By Alix Cohen . . .

“No tears for me, boys/I’ll tell ya what I’m goin’ to be, boys/The perfect lady, the way I planned/So give the little lady a great big hand…” Lee Roy Reams exuberantly sings- and the audience does just that. “Thank God, all my relatives showed up,” the performer quips. In fact, the room is sold out, boasting a great many show business luminaries. (“A Great Big Hand” -Leroy Anderson/ Joan Ford, Jean Kerr, Walter Kerr)

Reams opens with what he’s NOT going to talk about: “The time I saw Tallulah Bankhead naked…what Juliet Prowse said about the size of Frank Sinatra’s dick…” It’s difficult to explain how this actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, director, risqué Scheherazade can not only speak that way but use four letter words without ever seeming vulgar. The man is just damn sweet (not saccharine), naughty if one had to choose an adjective. Nothing he says is offensive.

                                     

Inspired by a series of candid interviews featuring his sex life, peppering the show with illustrative, personal songs, Reams takes us through a sketch of a life as colorful as his silk shirt. From sexual awakening at 6 to dance lessons and performance shortly thereafter – including being “put in girl face,” (first drag) for “Lovely Hula Hands” (Marty Robbins);  from popularity with girls featuring a single ersatz heterosexual sexual experience-  and bullying by boys, to full time education in pursuit of his life’s vocation.

When asked how he came “out,” Reams truthfully replies he was never “in.” This is a man who lived Jerry Herman’s credo “I Am What I Am”, though naively at first, from the get-go.  (When he later sings the song, our audience reacts as if hearing it for the first stunning time.) A production of South Pacific exposed him to a first deep crush, the footballer who would intermittently turn up in his life, sometimes on the wrong end of the stick. “This Nearly Was Mine” (Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II) is as tender as you’ll ever hear it.

We hear about working with Juliet Prowse, dancing in Sweet Charity “Boy did I learn a lot from the boys in that chorus!” an ill-fated affair with Michael Bennett, some in-passing but pointedly honest flings, and meeting his life partner Bob in a moment that might’ve been written by Nora Ephron. Reams talks about being gay on Broadway in Applause – where in some states audiences were appalled, in others delighted.

One particularly intriguing story concerns his playing Bobby in Stephen Sondheim’s Company as if a confused gay man (with permission of the producer and director.) Reams’ rendition of “Being Alive” takes on entirely new and wrenching meaning.

There are several productions in which the performer wore a dress, sometimes against an agent’s advice, not because it turned him on or came naturally but because he’s a self-avowed “f**kin’ actor.” La Cage aux Folles, Victor Victoria, and The Producers precede a veritable saga of being involved with Hello Dolly! After twice playing Cornelius Hackl and directing the musical 7 times, including once with Carol Channing herself, Reams was the first Equity actor to play Dolly Levi.

Alex Rybeck – Lee Roy Reams

Oddly, 42nd Street, in which he acted Billy Lawlor many successful years, is given short shrift, but then the venue had a second show coming in. When the Footballer makes another brief appearance, “That Old Feeling” (Lew Brown/ Sammy Fain) touchingly emerges hand on heart. Still, after 50 years, it’s Bob that Reams misses every day and about whom, accompanied by a series of screened photographs, he sings “I’ve Grown Accustomed to His Face.” There are tears in the house.

“As far as my homosexuality is concerned, I never hid it, never flaunted it. With it, I’ve had a successful career and more importantly a happy life.” This is a show about an artist who happens to be homosexual, not the reverse. It’s entertaining, joyful, moving and wise. You’ll want to take him home. When he does another one, immediately secure tickets.

Lee Roy Reams: Uncensored! For Adults Only!
Music Director/Piano- Alex Rybeck

54Below  254 West 54th ST.
Venue https://54below.org/

Featured Image: Photo by Deborah Jean Templin