With The View Upstairs, playing at Baltimore Theatre Project through June 14th in a regional-premiere production by Iron Crow Theatre, Max Vernon (music, book, lyrics) has created a time- and genre-bending new musical that both remembers a forgotten past and forges forward into a hopeful future, that both mourns terrible loss and celebrates irrepressible resilience. In keeping with other works of kindred spirit, it suggests that all that’s gay doesn’t necessarily glitter, but that to glitter and be gay can be at the heart of forging an enduring community. And, on the heels of an award season filled with Jellicle Ball, it joins in celebrating Pride with an effusion of celebratory, musical abundance in the face of efforts at erasure–or worse.
The piece was inspired by the deadly 1973 attack on the Upstairs Lounge, an iconic gay bar in New Orleans, which event–along with its 32 victims–ended up buried by the silence and judgment of its time. From this painful history and its unsanitized truth, Vernon shapes an electric, abundant, joyous, carnival that defiantly chooses to put connection and resilience at the heart of pain and loss. And to do it with song, music, dance, and a wild party.
To immerse the audience fully in the era and the experience, the production features a fully functioning bar and recreation of the nightclub.
For thoughts and reflections on the piece and the production, you can hear director Sean Elias, Iron Crow’s artistic director, in our conversation.
