House of Secrets

Pride Playbill

Harvey Fierstein’s Casa Valentina, in its last days at the Manhattan Theatre Club is a wonderful piece of theater. At turns touching, exiting, and funny it was a crowd pleaser. The play received four Tony award nominations, winning none. The competition must have been fierce.

A digression about the audience though. In settling into their seats, they were much noisier than they are at my local theater, more people seemed to be filtering in or out after curtain, and so forth. They did quiet right down once the lights dimmed.

Our local theater doesn’t use a curtain, so it was truly amazing when, after the lights dimmed, the stage was lit with some spots, showing four of the characters getting ready. Then the action. The play is set in a failing Catskills resort in 1962, the Chevalier D’Eon. I was prepared to tell James about the Chevalier during intermission, but Valentina (George when he’s in pants, and played by Patrick Page) has a speech explaining who the Chevalier was. I had read [Monsieur D’Éon is a Woman](Monsieur D’Eon Is a Woman: A Tale of Political Intrigue and Sexual Masquerade ) some years ago, so I was already aware of the history of French aristocrat who spent various years in either a male or female identity.

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