INTERVIEW: Off-Broadway’s ‘Santa Closet’ tells tale of LGBTQ+ acceptance
Photo: The Santa Closet, written and performed by Jeffrey Solomon, continues through Dec. 22. Photo courtesy of Russ Rowland / Provided by Coyle Entertainment with permission.
The Santa Closet, Jeffrey Solomon’s humorous and thoughtful commentary on adults talking to children about LGBTQ+ issues, is back off-Broadway in an updated version starring the playwright. The holiday-themed show runs through Dec. 22 at Teatro Circulo Theater on East 4th Street in New York City’s East Village.
The solo piece, according to press notes, follows Gary and his gender atypical gift request, which is sent to Santa Claus at the North Pole. This eventually leads to Santa coming out of the closet and entering a culture war over LGBTQ+ issues. At its heart, the show speaks to acceptance and the changes that have occurred in how families have age-appropriate discussions on relationships and identities.
Solomon is co-founder of Houses on the Moon Theater Company. He is the author of Building Houses on the Moon, Tara’s Crossing and De Novo. He has also starred in a number of his own plays over the years, including MotherSON, which played the HERE Arts Center in New York City. He also appeared in Santa Claus Is Coming Out, the predecessor to The Santa Closet.
“The play deals with adults’ fear and discomfort in talking to kids honestly and openly about LGBT issues,” Solomon wrote in an email to Hollywood Soapbox.
There was one piece of legislation in Oregon that specifically inspired Solomon to put pen to paper. It was called Measure 9, and actually before the pen hit the paper, the playwright decided to go conduct some interviews, very much in the same vein as Anna Deavere Smith’s unique form of theater.
“Oregon voters were considering Measure 9, which would have made it illegal for any school to ‘promote, sanction or encourage homosexuality,'” Solomon stated. “I headed west with recorder in hand to find out why people were so terrified of children being spoken to honestly about the existence of gay people. Measure 9 and numerous other controversies inspired this play, including a few elementary school teachers who dared to ‘come out’ to young kids, sparking a reaction from the public and the media bordering on hysteria.”
Solomon qualified these statements by adding that these teachers were not technically “coming out;” they were simply talking honestly about themselves like their straight colleagues: speaking openly about their families in age-appropriate ways.
“Despite signs of progress, ‘gay’ is still the ‘love that dare not speak its name’ when it comes to kids,” he stated. “Anyone who does so is in danger of being accused of promoting that lifestyle, and yet we promote straight love in every form and fashion to our children — sailors can settle down with fish, princesses can get physical with frogs and beauties can live happily ever after with the beasts who abduct them — but the child who may grow up to be LGBT, has no reflection of himself. There is no happily ever after in sight during his or her formative years.”
This so-called “invisibility” inspired the first rendition of this solo show, known as Santa Claus Is Coming Out. That production ran in New York City 10 years ago, so for this anniversary, the show has been modified, given a new title and will now play a special engagement in the city where it all began.
“It is this invisibility that I explored in Santa Claus Is Coming Out,” Solomon stated. “I was one of those children, and I can tell you that the fact that subject was unmentionable and invisible when I was a child caused me a lot of unnecessary pain and shame. I have created in the play the Santa Claus I needed. The one I wish I had known.”
Besides the 10-year anniversary, it would be seem that The Santa Closet is also offering commentary on the strange times the United States is currently experiencing. Solomon’s email response mentioned the “gender identity panic” involving restrooms and the Trump administration’s taking away of civil rights for trans people. He also pointed to some of the positives, including the transgender community’s increasing media exposure and how LGBTQ+ issues have entered the popular conversation.
In the past — and not a past that long ago — a child assigned male at birth was never given the chance to play with Barbies or an Easy Bake Oven. Now, different types of parenting have emerged and thoughtful questions have been considered with the “evolving definition of what it means to be queer,” as Solomon put it.
The Santa Claus story is one that interests and inspires Solomon, and it has become his vessel to share this commentary. He fully admitted to being fixated on the ins and outs of the narrative surrounding this jolly old figure.
“There is something absolutely timeless in the Santa Claus myth,” he wrote. “When I was researching the play, I read something so powerful about the message of Saint Nicholas: ‘To secretly meet the deepest needs of hurting souls, without requiring any credit or personal recognition.’ The deeper hunger for affirmation is still very relevant today.”
That relevancy also means there is more work to be done. As Solomon was putting together the 10-year anniversary, he realized that some parents — perhaps even many parents — are still uncomfortable broaching the topic of LGBTQ+ issues with their children.
“We are still not in this current moment at a place where all adults feel comfortable speaking to kids about LGBTQ issues,” he stated. “There is a gorgeous section near the end of the play when kids write letters to the newly out and embattled Santa Claus. They are sending their love and support but also to ask very innocent questions about queer people and issues. We use real kids voices for this section, asking very age-appropriate questions like, ‘Are some bears gay?’ and ‘When two boys get married, which one wears the wedding dress?'”
For these real voices, Solomon did not get complete buy-in from everyone, which resurfaced some of the issues that he originally explored a decade ago.
“It was a painful reminder that this is still a taboo in many places,” he stated. “I don’t think these parents would openly espouse homophobic or transphobic views, but their discomfort with the subject matter, their sense that there is automatically something inappropriate or implicitly sexual about discussing queerness, speaks volumes.”
Although one reading of The Santa Closet is that it’s a serious play dealing with weighty issues, another reading of it is that it’s a fun blast of energy for 75 minutes. That’s what Solomon focuses on; this is, after all, a comedy.
“I have so much fun, and I think the audience is having so much fun,” Solomon wrote. “The theater bursts with energy that sustains me, and I get to wear pajamas to work!”
This sense of joy spreads to Solomon’s house, where he loves partaking in his yearly ornament-making party.
“Our loved ones can leave the ornament for our tree, or they can take theirs home,” he wrote. “But my most special tradition is, in fact, performing The Santa Closet. This play for me is my own personal It’s a Wonderful Life. Confession: I’m a Jew with a Santa Claus fetish. More specifically, Christmas specials: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, The Year Without a Santa Claus, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. When I was a kid, I was totally obsessed with them. My dad even arranged a visit from Santa Claus when I was 4. Imagine my disappointment when I saw him drive away from the house in his V.W. bug.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Santa Closet, written by and starring Jeffrey Solomon, plays through Dec. 22 at Teatro Circulo Theater on East 4th Street in New York City’s East Village. Click here for more information and tickets.
