A Newsweek reporter has triggered a Broadway feud by declaring that openly gay actors aren't convincing in straight roles. The writer, Ramin Setoodeh, found it "weird," for example, watching gay actor Sean Hayes portray a straight man in the musical hit Promises, Promises, because, Setoodeh wrote, an actor's background affects "how we see his or her performance." Hayes' co-star, Kristin Chenoweth, posted a rebuttal in the article's comments section, accusing Setoodeh — himself openly gay — of a "knee-jerk homophobic reaction" to gay actors. Is her criticism fair, or did Setoodeh have a point?
Plenty of gay actors play straight: "Of course not every actor is right for every role," says David Dean Bottrell in The Huffington Post. But it's simply wrong to generalize that gay actors can't play straight. Was Ian McKellen too gay in Lord of the Rings? It's "small-minded pot shot(s)" like Setoodeh's that make closeted actors hesitate to come out — they know they'll be accused of being "queeny" or "too butch" no matter how they act.
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