John Ellison Conlee, Maggie Lacey, Jenn Gambatese and Chris Henry Coffey in Mark Lamos' production of Terrence McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart at Westport Country Playhouse through July 30. Photo by T. Charles Erickson
Lips Together Teeth Apart opened last night at Westport Country Playhouse. The 1991 Terrence McNally vacationing-couples tragicomedy continues its Fire Island fireworks through July 30.
I’ll be reviewing the production for the Fairfield County Weekly; that review will be out Wednesday. Rather than risk repeating myself here, you can tide yourself over for a few days with some factoids about the play.
1. The original production happened at Manhattan Theatre Club 20 years ago almost to the month, opening in June of 1991. It was directed by John Tillinger, who was at that time still regularly directing at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre.
2. The original New York cast included Christine Baranski, Swoosie Kurtz, Nathan Lane and Anthony Heald. Lane, who played the decidedly heterosexual Sam Truman in the show (the third of his seven appearances in Terrence McNally projects) , wasn’t yet open about his own sexuality, and didn’t in fact come out publicly for another decade.
3. In his program notes for the Westport production, Mark Lamos (director of the play as well as artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse) says he had hoped to do Lips Together as part of his debut WCP season but was denied the rights due to an imminent Broadway revival.
4. Joe Mantello was set to direct that Broadway revival of Lips Together, Teeth Apart in 2010. There was feuding among the all-star cast: According to various gossip sites, Megan Mullaly thought that Patton Oswalt didn’t have the necessary stage experience, and she left the production after attempting unsuccessfully to have him ousted.
5. Mantello coincidentally directed another iconic gay-AIDS themed play this year, the award-laden revival of Larry Kramer’s 1985 drama The Normal Heart.
6. The play’s title comes from a method to counteract the tendency to clench or grind one’s teeth while sleeping. One dental product designed to help combat this “bad neuromuscular habit” is here.