'Take Me Out'

Written By venus on Saturday, November 30, 2013 | 9:45 PM

About 10 years ago the Broadway show "Take Me Out" created quite a stir. It wasn't only its critique of homophobia, racism, celebrity ego trips and masculinity in sports. It was the nudity that occurred during a shower scene.

The play is set in the locker room of a Yankees-styled professional baseball team. At the time, no active pro baseball player had come out as gay (although a few retired players had done so). The drama's main character, Darren Lemming (played in the original cast by Daniel Sunjata), is the team's superstar when he decides to come out. His teammates are forced to search for identity--Sunjata's and their own. Teammates react strongly--some sympathetically, many others negatively, the worst being an Ozark-raised teammate who is downright bigoted).

The play won awards in 2003 for a Tony Award for top play, best director and best featured actor; a New York Critics' Circle Award for Best Play; and best play awards from the Drama League, the Drama Desk and the New York Drama Critics' Circle.

After 355 performance at the Walter Kerr
Theatre, the play closed on January 4, 2004.