THE PLAYS

P.S. Your Cat is Dead!
Jerker
Christmas On Mars
Camille

THE PLAYWRIGHTS

James Kirkwood
Robert Chesley
Harry Kondoleon
Charles Ludlam

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James Kirkwood

(1924-1989)

James Kirkwood was the son of two Hollywood silent screen stars. Best known for co-writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical ‘A Chorus Line’, he was also an actor, comedian, playwright and prolific novelist whose works won praise for their warm humour and frank depictions of queer desire.

Photo courtesy: Arthur Beckenstein.

James Kirkwood was born in Los Angeles in 1924, the son of two silent film stars who counted Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino amongst their friends. But to escape the vicious rows, alcoholism and ailing finances of his parents Lila Lee and James Kirkwood Sr, who would divorce by the time he turned 7, he spent most of his early childhood with his aunt in Elyria, Ohio.

In 1935, at the age of 12, Kirkwood discovered the decomposing body of his mother’s new fiancé Reid Russell, who had shot himself in their back garden. The memory of it affected him for the rest of his life. The ensuing press scandal ended his mother’s film career and became the inspiration for Kirkwood’s first novel ‘There Must Be A Pony!’, written in 1960.

After a stint in the Navy during WW2, Kirkwood relocated to New York, where he studied acting and met Lee Goodman, a former child actor who had performed with Noel Coward on Broadway. They collaborated on a stand-up comedy act that found success in nightclubs, winning praise from Tallulah Bankhead and Bob Fosse. Homosexuality was still punishable by imprisonment, so the men had to keep their romantic relationship a secret.

Above: James Kirkwood with Lee Goodman. Photo: Sean Egan.

When he wasn’t touring nightclubs, Kirkwood’s was filming ‘Valiant Lady’, a CBS soap in which he was a series regular. His matinee idol good looks helped him rack up more than 500 TV appearances, but during the late 1950s he had also started to feel creatively unfulfilled. After enrolling on a short story course at UCLA, he turned to writing fiction in 1960, at the age of 36.

‘There Must Be A Pony!’ was hailed a classic by reviewers, who compared it to ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, published a few years before. Kirkwood’s second novel, ‘Good Times/Bad Times’, was another success when it was published in 1967. Like ‘There Must Be A Pony!’, the events it described were taken directly from Kirkwood’s life. It was considered “the bible for gay teenagers in the 60s” because of the intimate friendship it depicted between two teenage boys.

Kirkwood never hid his bisexuality from his friends and wrote many queer characters throughout his career, but in the media he tended to draw a curtain over his private life.

Above: artwork for various productions of ‘P.S. Your Cat is Dead!’. Designed by and courtesy of: Arthur Beckenstein.

‘P.S. Your Cat is Dead!’ was written in 1972. Its protagonist Jimmy Zoole is based on Kirkwood himself: a struggling actor sick of auditioning for commercials and whose frustration inspires him to start writing novels. That wasn’t the only autobiographical element of the play either. In 1961, Kirkwood moved into the top floor of a building on West 58th Street. Over the next 14 months, he was subjected to three burglaries, each one more audacious than the last.

The character of Vito Antonucci, the Bronx-born bisexual thief who captures Jimmy’s heart, also had a real-life counterpart. Gino Marino, an ex-con turned restaurant waiter, appeared in Kirkwood’s life in the 1960s. described him as “a real hustler-hooker, into everything wrong and a real pussy cat...” Little else is known about Marino, but Kirkwood’s friends have suggested the men had a sexual relationship.

Above: Kirkwood with Gino Marino, the inspiration behind the character of Vito Antonucci. Photo: Sean Egan.

When it premiered in 1975, ‘P.S. Your Cat is Dead!’ was condemned as “distasteful” and “homosexual wish fulfilment.” Theatre critics resented its male nudity, allusions to gay sex, and, worst of all, the fact Jimmy’s head is turned by Vito, which - in the words of ‘The New York Magazine’ - gave air to the “ever-popular homosexual fantasy that any heterosexual is ultimately available for homosexual purposes.” While Kirkwood’s dialogue and the comic performances of actors Tony Musante and Keir Dullea were widely praised, the production played for just 16 more performances before closing.

Kirkwood is perhaps best-known for ‘A Chorus Line’, which he co-wrote with director Michael Bennett and dancer Nicholas Dante in 1975. Over the course of several workshops, they assembled the musical out of testimonies from Broadway performers describing the ins and outs of auditioning for a chorus line. The musical’s instant acclaim, including twelve Tony nominations and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, no doubt helped minimise Kirkwood’s upset over ‘P.S. Your Cat is Dead!’, which had opened and closed that month. In September 1983, after its 3,338th performance, ‘A Chorus Line’ became the longest-running musical in Broadway history.

Above: Kirkwood (left) with Michael Bennett and Nicholas Dante during the production of ‘A Chorus Line’.

Kirkwood’s later novels, ‘Hit Me With A Rainbow’ and ‘Some Kind of Hero’, were less critically successful than his earlier works, but they continued to incorporate queer characters in unexpected ways. Set during the Vietnam War, ‘Some Kind of Hero’ features a homosexual relationship between its lead character and his prison-of-war camp cellmate. It was compared to works by Saul Bellow and Ernest Hemingway.

‘Legends!’ is the comedic story of two rival movie stars who are brought together by a wheeler-dealer producer hoping to launch a new play on Broadway. For its premiere and tour in 1986, Kirkwood brought on actors Mary Martin and Carol Channing. All sorts of antics ensued, including one performance when Channing started picking up taxi calls on the earpiece she used to receive her lines. ‘Diary of a Mad Playwright’, Kirkwood’s tell-all book about the highs and mostly lows of the infamous tour, remains in print.

Many of Kirkwood’s friends and collaborators died from HIV/AIDS-related complications. Michael Bennett passed away in July 1987; Lee Goodman died the following year. All the creators and many of the original company of ‘A Chorus Line’ died before it finished its run on Broadway. After suffering from AIDS-related cancer, Kirkwood passed away in April 1989, at the age of 64.