Fabulous drag is de rigueur for any kind of adaptation of John Berendt’s 1994 best-selling book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. That’s because this largely nonfiction account of 1980s society folk and scallywags in Savannah, Georgia, helped to spawn the worldwide celebrity of the entrancing transgender showgirl known as The Lady Chablis.
Though The Lady Chablis passed away in 2016, this drag legend will get to live again onstage now that a world-premiere musical version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is playing Chicago’s Goodman Theatre this summer. The production is jam-packed with Broadway talent, including two stars whose stage careers feature prominent doses of drag.
J. Harrison Ghee, who goes by they/them pronouns, made history last year as the first non-binary performer to win a leading actor Tony Award as Jerry/Daphne in a new musical adaptation of Some Like It Hot (more history was made earlier that same evening when non-binary star Alex Newell won a featured actor Tony Award for Shucked).
In Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Ghee gets to embody The Lady Chablis. It’s another juicy stage role involving drag for Ghee, after they previously starred in screen-to-stage musical adaptations of Kinky Boots on tour and on Broadway as a replacement in the role of Lola, and as Andre Mayem in Mrs. Doubtfire on Broadway.
Out actor Tom Hewitt doesn’t don femme drag as Jim Williams, the gay antiques dealer and historic home restorer who faces a murder trial in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. But Hewitt famously put on the high heels and corset for his Tony Award-nominated turn as Frank ‘N’ Furter in the 2000 Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show. Chicago audiences might also remember Hewitt’s starring roles in the national tours of Urinetown, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and more.
Ghee first auditioned to be The Lady Chablis more than a decade ago for an earlier workshop adaptation of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. That ultimately discarded version had a script by Driving Miss Daisy playwright Alfred Uhry, and was more of a jukebox musical since its score was of existing standards by the late songwriter (and Savannah native) Johnny Mercer.
“I didn’t see (director Clint Eastwood’s 1997 film adaptation of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) until I was an adult, but knew of Chablis and have loved and adored her and that full energy of walking in truth and authenticity,” Ghee said. “Getting the opportunity to honor her in this way of playing her has been a wonderful experience.”
At the Goodman, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil now features an original score by Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Bridges of Madison County). The book is by playwright, drag performance artist and MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Taylor Mac, who is famed for critically-acclaimed 24-hour marathon performances exploring U.S. history through decades of popular music.
Ghee says that Mac’s script brings a very interactive element to the proceedings as the Savannah characters jockey for prime position to share their stories. And in rehearsals, Brown has written Ghee a new song after a deep conversation about their life experiences.
“(The creative team) has trusted me to come in and be myself and bring myself to the work and allow that to inform choices,” Ghee said. “To burst the beautiful song that (Brown) created, it really moved everyone in our last run-through and it’s going to be wonderful to share that with audiences and it should pull people’s heartstrings.”
Hewitt also knows the rigors of birthing a new musical. Hewitt is a veteran of the original Broadway casts of Dracula, Doctor Zhivago and Amazing Grace (which played a Chicago tryout in 2014 at what is now the CIBC Theatre).
“I got a new song a couple of weeks ago,” Hewitt said. “It typifies doing a new musical, that songs you work really hard on and fall in love with can get cut—new material is added that you learn really quickly so you can get it up and show the creatives to see if it works.”
Hewitt counts himself among the legions of tourists who paid a pilgrimage to Savannah in the ‘90s after reading and falling in love with Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Along with experiencing the real-life surroundings of Savannah, Hewitt has been tapping into his own memories of ‘80s social taboos around homosexuality to create an onstage version of the genteel and semi-closeted Jim Williams.
“In acting school and then early in my acting career in the 1980s, when I had to play young romantic leads, it was important to present as heterosexual—whatever that means—and to ‘not let your slip show’ as we would say,” Hewitt said. “In some ways, I became sort of more closeted in the theater, because I was paranoid or fearful that any gay behavior would hinder my employment.”
But Hewitt became freer about who he was in the ‘90s when he was cast in openly LGBTQ+ roles. For example, Hewitt created the HIV-positive gym hunk Steve in Paul Rudnick’s acclaimed 1992 off-Broadway comedy Jeffrey. Hewitt later made his Broadway debut in the replacement company of Wendy Wasserstein’s 1993 comedy The Sisters Rosensweig as the bisexual character Geoffrey.
“My agents were like, ‘You can’t be out and gay because it’s going to hinder your career.’ But I said, ‘Look at my career. I’m doing just fine,’” Hewitt said. “It felt more honest for me not to hide it and to be out.”
Hewitt and Ghee are proud to be in the company of so many other Broadway luminaries attached to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. For example, Tony and Olivier Award-winning director and choreographer Rob Ashford (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Parade in London) is on board as the director. Tanya Birl-Torres, one of Ashford’s former cast members in his 2011 Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, is the choreographer.
“Every part of this story is still relevant,” said Ghee about Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. “Especially in today’s climate against LGBTQIA+ people and trans and non-binary people specifically. It’s relevant that eyes are on us just for walking in our truth and our freedom.”
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil begins previews with a special 6 p.m. Pride Night performance on Tuesday, June 25. Previews continue before the press opening on Monday, July 8, at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. Regular run performances continue through Sunday, Aug. 4. Tickets are $25 to $165, though dynamic pricing may come into effect with demand. Call 312-443-3800 or visit goodmantheatre.org.