Another play about falling in love with a gay hustler? No, no, no...

The Little Dog Laughed may have just announced it is closing early on Broadway, but faster than you can say "tired, gay cliche" another play about a gay man falling in love with a hustler arrives. Charles Isherwood of the New York Times writes about All That I Will Ever Be which opened last night at the New York Theater Workshop. (Picture by Joan Marcus.) The play certainly has a stellar pedigree as it's written by Alan Ball of Six Feet Under and American Beauty fame. That doesn't mean Isherwood particularly liked the play, though not for the reason that made me immediately cringe upon reading the article's headline: When Boy Meets Gay Hustler, Some Personal Truths Are Sure to Emerge. I haven't seen the play, so can't comment on it. I liked what Isherwood had to say about Little Dog, so I suspect I'm inclined to agree with about this play. But what I can comment on is how bloody tired I am of seeing plays, reading books, and watching movies about gay men who fall in love with hustlers and just hustlers in general. This ground is so well-covered it makes books about Abraham Lincoln seem fresh. (FYI, Lincoln has had more books written about him than just about any other historical figure.) And this topic isn't something that I or any of my gay friends can relate to at all. As far as I know, I've never even met a gay hustler, much less dated or fallen in love with one. Ditto my friends. Yet we keep seeing this depressing, boring story again and again. Call it The Pretty Woman syndrome for gay men. Of course, where Pretty Woman has a happy ending, Gay Hustler syndrome ends in despair, drug addiction, and often death. Case in point is Ron Nyswaner's Blue Days, Black Nights, his memoir about falling into drug addiction and becoming obsessed with a cold-hearted hustler. I hated this book about a man who seemingly had it all yet threw it away chasing this guy around the world. We've seen variations on this theme again and again. It's not that this story doesn't happen, of course, but when we have two big plays in New York on the subject back-to-back, someone has got to say enough is enough. How about some other stories about gay men? Same-sex marriage is a hot topic right now. How about a play about that? And if we have to have depressing plays, why not the story of an older gay couple where one partner has Alzheimer's and the other struggles to take care of him without the same support system straight people have. Anything but another story about falling for a hustler, please?