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Doug
Wright
by Lawrence Ferber
Tony AWARD-winning playwright and
screenwriter Doug Wright has traversed and tackled
some pretty unconventional subjects during his career:
the Marquis de Sade in Quills, German transsexual Charlotte
von Mahlsdorf in 2004’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winner
I Am My Own Wife, and eccentrics Big and Little Edie
Beale in Broadway’s smash 2006 adaptation of Grey
Gardens. Currently he’s making a big splash as
the librettist for Disney’s multimillion-dollar
Broadway musical production of The Little Mermaid. A
graduate of Yale and NYU, Wright lives with his alt-rocker
boyfriend, David Clement (who recently scored Purple
State, a film addressing religious differences in the
USA). To commemorate The Little Mermaid’s first
steps on the Broadway boards, Wright joined us in the
lounge.
If you could swim with The Little
Mermaid’s Ariel at any vacation destination, which
would you choose?
My partner David and I have reservations to fly
to St. Lucia in the Caribbean. I’ve been to the
Caribbean quite often and we’ve found a particular
resort that looked really appealing—the rooms only
have two walls and the suites themselves are open-faced
and look out on the mountains and ocean itself, so it
sounds beautiful.
Tell us about a memorable experience
you’ve had while traveling?
I recently returned from Bucharest, Romania, where
I Am My Own Wife was being produced. I appear as a character
in the play, but usually my role is performed by an
actor. In Bucharest they asked me to perform the role
on video, so I actually portray myself on a giant 30-foot
video screen, and I have to say traveling to see myself
onstage in a video installation reciting lines in Romanian
has to be one of the strangest experiences I’ve
had. Also, it’s a very conservative culture with
a lot of taboos against homosexuality and I’m very
proud to say the play broke some of those barriers and
is enjoying a very successful run.
Have you ever experienced a travel
disaster or humiliation?
When we were traveling to Romania we wanted to
bring some souvenirs from New York so we brought Times
Square snowglobes and we weren’t allowed to bring
them through security because they contained liquid.
We ended up handing them out to the security guards
as Christmas gifts. That was unfortunate, but I can’t
say I have ever been caught with elaborate sex toys
or a portable sling or anything like that. (laughs)
If you and David could get married
and settle down in any famous residence in the world,
which would it be?
Well, we’ve flirted with the idea of getting
married at an eccentric little place outside Berlin
called the Gründerzeit Museum, which was the famed
house of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. It’s a museum
with turn-of-the-century German furnishings. As a place
to live, I think we’d be fighting over any one
of mad King Ludwig’s Bavarian castles. Or maybe
Bran Castle in Transylvania, which we both visited and
really loved and is rumored to have been the former
home of Vlad the Impaler, who became known as Dracula
in popular culture.
Who would you hire to design the
Doug Wright Airline’s planes and outfits?
Oh my God. For the interior I would hire the same
gentleman who did my apartment. This flamboyant and
very inventive designer, Miles Redd. As far as the uniforms—Zegna
all the way.
What would you most like to change
about existing planes?
I would put plush single seats in all classes.
None of these tightly cramped rows anymore.
Your number one travel tip?
Research hotels online. There are so many free
review sites, and I have to confess I sometimes write
for them rather compulsively. I’ve gone online
to review everything from a seedy Holiday Inn in North
Carolina to The Ritz in Paris. There are so many resources
online to not only find good deals, but to ascertain
the quality of the place you intend to stay that I think
you’re foolish to not spend 20 minutes cross-referencing.
What place in the world is on the
top of your list to visit, and what do you want to do
while you’re there?
I’m desperate to hit some of the posher spas
in Reykjavik, Iceland. Apparently, a really great spa
spot. I got to choose our last big vacation, which was
a month in Japan last April, so my partner David is
choosing our next and we’re hoping to go to India.
I’ve been very curious about Dubai but I think
there’s so much antigay sentiment there I don’t
think we’ll be booking tickets anytime soon.
What are the most essential items
in your suitcase?
My laptop, because it is my workplace. As a freelance
writer I can write anywhere on the globe so long as
I have an internet connection and word processing program.
If you could go back in time and
meet with any playwright who would it be?
I would have to say, as cantankerous and offensive
as he is rumored to have been in person, possibly Henrik
Ibsen. But for pure all-out good times with someone
I think has influenced my work to a greater degree,
it would have to be Charles Ludlam. He’s kind of
a god to me.
If you were stranded on a desert
island what three things would you hope to find there?
A really good lending library, a flat-screen TV
with DVD player, and a mailbox for my Netflix movies.
[Published:
April, 2008]
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On
the Road, A Mini Gay Film Fest