When gay couple Vinny Andaloro and Jackson Grove auditioned for the national tour of “Funny Girl” (hitting Atlanta next week) last spring, they had no idea whether either would make it. As it turned out, they both did. Grove is a member of the ensemble, appearing in the show every night, while Andaloro is a swing who understudies the male ensemble tracks. He can step in when anyone is out of the show, including his own fiancé.
The legendary musical, about Broadway star Fanny Brice and her dreams of being on stage, debuted in 1964 with Barbra Streisand in the leading role, which won her a Best Actress Oscar.
Beanie Feldstein brought the character of Fanny to life in 2022 on Broadway, but when she left Lea Michele took over to considerable acclaim. “Funny Girl” has a score that includes “People” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”
For Andaloro, it’s particularly exciting to be on the road with Groves.
“Getting to do it with my partner is a cherry on the top,” he said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience getting to share all this, all these memories together.”
It’s also special for the duo to be in a show that is touring straight off a New York Broadway run, Grove said. It’s the first national tour since the original one.
Both men are based in New York and know the musical has a strong LGBTQIA+ appeal.
“It’s the quintessential musical theater-ness of it,” Andaloro said. “Every queer person connects with theater and finds community there, especially one led by such an iconic woman.”
In the new film, “National Anthem,” Charlie Plummer stars as Dylan, a 21-year-old construction worker who joins a community of queer rodeo performers. There, he falls for Sky (Eve Lindley), who is in a complex relationship with Dylan’s boss, Pepe.
Director Luke Gilford grew up in Colorado, where his father was in professional rodeo cowboy associations. Making a habit of going to rodeos and enjoying Western culture, Gilford discovered the International Gay Rodeo Association in 2016.
“They really warmly welcomed me with open arms,” he said. “It was a beautiful experience and an electric charge of belonging, to become part of this community. It started with a book of portraits and as I was working on that, I started writing a script, reflecting my experiences as well as those I was photographing. And now we have a movie!”
Plummer calls Dylan a sweet young man who cares deeply about his family, including his younger brother and mother. His life is about serving his loved ones.
“He has put his life on hold, definitely his personal and emotional life, and as he is feeling the results of that, that beautifully coincides with meeting Sky,” Plummer said. “It turns his world upside down.”
For Dylan, it’s his first true love.
Trans performer Lindley feels Sky is very much an enigma and hard to pin down.
“She is so free, and in her body,” Lindley said. “She does what she likes, and that was appealing to me.”
For Sky, Dylan is new, romantic, and soft — which leads the character to envision a different life from what she currently has.
According to Plummer, this new community offers radical acceptance and overflowing love, as well as no judgment about past experiences or relationships.
“Luke has spoken about it — it’s a world that you can’t fathom exists but does and that is the real power of it,” Plummer said.
Out director Greg Berlanti’s new film, “Fly Me to the Moon,” is a romantic comedy set against the NASA Apollo 11 moon landing. Channing Tatum is Cole Davis, the NASA director responsible for the launch, and Scarlett Johansson is Kelley Jones, a marketing whiz who’s installed to help NASA’s public image. Out actor Jim Rash plays Lance Vespertine, a gay filmmaker hired to film a fake landing if needed.
“He is — at least in his own mind — a highly skilled and overlooked director,” Rash said. “He’s stuck in the commercial world, upset that [Stanley] Kubrick has the career he should. Personality-wise, there is a dash of narcissism. He would be described as ‘a lot’ when he comes into a room, very opinionated and unapologetically honest and candid about how he feels about you.”
Although Rash — also seen in the 2022 comedy, “Bros” — says he loves a bit of dry humor in his life, he would never behave like Lance.
“I would like to believe I am not that difficult to work with or be around,” he said.
This is the first time Rash has worked with Berlanti and he’s a huge fan of what the director has pulled off.
“This was a huge undertaking in so many aspects,” he said. “What he did was beyond some can even handle, so many tones that have to cohabitate. You have this romantic comedy bounced in an action-adventure space with drama. It certainly elevated the Greg Berlanti game that was already strong.”
“Fly Me to the Moon” and “National Anthem” are now in area theaters
“Funny Girl” runs July 30–August 4 at the Fox Theatre