Interview: Alan Demovsky, Director of THE NANCE at Elmwood Playhouse

The NANCE is currently enjoying a succesful and critically aclaimed run at Elmwood Playhouse in Nyack, NY.  We caught up with the play's director Alan Demovsky to chat a bit about the play's message and its extraordinary significance in today's increasingly repressive political climate.

 How did you approach balancing the play’s comedic vaudeville style with its darker, more dramatic themes of identity, repression, and politics?

Demovsky:   The short answer is I started by compartmentalizing and rehearsing the comedic and burlesque elements and the more dramatic moments separately. The play is structured so that the songs and vaudeville routines showcase exaggerated truths (infidelity, flirting, macho posturing, etc….) that create laughs. Then the play dives deep into politics and repressive laws that we see affecting the characters in the dramatic scenes. It was important to establish the professional onstage life. They love performing. They’re skilled. Their precise timing creates the laughs. The audience needs to experience and enjoy the “naughtiness” and “deviance” that they will see attacked by the vice squads. I’m familiar with all the old great vaudevillians: Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Burt Lahr and on and on and was always fascinated by the women burlesque stars such as Gypsy Rose Lee, Sally Rand Ann Corio, et al, who not only teased but entertained. Capturing the essence of those performances was essential.

The dramatic scenes were rehearsed with no conscious cross over to the burlesque routine. In the beginning, we concentrated on establishing the characters’ inner lives. The connection is built in. Chuancey uses parts of a classic vaudeville routine – “Meet cha round the corner in a half an hour”” when he first hooks up with Ned in the automat. When Chauncey starts getting in trouble with the law there is a Wild West burlesque routine that is straight from the old days but ends with a very pointed revelation that if you’re a “Nance” or a “fairy” you’re going to be hanged from a tree. In the last scene when Chauncey and Ned break up at the automat, that scene is followed by the girls doing a decadent dance that indicates the slow disintegration of Burlesque. That is followed by a poignant goodbye, as the characters move out of the vaudeville house where they worked for years. 

The character of Chauncey is incredibly complex—how did you guide the actor playing him to navigate both his public persona and private struggles?

Demovsky:  This is a very tough one. Chauncey deliberately separates his on-stage “Nance” persona and his personal life as a closeted gay man who is vocal about being a right-wing Republican. I think the intent here is to show a gay person in 1937 who was always made to feel that he was a second-hand citizen. Chad Hudson, the actor portraying Chancey, and I worked to create Chauncey’s “mask,” his witty, off-hand confidence that comes from being a charming, successful performer, along with Chauncey’s self-loathing. His attraction to men is hidden and laced with self-loathing. Chad needed to develop these two sides of the character with all the inherent conflicts. Chauncey can never have a lasting relationship with another man because he feels deep down that it is “wrong.”  Being conservative Republican allows him to share the same values as “regular people,” a position he believes will make him “one of them.” Chauncey’s anger and total disillusionment erupt when he realizes that “aberration” of his homosexuality will never be overlooked, he will always be on the fringe and rejected. When he is arrested for his performance as a nance and his professional life as an entertainer is taken away, he collapses. Without work, he has no outlet and is emotionally crippled. He rejects genuine love and returns to what he believes he deserves: secret, anonymous encounters in the bushes in the dark. He knows no other and is comfortable with no other.  On top of losing his profession, he will never really ever be happy because he bought into society’s belief that being gay was sick. It wasn’t until 1973 that the American Medical Association changed their diagnosis for gay people away from mental illness. Chauncey does not have a chance that young gay people have today. He believes the gay part of him is “freakish.”

The historical context of 1930s New York is crucial to the play—how did you work with your design team to evoke that era while keeping it resonant for today’s audience?

Demovsky:  First and foremost the play is an entertainment which transcends time so that was always front and center. The design team was conscious of making sure that Chauncey’s apartment had vintage items that were connected to the late 1930s.  The costumes reflected this vintage era quality. Most of the costumes were hand built or transformed from other periods to make them look more authentic to 1937.  It was important to me that the Automat resemble the look of the famous Edward Hopper painting.  It was lit in this regard and of course the modern-day projections helped with this enormously.  All the elements of the design of 1937 were researched but again if a play is entertaining and it moves quickly from scene to scene it will hold the audience’s attention.  We are so used to seeing quick 5 second bits of things that it was important to have the scenes fly!!

What were some of the most challenging scenes to stage, and how did you solve those challenges in rehearsal?

Demovsky:  The single most difficult scene to stage was the party scene in Act One. It was written as an exposition scene where we get to know the personalities of the characters. First of all, the story of that being told. We learn about the political reality of the time and the potential loss of work facing the burlesque performers. Then there was food being served (props). Actors needed to get dressed on stage to match the dialogue. The dining table had to be set in coordination with certain lines. There was choreography that needed to be organized so that the actors were not bumping into each other on our very tiny stage. The Shim Sham Shimmywas a popular dance of the era which had to be accurate and that music they danced to came from a radio that the cast turns on and off. There were other sound effects. It literally took hours to map all of it out on paper before we got on our feet.  It evolved and evolved and then it evolved again!  I thought to myself “I’m going to conquer this thing if it kills me”.  The very satisfying part is that it now is one of my most favorite scenes in the whole show.  It went from being a technical nightmare to an organic living thing! That’s very satisfying.

The other scene that was difficult was the backstage dialogue with the strippers dancing to the black wall with footlights to make it appear that they were on stage of the burlesque house. The actual footlights effect was easy, but the music was written to match the dialogue precisely. So, the choreography needed to match the dialogue exactly.  Miraculously we accomplished this but not without many go rounds.

How did you handle the integration of the burlesque routines within the narrative? Did you see them as commentary, distraction, or something else entirely?

Demovsky:  The play is written so that the story line and the burlesque routines are interspersed. At an early workshop/reading of the play in 2013, there were maybe two burlesque routines and the story was the primary focus. When Lincoln Center became involved, they infused the production with cash allowing the original team to flesh out the burlesque routines with a live orchestra etc. I imagine it was probably at that time that it was decided to have the vaudeville numbers reflect the storyline. I do not think it was a distraction at all.  In my mind it became cinematic like watching characters' full lives, the backstage life and the onstage life. (Like in an old MGM musical). Actually, I find that fascinating.

What contemporary parallels do you hope audiences draw from this production, especially regarding censorship, LGBTQ+ rights, and freedom of expression?

Demovsky:   This is the most interesting question of all really.  When the play was written in 2013 social security was not something that was in danger of disappearing.  The Sylvie character says “And let’s not bring up Social Security again.  Who’s gonna pay for it?  Who’s gonna pay for it? Eighty years from now, nobody’s gonna be talking about who’s paying for Social Security.” Gay marriage was made law in 2015 just as the play on Broadway was ending.  In the play, being a “Nance” character was vilified as deviant but it was ok for guys to be Drag Queens on stage because it was considered entertainment. In Florida it is now illegal to perform in drag and the gay flag is not allowed to be raised in any federal or state institution.  Books are being banned in schools, the Kennedy Center has become commandeered so that nothing “improper” can be performed.  Our universities are being censored as to what can be taught and our law firms are being squeezed to never disagree with the present regime.

Our play talks about Fiorello La Guardia “grandstanding” against the Burlesque houses which is what politicians do all of the time to get elected.  It doesn't matter to them how it affects people’s lives as long as their ambitions and greed are satisfied. Sounds like what is going on today.  We don't learn from history. We only seem to repeat it and repeat it.

Broadwayworld would like to thank Director Alan Demovsky for taking the time to chat with us and we wish him and the cast and crew of THE NANCE continued success.  The play runs until June 7th and tickets can be purchased at the link below:

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