Scientific Researchers Shed New Light on ‘The Golds’

Recent scientific research might be a godsend (or would it be a goldsend?) for “The Twilight of the Golds.”

Jonathan Tolins’ play asks whether a couple would abort a fetus if tests revealed the likelihood that the child would be born gay. Introduced at the Pasadena Playhouse earlier this year, the play is now entering the last week of a booking at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

One week after it opened there, Washington-based researchers reported that they may have discovered a link between male homosexuality and heredity--a discovery that increases the chance that Tolins’ scenario might come true, and one that instantly turned “Golds” into one of the most topical plays in years.

Tolins and Jennifer Grey, an actress in the D.C. production, were on ABC’s “Nightline.” Last week, Time magazine published an essay by Tolins about his reaction to the news. In it, before he got serious about his feelings, he wisecracked that his initial reaction was: “I hope this helps sell tickets.”

The play could use a little help in the wake of a review by the most important critic in Washington, Lloyd Rose of the Washington Post. She found it “pretentious and self-pitying.” However, that review was countered by a commentary last Sunday in the Post’s editorial pages by a member of the editorial page staff, Amy E. Schwartz, who wrote that the play’s “ability to look terrifying issues in the face”” has made it “the subject of swift, urgent word-of-mouth recommendations.”

J. Wynn Rousuck of the Baltimore Sun wrote that “Golds” is “chillingly prescient” and “interest never wavers” despite “a didactic quality” in the second half. Hap Erstein of the Washington Times called the play “an entertaining theatrical tempest” that introduces complex issues in a way that’s “nothing short of amazing.”

Speaking from his Los Angeles home, Tolins said he had changed the play since its Pasadena run, working in conjunction with its new director, Arvin Brown. In Pasadena, Tolins said, “a lot of themes were brought up but not sufficiently dealt with.” The newer version further examines the relationship between the young married couple in the play, especially “the complexities of (the pregnant woman’s) decision-making process.”

Also in the newer version, when the pregnant woman’s mother tells her gay son that his sister has “seen what I’ve been through with you,” the son asks, “What have you been through?” And the mother “makes an attempt to answer the question.”

Anyone who’s curious about the recent changes but can’t make it to D.C. can see the revised version in San Francisco next month or in New York in October.

LLOYD WEBBER SUPERSTAR: Some remarkably candid remarks from Andrew Lloyd Webber appeared in a recent interview with Andrew Duncan in RadioTimes, a BBC magazine:

“I don’t want to sound arrogant, but it’s easy for me to understand why my work is successful. It’s simply because the standard of musicals being offered is, regrettably, not good. I can’t remember any of the music in ‘City of Angels’ and I’m a musician. The biggest hit in London (“Crazy for You”) is based on songs written 50 years ago. Broadway is worse than ever.

“How ‘Tommy,’ which we did years ago in England, is hailed as the big thing is beyond the wit of mankind. It’s a good score but it was written even before ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’ Over the last 10 years, I’ve been hoping a new team will emerge and things will change, but it hasn’t happened.”

“I always knew I could write melodies, but wasn’t sure they were very fashionable. (Lloyd Webber’s original lyricist) Tim (Rice) and I started right in the middle of flower power and all that. We absorbed quite a lot of contemporary idiom into ‘Superstar,’ but in fact it’s really as conventional a musical as ‘Oklahoma!’ Even if you think the music is banal or derivative, which a lot of it is, at least the story makes sense.

“It annoys me when people say the sets and costumes are responsible for the success of my shows. You can get lost in the music of ‘Phantom of the Opera,’ and 15 times more people have bought the album than seen the show. One knows perfectly well there is an element of jealousy, so it’s not something to worry about. People like my material, so what can you say?”