‘I’d like to play the old lady’: Todd Buonopane on his role in renewed ‘Tartuffe’

Todd Buonopane’s agent almost didn’t submit him for “Tartuffe,” the current production where he and the rest of the company are lighting up The House of the Redeemer with Ranjit Bold’s ebullient and hilarious new translation of Molière’s classic comedy. After all, they wanted him for Madame Pernelle, the grandmother, in a gender non-conforming bit of casting. That wouldn’t be something he was interested in.

Buonopane’s reaction was, “Wait a minute! It’s a show with André De Shields. I have to do it. Someone send me a script.” He got the role and imagined that he’d be in full drag. He pulled up a Maggie Smith on his phone and thought that would be how it was played. Not at all; the reality has been somewhat different. He’s playing the part in “light drag,” which means a relatively subdued man’s suit with a shawl and a tiara.

The costume, though, is the only thing subdued about Buonopane’s performance. Madame Pernelle is an aggressively pious scold who has fallen completely under the influence of the religious hypocrite Tartuffe, who’s fully engaged in defrauding Orgon, Mme. Pernelle’s son. Even when Tartuffe’s perfidy is exposed, the grande dame refuses to be convinced and even argues vehemently with her son. It’s an invitation to go big — and Buonopane has embraced it with gusto.

Indeed, Buonopane is having the time of his life playing the part.

“I never get to play anyone mean,” he said in an interview with Gay City News. “I only play the friendliest, nicest people.”

When he spent time in Los Angeles, he would go to casting calls and be told, for example, that he was “too sweet” to be cast as the “snarky gay assistant.” “I’m literally going to play Olaf in ‘Frozen’ right after this,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ve made a career out of the ‘adorable best friend’ role. Then this came along, and I said, ‘yes, I’d like to play the old lady.’”

The role is another step on Buonopane’s journey. He started to talk about being gay when he was 14 and was even quoted in an article about that, but his agent questioned why he had put that in print, as it might limit his opportunities. However, as he looks back he says, “I just wanted to be my whole self.”

Buonopane adds that he’s been more deeply exploring his own queer artistry over the past six years and discovering what that means to him as a performer. During the pandemic he made videos of songs made famous by leading ladies. In fact, all he sang were female songs.

“I wanted to sing all these songs that I sang as a kid that I wasn’t allowed to sing.” He’s also performed in nightlife in New York with an act called “Songs that Made Us Gay.”

This exploration of these songs and finding his own interpretations of them led him to an important realization about the famous divas.

“Let me put it this way,” he said. “All of my favorite Broadway performers, from Carole Channing to Audra McDonald to André De Shields, are one of a kind, and they’re singularly themselves. I’m starting to realize more and more that the best theater artists are bringing their whole selves to their work.” He felt that to be fulfilled as an artist, he needed to do that as well and bring all of him to a role — “not that Olaf has to be a big homo,” he said, laughing.

The production of “Tartuffe,” under the direction of Keaton Wooden, has a campy, queer bent to it. Performed in the library of The House of the Redeemer, the characters interact with the audience, and, as Buonopane describes it, feels subversive. It’s an effective take on the piece in a world where, outside the theater, the culture is virtually marinating in religious hypocrisy. It’s a relief, at least in this setting, to be able to poke fun at it all.

In fact, the entire cast looks like they’re having a blast. The energy almost overwhelms the relatively small room, and André De Shields is at the top of his game. Even when the audience knows what Tartuffe is up to, De Shields has a star quality and magnetism that provides the emotional and intellectual center of the piece and around which chaos reigns.

“We’re doing a show from the top of our intelligence,” Buonopane said. “People want to come along with us and be part of the fun. There’s part of this that is a drag show, and everyone knows that if you sit up close, the queen’s going to pick on you.”