Take Me Out
By Keith Boykin, in sports·theater
Friday, June 6 2003, 10:44AM
New Yorkers will be focused on two big events this weekend — the Belmont Stakes and the Tony Awards. But whether or not Funny Cide wins the Triple Crown, sports will be the big theme all weekend. That's because the hot new baseball play Take Me Out is a shoo-in for the Tony Award for best play, and one of its two leading stars is likely to win the best actor award.
Take Me Out tells the story of gay biracial baseball player Darren Lemming (Daniel Sunjata) who nonchalantly comes out of the closet at a hastily called press conference.
Lemming wants to move on quickly with his life, but the rest of the world is not so willing. His teammates are suspicious and his best friend feels betrayed, but his gay accountant Mason Marzac (Denis O'Hare) is delighted.
Lemming's decision to come out of the closet coincides with the coach's decision to bring up minor league relief pitcher Shane Mungitt (Frederick Weller) to rescue the team from its slump. When Mungitt alienates team members with racist and homophobic remarks, teammate Kippy Sunderstrom (Neal Huff) tries to mend fences with both sides but only ends up making matters worse.
The story climaxes when opposing teammate Davey Battle (Kevin Carroll) confronts his old friend Lemming and sets up the conclusion of a controversial game.
Take Me Out explodes the myth that professional sports are not ready for openly gay athletes. First, there already are gay athletes out there, as the play effectively demonstrates. Second, the truth is that the sports world is ready for a gay athlete if the athlete is good enough. A superstar athlete like Darren Lemming will be a superstar athlete no matter what his sexual orientation.
Along the way, the audience gets to see Lemming and his teammates on the baseball field, in the locker room, and even in the showers in the nude. All the members of the team shower naked during the play. That alone might be worth the price of admission, but the play has many other virtues as well.
Denis O'Hare is extraordinary as the gay accountant Mason Marzac who learns to love baseball because he admires his client's courage. Mason helps us to see baseball as a metaphor for life, and he helps convince Lemming to stay on the team during his darkest hour. O'Hare plays the role beautifully and intelligently, bringing critical wit and humor to the serious topics discussed in the play.
Along with director Richard Greenberg, O'Hare and Sunjata are both nominated for Tony Awards for their performances. O'Hare is likely to win, but Sunjata plays his role well too. In order for the show to work, Sunjata's character has to grow from a self-centered prima donna with no real friends into a more likable figure.
Sunjata makes the transformation smoothly. His character initially comes off looking and sounding a lot like Bryant Gumbel in a baseball uniform, and his matter-of-fact speech feels emotionless. As the plot develops, Lemming eventually shows a tender, sensitive, and confused side. And it doesn't hurt that's he's gorgeous and naked.
Take Me Out moved from the Public Theater last year to the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway, where it creatively employs a flexible set design that enables public showers, lockers and baseball diamonds to interact seamlessly throughout the play.
With an all-male multiracial cast of black, white, Latino, Asian and biracial actors, the play challenges the Great White Way to continue including more diversity in its productions. Yes, Broadway, it is possible to do the right thing and do well.
I went into the theater not sure I would like the play, and I left the theater wondering why it took me so long to see it. This play deserves to win the Tony Award. After suffering through too many stiff and overacted dramatic performances in the past, I've never seen a better play than this one. Don't miss Take Me Out.
Take Me Out is now playing at the Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 West 48th Street, in New York City.