Wow, talk about having a fuse set off in your tampon.

Oh and it totally puts the violence against gays in Nigeria and the bullying to death of American gays and lesbians in perspective as well.

We certainly wouldn't want anyone gaying-up our musical theater, would we?

Um... I saw it last night, it was really great, but Hoffer didn't play the piano student. He was outstanding as a straight boy—entirely believable. But he didn't play the piano student.

I saw this last night as well and I don't know what Misha saw in his performance that was flamboyant. A little overwrought at times, maybe (but so is the writing) but nothing was inherently flamboyant. I think Michael Strangeways has a legitimate complaint. Does Misha have a drag bias?

Dan, Misha notes that error of hers in the response Brendan links to as well. But the goof that makes me giggle is everyone repeating "Hedwig and the Angry Itch".

@6 You beat me to it. Although her mix-up makes me wonder if she was even critiquing the correct actor. Maybe she really had an issue with the man playing Georg, instead.

It's a fantastic production. I thought Hoffer's Moritz took some interesting choices...not what I expected, but he presented such a wrathful pain, it was mesmerizing. If anyone is considering seeing this show, buy tickets ASAP. They sold out all 4 of last week's shows, with standing room tickets, too, and are on pace to do the same this weekend (it's final 4 shows)

Broadway World waxes rhapsodic about Hoffer "And let’s talk a little about Hoffer. I’ve now seen him at Balagan, Seattle Shakes, Theater Off Jackson, and even Teatro ZinZanni. He just keeps popping up everywhere and in a wide variety of roles. And all I can say is, he makes me angry. No one should be this young and yet this incredibly talented. No matter the role he’s in he manages to completely disappear inside it and turn it into a bit of theatrical excellence you cannot take your eyes off. And the jealous part of me would absolutely hate him if the rest of me didn’t so much love watching him. He’s kind of one of those unsung gems of Seattle theater and I for one intend to start the singing about him."

Read more: http://seattle.broadwayworld.com/article…

Suggesting that an actor is unconvincing as a het male is not homophobic.

I think Hoffer is very talented, but based on what I've seen him do, he wouldn't be my first choice for the role of Stanley in Streetcar Named Desire, unless I was doing a satire.

@8, what a fantastic rave. Woof. Must go....

@9, Hoffer fits the bill a helluva lot better than Rock Hudson ever would have, and he'd have been a killer Stanley. Sexuality has no bearing on talent. Being a 21st century american is a bigger hurdle than sexuality, and look at all the dead Europeans we keep producing.

9: Most hetero actors couldn't pull off Stanley. Could Ben Stiller? The guy who played Malcolm in Malcolm in the Middle? Russel Brand? No and no and no.

The part Hoffer plays isn't a testosterone-dripping straight boy thug. It's an adolescent, a nervous and neurotic schoolboy. Hoffer was amazing.

@12 Exactly. Moritz is supposed to be a schoolboy completely overwhelmed by the concept of sexuality. Perhaps the reviewer has simply never seen the show before.

Maybe they should have cast Tim Tebow.

Your first sentence reads like a high school hallway conversation. "I heard that Jenny was saying that Britney was talking about Jared's talk with Tamora & how she said that she said that she was saying how it wasn't true. OMG! She is such a *bitch*!"

@12: Most hetero actors couldn't pull off Stanley.

Right - actors have limits to their range. Even gay actors.

Look, I'm just saying that if for whatever reason - range, poor direction, an off night - Hoffer brought a little too much Jinkx Monsoon to the role of Moritz on that particular performance, it's not homophobic to point that out.

@15
It's a little bit of old school Seattlewood Confidential.

No, it's fine if Ms Berson didn't care for Mr. Hoffer's performance. Art is subjective. I objected to her use of inflammatory words to deride his performance. It was a personal attack on the actor based on his "flamboyant" performance style. Misha Berson apparently and rather quickly must have realized she stepped over a line with her words. She retracted her original statement, and her many errors in that statement, and rewrote the paragraph after TWO people complained of the verbiage. Good for her. All writers make mistakes. Every single writer in the world, and every single commenter on a blog thread has realized, after writing something, "Oh, shit...I just wrote something stupid." You acknowledge it, try to correct the damage, move on and hopefully learn something from it.

And, putting aside all this hoopla, you should really go see "Spring Awakening". It's a great show with amazing performances.

Also: I demand someone stage "Hedwig and the Angry Itch". Maybe it could be a fundraiser for the STD Clinic.

It is "dissonant note", not "dissident note"; anyone who doesn't know that shouldn't be writing reviews.

God what a bunch of hullabaloo...and typos. It's like "Seattle Gay News: The Muscilal" (typo intended).

Holy shit. I wasn't aware that "flamboyant" has been stricken from the English language or perhaps reserved for usage by the elites who can afford it. Thanks for the update, Mr. Stringeways.

Such an overreaction. Completely silly. Berson was stating an opinion that the performance of a particular character wasn't believably hetero, not that the actor himself wasn't allowed to play hetero because he is or might be [too] gay. Agree with her or not. Say you think he did an awesome job or bring up the argument about awkward young lover like some people here did. But to call it homophobic... This is the gay-rights version of PETA. Silly, outlandish, and completely unproductive to legit issues of LGBT rights.

strangeways needs to get over himself.

Interestingly, the clip from the Broadway version shows hetero, leading-man Melchior as played by... Jon Groff, a fantastically talented out and proud gay actor (also known for playing Jesse St. James on Glee).