode—started the evening by explaining that Hayes began sharing his love of old movies with him when the two were appearing in a play together in Boca Raton, Florida. Since that town is populated mostly by seniors who eat the early-bird special and then go to bed, there was nothing to do after their show was over. So Hayes would screen films and offer his own insights into them.

Hayes talked about three movies that he's recommended in his videos: The Letter, The Furies, and Demetrius and the Gladiators, which was the subject of episode #1. He also answered questions about how gays and lesbians were portrayed and queer actors were treated back in the day. And he told stories about—and did impersonations of—actors and actresses, including his favorite, Susan Hayward, who grew up in Brooklyn and went out to LA to audition for the role of Scarlett O'Hara. She was advised to go back to New York and model instead. But she persevered and got better as an actress, improving on her performance in DATG, in which, Hayes said, she sounded like Rome were a city near Utica. Ha!

Despite what the main Gayfest page says, the Tired Old Queen has two more performances left: tonight and Friday night. Or maybe it's three: The ticket-purchasing page now has a clickable link for a Saturday night show. I'll get that situation nailed down and update this post accordingly.

At any rate, catch SHTOQATML if you can, especially if you enjoy classic films and the stars of yesteryear.

UPDATE: I confirmed that SHTOQATML has been extended to Saturday. Ticket page is here.