Maybe you've seen actor and singer Claybourne Elder in his role as John Adams on HBO's "The Gilded Age," or on Broadway as Andy in "Company" (opposite Patti Lupone) or as Buck Barrow in "Bonnie & Clyde." Or maybe you've seen him out and about around the Hudson Valley, where he lives with his family. Whether or not you have, you'll have your chance to see a lot of him when he brings his racy and intimate cabaret show to the region. Tickets for each night are $39.10 and both events are being presented by Big Gay Hudson Valley. Elder answered the questions below by email.
—Peter Aaron
What's "I Want to Be Bad" like, what inspired you to launch the show, and how long did it take you to put it together?
While I was finishing up the run on "Company" on Broadway, I started working on this show, which is kind of part stand-up and part cabaret performance. I started writing it just for fun, sort of as an outlet, and then I kept writing while I was working on the second season of "The Gilded Age." I finally had all the text written after a few months, so I got together with my music director Rodney Bush, who also plays the piano for my show, to get the arrangements done. I've been touring it now for about a year, just a couple of performances a month, but I'm always working on the show and making tweaks. It has been such a joy sharing it with audiences.
The show has a bit of risqué humor in it and one of the local venues you're performing at is a church (the welcoming-to-all Old Dutch Church in Kingston). It seems like there could be some irony there. Without giving too much away, is that an angle that you might reference during the show? How do you balance the type of material you cover in the show? Has it changed during the time you've been performing it?
Part of the joke of the show is that my "bad" is quite a bit less "bad" than most people's. Having been raised a gee-golly-willickers Mormon kid just stuck with me. So, yes, there are some risqué parts of the show, but I wouldn't call them anything but PG-13. I do think that a church is the perfect place for this show. There's a lot of humor (I hope), but also the heart of the show is about finding things to believe in and how that can change throughout a person's life. I will say that this show is being produced by Big Gay Hudson Valley, so just like when I have done the show in Provincetown or for queer events, I will probably lean into the gay of it all. There is a lot of interaction with the audience, so I generally feel things out and see what the audience seems to be responding to.
When you were growing up in Utah, what attracted you to performing and what age were you when the attraction began?
I fell in love with performing when me and my older brother, who is also gay, used to put on musicals in my parents' bedroom for my other siblings. We would play all the parts and I loved to play pretend. I started playing the violin at an early age and then, when I was in junior high, I did my first real musical at school and fell in love. I was a nerdy kid and finding the theater kids in my community really gave me a place to be and feel welcome. It saved me in a lot of ways, in that I felt like an outcast with a group of outcasts to hang out with. The first musical I ever saw was "The Fantastiks." It was so theatrical and imaginative, and I loved it. I loved Judy Garland movies, which my mother would always rent for us, and all the Golden Age musicals. I have White Christmas memorized backwards and forwards [laughs]. The old movie musicals really did it for me.
You and your husband and son are Ulster County residents. When did you move here and what drew you to the area? What's it like to live in the region as a parent?
We bought a house in Ulster County in 2019. We had been in love with the area for a long time and had friends here. We bought a house that needed some fixing up and we thought we would do it over several years while we were still living in the city, and then 2020 hit. I spent Covid ripping out the bathrooms and kitchen and installing new ceilings. We had the chance to really make it ours and we spent the whole year renovating. It's the first place our son remembers living, and we fell in even deeper love with the area. We have the most incredible neighbors and community here.
Tell us about City of Strangers, the initiative you founded to provide underprivileged
theatergoers with tickets to Broadway shows. What's the story behind that project?
Well, I tell a lot of the story as part of my show! But essentially, an incredibly generous stranger paid for me to go to a Broadway show that ended up having a big impact on my life when I was younger. In this spirit of his kindness, I started City of Strangers to help anyone who is really excited about theatre but might not have the means to go to see a Broadway show. The tickets aren't free, but are paid for by strangers who just want to do something nice for another person. We've given away over 3000 tickets now, and we're still going. How it all happened is kind of a crazy story, I've told it on "This American Life" and "The Kelly Clarkson Show." It has been really moving to be a part of.
What do you most hope people take away from attending a performance of "I Want to Be Bad"?
I think right now comedy is more important than ever. And I hope that people come together, laugh, and look at some uncomfortable and ultimately meaningful truths. I talk about a lot of things in the show that I never thought I would talk about in public. I think it's taken me until this point in my life to feel comfortable with that, and I still find myself moved by parts of it every time I do it. I hope that people feel that.
Claybourne Elder's "I Want to Be Bad" is at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston, March 9, 8pm, and at the Linda in Albany, March 10 7pm.
