The Click of the Lock

Thanks to the generosity of a friend, I was able to see Randy in the Reading of The Click of the Lock. The theater was very small and I would guess that out of the 70 or so seats in the theater, less than 20 were available for the general public. I feel very lucky. The reading was wonderfully engrossing and surprisingly long - spanning two acts and over 2 ½ hours.

The story takes place in NYC in 1901, and focuses on Fairie Resorts; secret gathering places men of certain “proclivities.” The main character is an aging Fairie known as “The Cunt Lillian Russell.” She is down on her luck when she meets a rich and handsome young man named Daniel (Christian Coulson). Seeing her opportunity she brings Daniel to one of the last remaining Fairie resorts, known as “The Dream.” The term, “click of the lock,” refers to the doors being locked to the outside world as the “girls” inside the resort perform.




Although not well-liked or welcomed there she manages to stay long enough to speak with her protégé of sorts, Grace (Randy). Grace is the princess of the resort… young, beautiful, admired by the other “girls,” and desired by the men. She is the entertainment for the evening… singing a haunting song about lost dreams. Of course Daniel immediately falls in love and must meet the beautiful Gracie.
But even Gracie is not thrilled to see “The Cunt Lillian Russell…” Up in Grace’s room at the resort, which is for all intents and purposes a brothel, Grace and Lillian exchange words. Randy does an absolutely excellent job with capturing the thick Bowery accent… he plays Grace with a sort of rough-edged gentleness. The two spar back and forth with words, with Grace affectionately referring to Lillian as Cunty…

Lillian pleads with Grace to come and meet Daniel… but Grace is hesitant, perhaps knowing how an encounter with the lovesick young man will end. “What the fuck do you know about it?” Lillian asks… “Oh, I know a lot about fucking.” replies Grace. Lillian begs, “But I’ve given you every fucking thing you have today.” “If you really want to keep score, it was fucking that gave me everything,” Grace snarks back. At one point a frustrated Lillian declares, “But I am The Cunt Lillian Russell!” After a pause, Gracie dreamily replies, “Oh, I love it when you use your full name.” In the end Grace agrees to meet Daniel.

Daniel is awestruck by Grace but also quite nervous. Grace does nothing to make him feel more at ease… teasing him about what he wants and what he’ll have to pay to get it, which only serves to make him more uncomfortable. After some more playful banter they go up to Gracie’s room.

In the meantime, Lillian seeks out the man who runs the bar, hoping to convince him to let her stay, because she will be able to bring in more high class clientele like Daniel. The owner is not convinced, as he believes Lillian is responsible for his brother being in jail, but eventually agrees to let her stay. But to make room for her he kicks out young Beth (Played by OHP alum, Cole Escola) a 15 year-old newcomer who has been under the protection of the resident queen of The Dream, Mayvene.

Upstairs, Grace and Daniel are in bed, with Daniel once again extolling the beauty of Grace, but still Grace keeps him at arm’s length. They have a playful discussion about the bed sheets that Grace pays extra to have laundered with lavender. “But they don’t smell anything like lavender,” says Daniel. “Really? Well that’s what I know lavender to smell like,” says Grace. Daniel, perhaps feeling uncomfortable asks to keep the room dark…

Daniel also refers to Grace as a beautiful man, which causes Grace to flinch. “Boy then. Or do you consider yourself a woman?” says Daniel. “Are those my only choices?” asks Grace. “But surely, you are a man… you have prick don’t you?” Grace just laughs and says, “Is that all it takes?” She pauses to look at her naked body in the vanity mirror and when Daniel asks again declares the she is Grace.

All is not well at the resort… as Lillian’s plan to bring upper-class gentlemen into the bar isn’t working. Poor Beth was brought to the bar beaten and dying. Mayvene is hysterical, blaming Lillian for Beth being out on the streets.

Daniel is still wooing Grace, bringing her a gift of red silk sheets that smell like real lavender. “Did you miss me?” asks Daniel. “You really haven’t given me the chance,” laughs Grace, who doesn’t know what to make of the gift. She doesn’t feel that she deserves such fine things… and is worried about what will happen to her old sheets that smell like the lavender she knows. “I love you, Grace.” declares Daniel. “Do you love me?” After a pause Grace replies, “What little I know of it… I guess I do.”

Daniel returns to the bar and seeks out Lillian, who has been sharing her room with another aging queen, Evangeline, who has been terribly disfigured in a suicide attempt. (Apparently it was common practice for prostitutes to kill themselves with acid on the streets because then the city would have to pay for the burial.) Lillian shows Daniel a set of pictures depicting many former “girls,” who are now dead… all people she knew. The only picture of a living person is of 13 year old Charlie, “…who knew enough about fucking and sucking on the school playgrounds when I found him. But I was the one who taught him, and trained him and I named him,” Lillian says. It’s a picture of Grace.

Daniel questions why she keeps a picture of Grace in with pictures of the dead “girls.” Lillian says it gives her hope that one will survive. In the end Daniel agrees to pay Lillian $5000 so he can take Grace away from the resort and he has acquired a new apartment for them to share.

On the night of Grace’s last performance, she is being dressed by Evangeline, who talks of dark angels and fire and confesses that it was she, and not Lillian who gave Grace her name. During Grace’s song Mayvene, now called Thomas, returns to the club dressed in a suit from the Salvation Army. Still upset about the death of Beth, he announces that he has told the entire story of Beth’s death to the paper and soon the police will be here to arrest everyone and shut the place down.

Daniel panics… he can’t be connected with such a scandal. He wants to take Grace immediately and escape to their new apartment together. He instructs her to change into the men’s clothes he’s brought and to tell the doorman at the apartment that he is Charles, a friend from College. Grace refuses to go. “But you really are Charles,” Daniel pleads with her… “And you agreed to live in the real world.” Yes, she responds, “But I have to live as myself in that world.”

No amount of pleading will convince Grace to leave; she is staying in her “home.” Where she knows who and what she is, even if that means living in a bar and working as a “whore for sailors and old men.” She values being “Grace,” above all else. Daniel is angry and confused and in a fit if desperation declares, “I hate you Grace. I will always hate you until the day I die.”

Grace retreats to her room upstairs where she meets Evangeline. She is now uncertain of her decision and struggles to remove her gown, but just can’t bring herself to do it. Evangeline soothes her… “You are who and what you need to be.” She hugs Grace closely as they begin to watch a fire that Evangeline set start to burn around the doorway, forever trapping them inside, just like the key, in “the click of the lock,” that separates the Fairie Resorts from the rest of the world.

WOW! What an amazing show! So intense, yet quite funny and over the top in many scenes. Randy was amazing, not only in his singing, which he did in a wonderfully feminine-like tenor, but also in his mannerisms for Grace. He kept her street-wise and tough, with wonderfully ethnic speech patterns and accent. Yet he was also playful with her… smiling and flirting. And with all the toughness he also managed to portray her as soft and gentle, completely content with her life as Grace, even if it meant having to sacrifice her body to maintain that life.

There was a very short Q&A after the show… but although the actors stayed on stage it was the playwright who spoke. His comments on the research into these Fairie Resorts were fascinating. After the show Randy mingled on stage and I heard him whisper to the playwright, “Thank you for letting me be a part of this.” Randy had quite few friends there, and although other fans were waiting to speak with him after the show, I didn’t wait. So hopefully we’ll get some more reports from them.

Randy must also really like his new shirt, as he had on the same outfit that he wore to the Gayby premiere last week… except this time paired with black pants. He also looks like he had another haircut… with the side looking almost shaved.

Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see Randy in a full production of this show!