Fine Line Features | Love! Valour! Compassion!

Writers have long contemplated the magic of a weekend in the country among friends. How is it that a few simple days in the fresh air can lead to such fresh perspective, as well as intrigue, romance, revelations and hilarity? Coward, Chekhov, and even Sondheim in song, have asked the question. But few have answered it in such a contemporary and funny way as Terrence McNally in his Tony Award-winning play Love! Valour! Compassion!.

In Love! Valour! Compassion! eight male friends, all of them gay, leave the city behind for three simple weekends of rest and relaxation. But that's the least of what they experience.

The friends gather in a sprawling, airy Victorian house set on a private lake — the perfect idyll for easy days spent sunbathing and swimming. The house is owned by Gregory (Stephen Bogardus), a quiet but brilliant forty-something choreographer who is struggling with an aging body. But, here in this place in the woods, Gregory finds respite from his fears and concerns.

One by one Gregory's circle of friends arrive for the weekend, ready to unload their own worries and anxieties. There is Gregory's much younger, blind lover Bobby (Justin Kirk), and there is Arthur and Perry (John Benjamin Hickey and Stephen Spinella), an accountant and lawyer who have been a couple for more than a decade. "We're role models," Perry proclaims. "It's very stressful."

Then there is John (John Glover), the overbearing, angry English composer whose arrival almost everyone is dreading. With John comes his latest lover Ramon (Randy Becker), a hot, young dancer with a perfect body. Finally, there is Buzz (Jason Alexander), who lives for old Broadway musicals and swears he will fine anyone who even mentions the word AIDS this summer — although it is something that cannot be far from his thoughts. For now, the biggest nightmare he'll admit to is "a revival of 'The King and I' with Tommy Tune and Elaine Strich."

Later, the group is also joined by James (John Glover), John's identical twin who is his mirror image but his exact opposite in every other conceivable way. Where John is a misanthrope, James is unfailingly generous of spirit. Where John sneers, James celebrates.

Over the next three summer holiday weekends — Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day — these eight friends will fall in love and fall from grace, they will hurt one another and forgive one another. They will form couples and break apart, they will celebrate strengths and give in to weaknesses, they will play jokes on each other and give a shoulder to each other. They will form an assortment of hilarious, bewildering and inspiring permutations on contemporary relationships. They will even don tu-tus, for a very good cause. Sparks will fly and bonds will be sealed.

But no one will emerge from these three weekends in the country the same. No one will leave without taking a humbling, surprising reminder of just how funny and heroic love is and how wondrous the human spirit can be.

In 1994, Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! opened off-Broadway to critical praise both for its direct portrayal of contemporary relationships among the gay middle-class and its much broader theme of how the human heart has had to find new and challenging ways to connect and stay true in this day and age. Also singled out for praise was the clarity, passion and wit of McNally's dialogue — which carries both the ring of truth and the sting of human comedy.

The stage play drew a loyal following both with mainstream and gay theater audiences. At award time, it was honored with more accolades and nominations than any other play of the season, including the Tony Award for Best Play.

Joe Mantello, who directed the stage version, now makes his motion picture directorial debut with the film version of Love! Valour! Compassion!. The original New York cast, including Tony Award-winner John Glover, Stephen Bogardus, John Benjamin Hickey, Stephen Spinella, Justin Kirk and Randy Becker, has been reunited for the film joined by Jason Alexander in the role of Buzz. Terrence McNally is the author of the screenplay and the film is produced by Doug Chapin and Barry Krost. Diane Conn is the line producer. Love! Valour! Compassion! is being distributed in North America by Fine Line Features. New Line International handles international rights.

In the wake of "Love! Valour! Compassion's!'' theatrical debut, the idea of a motion picture began to take root. Terrence McNally's stage play already read like a screenplay — it was full of underwater scenes and gleaming moonlight and lush gardens, all of which were recreated expressionistically on the stage. The play — which spoke to the core of the human spirit — called out for an even broader audience.

Producers Doug Chapin and Barry Krost, whose credits include What's Love Got To Do With It and American Dreamer, immediately saw the potential for a special motion picture.

Says producer Doug Chapin: "When Barry and I first saw the play we were struck by how humorously, gracefully and intimately Terrence and Joe communicated such a powerful notion: we are all mortal, so spend your time loving, laughing with and caring for those closest to you. That they were able to do this with a wit and charm that touched such a vast cross-section of people in the audience, convinced us that this was a wonderful movie waiting to be made."

Chapin approached Terrence McNally and Joe Mantello, who were both intrigued by the idea. But there was a caveat.

"Once upon a time it seemed inconceivable to me that Love! Valour! Compassion! would become a movie," says Joe Mantello, who is not only a director but an actor who received a Tony nomination for his acclaimed leading role in "Angels In America." "Because we all agreed that it couldn't and shouldn't be done without the original cast, which of course rarely happens. There was no way I was going to enter this new world, take these characters into this new reality, without the support and love of the people who had been there in the beginning. So Terrence and I agreed we would only do it if we all did it together."

For Chapin, the task of reassembling a cast of some of theater's finest and most sought-after actors was no small thing. "But because we realized the importance, it was a task we happily took on," recalls Chapin "and one that Fine Line courageously encouraged us in. And in the end you can see why it was so vital, how it kept the vision of the play pure, and the humor fresh, how the fact that all these actors were so close to the material made it something that could become intimate and very real on the screen."

The only major change in the casting for the motion picture was the addition of Jason Alexander in the role of Buzz, who as his name suggests, is the witty, unstoppable energy center for the whole octet. Alexander came into a potentially volatile situation: the outsider in a group of actors who had been working together for years. Cast and filmmakers admit there was a lot of initial trepidation.

"But the amazing thing is that Jason just folded right into the production immediately," says Mantello. "There was a great deal of anxiety about him becoming part of the dynamic these guys had worked so hard to forge, but he made it easy for them to accept him and they made it easy on him."

Says Alexander: "I wanted the role because I saw the movie as a story of where we are now, as human beings. It's about how we succeed, we fail, we love, we lie, and mostly we just hope to come through it together, laughing if possible."

"Also, playing Buzz was incredibly interesting to me. Doing 'Seinfeld' for so long has been a great experience for me, but after awhile it gets to be like putting on the same pair of socks every morning. It was nice to have something a little frightening to do. And when it came to taking on Buzz, who is not just gay but very flamboyant, I took the whole thing very seriously. Because I get offended by portrayals of over the top gay men by straight actors, I didn't want to do the clichés. I just wanted to create a guy who was outrageous in his unique way, but very real. And coming into it with this group of people was like having a built-in support network and some incredible guides."

Summarizes Joe Mantello: "In the end, Jason brought a truly fresh reading to the role. He brings a kind of vulnerability and gentle nature to the character that I hadn't really even thought about before — and yet without losing any of the outrageousness and spice that make Buzz so large a part of the story."

The story of Love! Valour! Compassion! falls into two distinct motion picture traditions: first, it is the latest in a growing tradition of gay-themed theater and cinema; and second, it is one in a long line of entertaining motion pictures that explore the human condition with humor and imagination.

For Joe Mantello, both are equally important. "The story is really about how difficult and joyous making your way through this world with another person is -- whether you're two men, a man and woman or two women," he says. "And as was shown by the response to the play, straight people who stay open to the material, who are willing to make that leap, find all sorts of connections to their own lives and relationships."

After all, Mantello and others in the cast point out, infidelities, temptations, the question of the long-term, anger, tenderness, death and hope are part of all human unions.

"And yet," says Mantello, "this is also a movie that is very much about what it is like for men to be affectionate with one another -- to be friends and lovers and to be incredibly comfortable with one another physically. Not just sexually, but just hanging out and being together in a close way."

The movie also raises issues specific to gay relationships -- some of which have required their own special forms of valor and compassion. "There are certain things that make gay relationships different, that require a certain very specific set of inter-relational skills," Mantello says. "But I wouldn't say it is more difficult to be in a gay relationship. Just that it is somewhat different."

Exploring this difference is something that has been avoided by Hollywood for the most part up till now. Mantello hopes that eventually movies like Love! Valour! Compassion! will be seen as a stepping-stone to a greater diversity of motion picture stories with gay characters.

"I hope this movie can be another important step forward for gay cinema, a lighter look at certain aspects of gay life today. I look back at a movie like The Boys In The Band, which is a favorite of mine and a real influence, yet so much has changed since then. The self-loathing and fear that were so much a part of that movie aren't there with these characters. It's a different time."

Mantello cautions that Love! Valour! Compassion! is not intended to be a definitive statement on gay life in America. He hopes audiences will see the eight characters as one particular group of individuals, and not representative cross-sections of gay men.

"I think when there are so few images in the media of gay relationships, it is easy to give the ones that do make it through more significance," he says. "But this is just the story of eight particular men in one particular place. It doesn't purport to represent every gay man who walks this earth, or every issue that affects gay men. It is just a story that covers a lot of the things that concern gay men and all human beings right now, in these times."

Although the original New York cast of Love! Valour! Compassion! remained primarily intact for the motion picture, the play and the characters had to go through some major changes to transition to the screen. "The real advantage though is that we were all so familiar with the material, it made the changes possible without losing any of the original feeling," explains Mantello.

Key to bringing the play to life on the screen was the casting of what Terrence McNally refers to as "the ninth character" -- Gregory's house — a place of strength, sturdiness and longevity, where all his friends come to gather. After much searching, the filmmakers found the perfect idyll just outside of Montreal -- a charming, vintage Victorian with a vast, wood-laden attic.

"The minute I saw the attic, I knew this was the one," says Joe Mantello. "I thought: this is the house Gregory would have bought. The notion of him dancing over all of his sleeping friends was just so beautiful."

The production soon took over the house for three of the most intensive weeks any single abode has probably ever witnessed. With a short shooting schedule, and a very tight budget, the cast and crew relied on their already highly honed sense of intimacy to get by.

Each of the actors came to the set with a deeply felt sense of their character and a hope for bringing new parts of these men to life in this very real setting. Even Jason Alexander, the newcomer, was prepared to jump right into the role of Buzz, who hides his insecurities behind a sharp tongue and an exuberant, encyclopedic knowledge of musical-comedy trivia.

"I did feel I knew Buzz. We share certain similarities, for example, I also consider myself a borderline musical comedy queen," quips Alexander, who won a Tony for the lead role in "Jerome Robbins' Broadway," reprising many of the most memorable moments in musical comedy since the 40s. "You know there are just certain people who know every great theater moment, every song, every statistic, every star. It's just part of our lives. And Buzz tends to use these moments as the marking posts of his life."

Adds Alexander: "I think Buzz is someone who is not so much scared of mortality as he is of loneliness. But he's not the sort who wants to walk around moaning about his life. So he does exactly the opposite -- he's funny, funny, funny all the time."

If Buzz is the emotional heart of this octet, John Glover's twin brothers are its moral tug-of-war. Glover reprises his Tony Award-winning role as both John and James Jeckyll.

Says Glover: "A lot of people who saw the play talked about John the Bad and James the Good but I don't see them quite that way. John isn't evil -- he's just very frightened. James, on the other hand, is just secure in himself and therefore can open up to people."

For Glover, the switch from stage to screen gave him a chance to make a more complete physical and emotional transition between the twin characters — who come to seem like two halves of a whole. "On stage I had to switch from one to the other instantaneously, sometimes just by taking off a jacket or putting on a bathrobe. Some nights, after the first act, I would feel terrible about myself because of the fear and ugliness that John Jeckyll conjures up. But then I would transform myself into James, who is so full of love, who made it so unbelievable an experience to play. On the movie set, I had the luxury of taking more time," he says. "But it wasn't necessarily any easier."

The character of John Jeckyll also brings in the story's most catalytic persona -- his new young lover Ramon, played by Randy Becker, who drew lots of attention among theater audiences as the character who spends a good portion of his time on-stage unclothed.

"As an actor, Ramon really interested me and I was comfortable with him from the start," says Becker. "He comes into the story as an outsider in every way, not being part of their class, not being white, and being this young thing that everybody wants to look at. So, he's got a bit of a swagger and he knows the effect of his body on people, but he also has this great vulnerability. I think that's why he's so attracted to Bobby -- because Bobby's the only one who can't see him."

Becker did end up stripping nude for the film's sunbathing scenes, but he thinks it will be less shocking on the screen than it was on-stage. "On the stage, I started out the second act naked and stayed that way for over twenty minutes. In a movie, the nudity is there but it's only seen when the camera pulls back, which only happens when the shot requires it. So it feels very natural, very organic, it's just a guy who's swimming naked because he wants to get some sun."

The object of Ramon's youthful, roaming eye is Bobby, Gregory's blind lover. Justin Kirk sees his character as a symbol of balance in relationships. "Bobby can't see and Gregory, because of his stutter, can't always talk. They balance each other out," says Kirk. "It's an odd relationship -- but then aren't all relationships in this world? I think that's part of the point of the movie."

Kirk adds: "For me, the most difficult part of making the movie was not having that constant sense of the story's through-line, because you're shooting all out of sequence. It makes you think harder about the lines, because it's not just routine anymore. You have to actually think about where the feelings come from. And it was also very interesting to suddenly have the things that we mimed before -- you know garbage disposals and milk bottles and trees and gardens — suddenly be real."

Perhaps the two actors most challenged to keep the feelings of the stage play real and alive were Stephen Spinella and John Benjamin Hickey, who play the practically-married couple of Perry and Arthur. Because Perry and Arthur have lived together for 14 years -- sharing everything from their most vile opinions to the clipping of ear hairs -- the actors had to maintain a bond that could be felt as a palpable entity.

Says Spinella: "I think Arthur and Perry are one of the most wonderful pieces of writing in the whole story. They are the ones who have really learned how to be companions -- how to compromise, how to endure turbulence and conflict, and most of all how to make it one day at a time. I don't think they ever intended to be together forever -- it just happened that way."

Adds Hickey: "And when the movie begins, the two of them are coming to this house in the country so that they can reconnect. They need to get out of the city and spend some time together. Of course, unbeknownst to them, it turns out to be a very complicated summer."

Like their co-stars, Spinella and Hickey found the interruptions and waiting of movie-making a new strain on their characters — but also an opportunity to go deeper. "There are some things you can do in a movie that you could never do in a play," says Hickey. "There's this one moment in the film that wasn't in the play which is one of Arthur's best. It's right after he has met Ramon and he's coming out of the shower and suddenly he looks at himself in the mirror and starts saying 'wanna go for a swim?' only then he notices his bald spot and that kills the whole thing. It's just one of those very funny, tender visual moments that shows a lot about the character."

Summarizes Spinella: "What was really exciting about making this movie is that I can't think of another gay movie in which you get so involved with the characters. The Boys In The Band is kind of like that, but it takes place in a very different time. This play is very much about our times and about people just dealing with each other in very amusing ways -- and every once in a while taking on the world's problems."

Completing the circle of eight is the enigmatic Gregory, who brings the other seven men together. Stephen Bogardus sees Gregory as "the eye of the hurricane, who seems to stay calm through everything, until suddenly he has his own explosion."

Bogardus was particularly excited to have Gregory's house become a tangible reality. "The house is so important, because it is the place where all these guys can really let themselves down. Where they can be their most loving and compassionate and also their most frail and vulnerable. Now, suddenly each room has its own character, each bedroom has its own intimate feel, and the characters inhabit the space and make it their own."

Bogardus is convinced the actors were able to bring these feelings to the house because they were already so deeply entrenched. "The truth is, we know these characters more thoroughly than anyone else could. We've invested an incredible amount in them. We've all lived with them. So I think you could make the claim that we were already a family when we started this film."

The family feeling on the set was also of enormous benefit to Joe Mantello. Despite knowing the material as well as any director could, Mantello had never directed a motion picture before Love! Valour! Compassion! and was happy to have the support and love of friends as he made his debut behind the camera.

"Doug Chapin really took me by the hand and said you can do it," Mantello recalls. "I just had to think more visually, which comes naturally to me. Once I got the knack of thinking in terms of movement and light and expression, everything fell into place. And of course I couldn't have been more comfortable than with this group of amazing actors and filmmakers. In the end, I think we succeeded in bringing the spirit we all felt in the play to the film.

Home