by Ruby Comer

Rick McKay

My panties are in a bunch. It downright irks me when I hear a legendary tune or classic TV theme song on a television commercial hawking toilet paper or soap powder. How dare they?! It’s rude, degrading, and irreverent. Today it happened as I was watching my favorite judge, “The Divine Ms. M.,” Marilyn Milian, on The People’s Court (my only addiction). Fortunately, it was near the end of the show and so I snapped that remote, switched to DVD mode, and popped in Rick McKay’s Broadway: The Golden Age. 

Rick McKay is a one-man show! This guy directed, produced, edited, and wrote this delightful, historical documentary (he even served as cameraman). He had a dream, and, lucky for us, he went after it. Rick, forty-five, brings together over one hundred Broadway and Hollywood legends (Shirley MacLaine, Angela Lansbury, Carol Channing, Martin Landau, Bea Arthur, Jerry Orbach, Ann Miller, Carol Burnett, Chita Rivera, Barbara Cook, Diana Rigg, Jerry Herman, Gwen Verdon, Tommy Tune, Charles Durning, Elaine Stritch), an endeavor that took him to four continents and over five years to complete. The film has received critical acclaim and has garnered awards at fifteen film festivals. His earlier film, Birds of a Feather documented his journey in locating drag queens for Mike Nichols’ film, Birdcage. Rick’s resumé also includes award-winning journalism, and working as a segment producer on WNET’s City Arts, as well as a producer for several episodes of A&E’s Biography. This ambitious chap is already in production for two more sequels, Broadway: More of the Golden Age and Broadway: The Next Generation.

We two Midwesterner neighbors (Rick’s originally from Indiana, and, as you know, Ms. Ruby’s from Ohio) meet at the aged Howard Johnson’s in New York’s Times Square for some late afternoon lunch in the center of the Great White Way. 

Ruby Comer: Eating here is like stepping back in history. I think Lainie Kazan [A&U, June 2003] mentions it in your film—how early in her career she ate grilled cheese sandwiches while waiting for her “number to be called” at theater auditions.

Rick McKay: Yes. This place is untouched by time. It’s like a museum!

Who was your very first interview in Broadway: The Golden Age?

Oddly enough she’s not in the film, she’s in the sequel.  It was Karen Ziemba. It’s funny now that I think of it that I started with “z.” 

What is your involvement with the HIV community, Rick?

Back in the mid-eighties, I was a Buddy at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis here in New York. And when I was an actor/singer —in my other life [he chuckles]—I did a million AIDS benefits, like for the organization, Hearts & Voices. One day a week, we’d go to hospitals and put on a show. I’d do an average of fifty shows a year for them. [He takes a sip of Pepsi.] I feel kind of guilty that I haven’t done anything recently.

Have there been any benefits connected with your film, Broadway: The Golden Age?

Not strictly with AIDS, but the New York premiere was donated to the National Hemophilia Association. We wanted to do our premiere with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, but it didn’t work out logistically. We made $100,000 that night.

Good for you! [I take a bite of my bunless white-meat turkey burger.] Has anyone close to you died from AIDS?

I lost a lover in 1992 [he instantly replies]. His name was Sebastian Hobart.  We were both singers.

Oh, Rick, I’m so very sorry. Geez, that was before the cocktails.

I don’t think I really did. I sang at his memorial service.  I wasn’t sober then. [Rick’s been sober for ten years.] I dealt with it through the years after I got sober. You deal with things much better when you get sober.

Congrats on your sobriety.

Thanks, Ruby. In 1997, my brother, Jimmy, killed himself. I can’t tell you this for sure -- since my parents were in severe denial -- but I’m sure it was because he had AIDS, though told everyone he had mononucleosis. He looked a lot like the actor James Darren. He was fifteen years older than me and when I was growing up, he was very closeted. He was pathologically shy so we never discussed his being gay. I look back now and I’m sure he would be alive today if he had had help. He had no support circle.

Poor fellow. What a tragedy. Sounds like he was ashamed of who he was.  It’s so sad that many HIV people go through this torment. On the lighter side, what was your first Broadway theater experience?

It was either Sweeney Todd or 42nd Street. The first show I ever saw was in Indiana when I was ten—Applause with Lauren Bacall. [He pays the tab.] Say, Ruby, if you think of anyone I can include in my Broadway sequel, please let me know.

[We kiss-kiss, and begin to exit HoJo’s.] Ah, Rick, I actually do have someone in mind for your sequel...me. [He looks flabbergasted at first, but then anticipates my joke.] You see, I’ve acted-out on Broadway many times—now I need to do it in a theater!

Read the full interview at www.aumag.org. For more information about the packed-with-extras DVD, log on to www.broadwaythemovie.com.

.