Jesse Luttrell

For variety show emcee Jesse Luttrell, whose Bawdy vaudeville showcase returns to Stage 72 (formerly The Triad) this month, it was some old Fosse razzle-dazzle that helped him realize that he liked boys.

“Fosse! Fosse! Fosse! Imagine, if you will, a tall, gawky 14-year-old in the living room teaching his friends the choreography to ‘Take Off With Us.’ These weren’t Manhattan sophisticates, mind you; we were in the middle of a GOP-flagging, fag-flogging, Bible-thumping cow-patch in bumfuck Pennsyltucky! What better backdrop for me and my friend Emily to practice our Fosse poses than silos, horse-and-buggies and covered bridges. I remember watching my All That Jazz VHS over and over until the tracking was so worn you could barely make out Jessica Lange’s gorgeous, soft-focused face through her white veil. Bob Fosse’s absurdly sexual, but sophisticated choreography was exactly what I needed to escape from the doldrums of those awkward years in rural Pennsylvania. I still carry it with me everywhere I go.“