‘The Tempermentals’ Variety Review

I think Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie can be proud of this one.  He is currently starring in the off-Broadway production ‘The Tempermentals’.  I first told you about it in this post.

Well, the reviews are coming in, and if this one from Variety is any clue, we can say they are quite favorable.  The review is worth a read if only for this passage:

Since we enter the play in medias res, it’s hard to know exactly what to make of Harry [Hay – played by Thomas Jay Ryan] and Rudi Gernreich (Michael Urie) when we first see them, sitting opposite one another on folding chairs under a bare bulb. Harry is in a nondescript suit, seriously grilling fashion designer Rudi, who wears a form-fitting black shirt and dress pants, being coy. It looks like the long-lost gay episode of "Dragnet."

Apparently, Urie’s character Rudi is more ‘out’ than Harry, at least as far as one could be in the early 50’s.

The reviewer, Variety’s Sam Thielman, especially loved the performance of Urie’s co-star Ryan, but he also had kind words for Michael’s portrayal of Gernreich, saying, “Between this performance and Urie ("Ugly Betty") as the conflicted Gernreich, who became his generation’s Calvin Klein, helmer Jonathan Silverstein has the tools to turn the play into a meditation on the problems of being an outcast.”

The money quote says it all:  “What ought to be a boring history lesson frequently transcends itself to become an engaging portrait of a man rightly obsessed with fairness.”

It sounds like Thielman was pleasantly surprised.

Michael Urie has some pictures from the play at his blog.  ‘The Tempermenals’ runs through May 14th at the Barrow Group Studio Theater.

Image: SplashNewsOnline.com