Ex-GI George Jorgensen, Jr. enjoyed being a girl, so he became one - and one of the most controversial female celebrities of the era, Christine Jorgensen. Presented by The Theater Offensive, "Christine Jorgensen Reveals" brings to life the only recorded interview of America's first famous transsexual.
The 75-minute play bares profound insights into Jorgensen's experience. Although these "insights" may be familiar in today's culture, it was a different story back in the 1950s.
George Jorgensen was born in May, 1926 to a Danish-American family in New York. After serving two years in the U.S. Army in New Jersey, he flew to Copenhagen, Denmark in 1952 to have male genital removal surgery and hormone therapy. In 1953, Jorgensen, now Christine, returned to New York as a controversial celebrity, becoming a successful nightclub performer and a popular college lecturer in the 1970s. She died in 1989 of bladder and lung cancer.
Christine Jorgensen could always hold her own on the stage, and this production leaves her to it. The simple set features only Jorgensen (played by Bradford Louryk) sitting in a director's chair along with the image of a black and white televised interviewer (Rob Grace) being broadcast through a tiny 1950s vintage television. This is truly a one-man - or, rather - one-woman, show.
Louryk wrote the play, but Christine Jorgensen wrote her words. The play is a lip-sync to the actual recorded interview of Jorgensen from the '50s. Some critics believe that lip-syncing compromises the beauty and liberty of an artist's vocal interpretation, but Louryk's attention to Jorgensen's ladylike idiosyncrasies - from the gentle tug of her skirt's hem to the inspection of her perfectly manicured nails - suffices to exemplify the actor's talent. Louryk's articulation is so perfectly attuned to the recording that he catches every breath and pause in between each phrase of Jorgensen's speech.
Jorgensen was known for her elegant appearance and poise, as well as for her audacious and assertive statements; Louryk's portrayal reflects these qualities. Exuding a gender mystique that is at the same time feminine and masculine, he captures the conflict that Christine embodied in 1950s America. Though Christine Jorgensen was physically everything and more than what a woman should be, she also possessed subtle masculine remnants which stemmed from her past identity, something that was repeatedly emphasized by tabloid article headings. For this reason, the production takes its advertising slogan from a 1952 New York Daily News article title: "Ex-GI Turns Blonde Beauty!"
And beauty she is; Louryk wears a tight green dress with a delicate diamond broach and a pair of three-inch-high black stilettos in the act. The quality of the costume and the make-up plays a role in itself, bringing the petite and lightweight Christine Jorgensen to life on the frame of Louryk's 5'11", 150-pound-plus body.
Comic moments sparkle subtly in various points. Considering this is 1953, the humor is surprisingly both crass and demure. The interviewer asks, "So, Christine, could you and have you had sexual relations with a man after your surgery?" Following Christine's response ("I can have normal intercourse, but I just can't reproduce"), he jokingly flirts, "Well then, shall we dance?"
From Jorgensen's humorous confessions about the challenges confronting the average 1950s woman - her shameless discussions on "bust complexes" and "electrolysis hair removal" - to her liberal and honest thoughts about homosexuality ("Homosexuality is not a problem; it is society's way of thinking about homosexuality that is the problem. It is the constant fear of social ostracism [that is the problem]."), "Christine Jorgensen Reveals" pays homage to the progressive mind of a modest yet influential figure in American history.
