When you ask seasoned writer and director Del Shores what is sordid about his life, he has an easy answer: “What’s not!” he jokes. “I was married for nine and a half years, I have two daughters and a husband who is 23 years younger than me and my ex in-laws star in my series!”
Yeah, that does sound a little complicated. Oh, and he’s leaving out that his 27 year-old husband is also a star on the show.
On the other hand, what do you expect from the creator of Sordid Lives, the cult play and movie that’s about to launch its third incarnation as a 12-part comedy series on Logo?
Shores, who has written a number of successful plays and worked on hit shows like Queer As Folk and Dharma & Greg, started with Lives in 1996 when he wrote a campy play about a trashy family in Winters, Texas and the gay boy who leaves L.A. to join them when his grandmother dies. An immediate hit when it premiered in Los Angeles, the play was made into a movie directed by Shores in 2000 that had a record-setting run at a theater in Palm Springs and became a word-of-mouth cult classic. The DVD release in 2003 solidified its reputation as a hilarious and different kind of film.
“I thought we would make the movie and that would be it,” Shores says. “I didn’t expect the—for lack of a better word—passion people would have for the piece. The obsession.”
It was Jason Dottley, Shores’ partner, who prompted him to revisit the characters by writing an online novel, which eventually became the basis of the series.
The show is set in 1998, before the death of family matriarch Peggy (Rue McClanahan, see sidebar). She takes in the town bar singer, Bitsy (Olivia Newton-John), after she’s released from prison and also has to deal with her drugged-up sister, Sissy (Beth Grant), and her drama queen daughters, LaVonda (Ann Walker) and Latrelle (Bonnie Bedelia). Out of sight is her Tammy Wynette obsessed gay son, Brother Boy (Leslie Jordan), who is in a mental institution trying to be “de-homosexualized” by Dr. Eve (Rosemary Alexander, Shores’ former mother-in-law). Also along for the ride is Noleta (Caroline Rhea) who lives in a trailer next to Sissy with her amputee husband G.W. (David Steen). Along with all the drama in Winters, Latrelle’s son Ty (Dottley) is trying to discover his sexuality and make it as an actor in L.A.
Many of the cast are reprising their roles from the movie. Rhea is stepping in for Delta Burke, who couldn’t be part of the series for personal reasons, and Dottley, who played Ty in a touring revival of the play, took over for Kirk Geiger.
Dottley is aware that people may say he only got his role because his husband is directing the show. “People are going to say that and that’s reality,” he says. “I got to the front of the line because of it, but I starred in [the play] and the reviews are just praise.”
On top of his own work, Dottley was glad he got to hang around the all-star cast on the Shreveport, Louisiana set. “You don’t miss out watching these people work, unless you’re an idiot,” he says.
Shores is also pleased with the cast and thinks Lives can be Logo’s first crossover hit.
“I hope I bring a lot of not just [a] gay audience. I want 100 percent of them and 50 percent of everyone else,” he says, only half joking. The truth is, with the amount of drama, the star-wattage and the number of laughs he’s putting on screen, Shores might do just that. N
Sordid Lives premieres on Logo Wednesday, July 23 at 10pm.
A Golden Asset
Gay favorite Rue McClanahan brings the funny to Sordid Lives
Veteran actress and gay icon Rue McClanahan has not been idly sitting on her laurels since her Emmy-winning days playing randy Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls, but her new role as Peggy on Sordid Lives is the first one she’s really excited about since her last series ended.
“The Golden Girls was a magical opportunity to create a memorable and interesting character and this is the next script that has come along since then with that opportunity,” she says from her New York apartment. “I’ve done a lot of things, but I’m not getting out of that what I’m getting out of Sordid Lives.”
She says the reason Sordid Lives creator Del Shores can get such talented actors for his show is because of the quality of the material. “Really good actors love to do really good work and work with an exquisite script and each other,” she purrs in her Oklahoma drawl. “It’s not your usual state of affairs. You might be working with prima donnas; I’ve done some of that. And you might be working with untalented directors; I’ve done that. Or you might be working with a shoddy script and I’ve done plenty of that, but this is different.”
McClanahan is so dedicated to this show that she’s even helping out with wardrobe. “I ran across a hat when I was imagining how Peggy would dress,” she explains. “I saw this flat hat, so I took it with me and wore it in the first scene we shot and Del agreed that it was perfect for Peggy. So, I went shopping and bought fabric and buttons and got busy making hats.” Now there’s a woman who will do anything for a laugh! N
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