HIS PLAYS have been hits on Broadway and London’s West End starring Hollywood big beasts such as Richard Gere and Hugh Jackman – and now Martin Sherman has chosen Pitlochry Festival Theatre for his latest world premiere.
That could be seen as a coup for Pitlochry but the award-winning playwright couldn’t be happier his new work will receive its initial airing in the Highlands of Scotland.
It is his first time at the theatre which he describes as “amazing”.
“It’s an extraordinary theatre – there are many beautiful cities that don’t have theatres like this,” Sherman told the Sunday National.
He said it was a tribute to the area that the theatre had been so well supported over the years and believes the appointment of Alan Cumming as artistic director will reinforce its place on the theatrical map.
“He’s innovative, challenging and exciting and I knew he totally understood my play,” Sherman said. “The first time a play is seen is very important and when he proposed doing it here I knew it could not be in better hands.”
Sherman said he was even more delighted when Tony, BAFTA and Olivier-award-winning actor Simon Russell Beale agreed to play the part of flamboyant showman Liberace, with Fra Fee also jointing the cast.
“That made it even more extraordinary – who could resist that,” Sherman said.
I’ll Be Seeing You focuses on a young writer struggling to create a play about the extremely camp superstar Liberace – a man he believes lived in denial, hiding his true self behind sequins and spectacle.
But when Liberace himself appears to him, the story takes a surreal turn challenging the writer and the audience to question their assumptions and prejudices.
When the idea of basing a play on Liberace had been suggested to Sherman in the past he initially had no interest.
“I admired him as an entertainer but I had problems with the fact he lied so much in public, not just by hiding his sexuality but by lying in court about it,” said Sherman.
Liberace, who at one point was the highest paid entertainer in the world, successfully sued the Daily Mirror for libel in 1959 after the paper published an article which implied he was gay. He continued to deny he was gay despite being sued for “palimony” in 1982 by his lover and chauffeur. As time went on Sherman became more intrigued by Liberace and in writing the play said he had “made his peace with him”.
“I came to understand him very much as a person of his time and as a person of incredible bravery in his own peculiar way,” he said. “I still disagreed with him but I came to have great respect for him.”
Sherman said one of the reasons Liberace wouldn’t ever admit he was gay, was because he was afraid of losing his audience.
“He was playing on his gayness and yet he denied it. That was the conflict. That was the dichotomy. That was the danger in the way he lived and that’s what made him interesting.
“He wasn’t just a piano player who happened to be gay. He was a flamboyant camp showman who was featuring his gayness and yet at the same time was utterly denying it because women in America, particularly middle-aged women, were madly in love with him. He was a very, very interesting phenomenon.”
Cumming is directing the play and joining him in the creative team are Ben Occhipinti and Tony and Olivier award-winning designer Tim Hatley.
The production is part of the theatre’s 75th anniversary which marks Cumming’s inaugural season as artistic director.
Cumming said: “The world premiere of a Martin Sherman play is a huge event. This is a confection like no other seen on the Pitlochry Festival Theatre stage, a mirage of rhinestone and glitz, about a man who played with and for us in equal measure.”
He added: “We have been so lucky to have the co-operation of the Liberace foundation in bringing this play to the Pitlochry stage and to have been given access to his collection in Las Vegas for research purposes.
“We are also honoured to have the great Simon Russell Beale playing Liberace and Fra Fee as a writer forced to create a play about him – and Martin Sherman himself will be taking the stage too for the first time!
“This will be an evening unlike anything seen in our theatre in the hills – gird your loins!”
I’ll Be Seeing You is at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from September 22 until October 11
