Loverboy last spoke with Tom Lenk six years ago, when he went viral online for his #LenkLewkForLess series, seeing him recreate iconique fashion looks out of household items! Since then he’s starred in the cult favourite Tilda Swinton Answers An Ad On Craigslist (we stan!) and now he returns to Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival with his latest show – Lottie Plachett Took A Hatchet.
Based on the gothic real life legend of Lizzie Borden, who may or may not have axed her parents to death – the show sees the tale through a Queer, Feminist lens aka they’re serving you camp, daaahling, in this high-energy whodunnit! The show is currently running at the Edinburgh Fringe until 27th August. To celebrate we spoke with Tom about playing Lottie’s homosexual brother, how Americans just don’t get Panto and why Janice from The Muppets is the OG non-binary, gender fluid kids’ TV character.
Hey Tom, how are you? And where are you?
I’m good. I’m in Edinburgh now, but before this I visited friends in Muswell Hill, London. I’m constantly trying to escape Los Angeles because we have nothing green there that isn’t being watered by a fountain. I just took a lush, beautiful walk in the woods. It started raining and I was like, ‘Oh I feel like Drew Barrymore right now!’
Do not miss that opportunity! And now you’re in Lottie Plachett Took A Hatchet which is based on the tale of Lizzie Borden. Now, I know the name, but give me the lowdown on the legend….
It was late 1800s America, Lizzie Borden went to trial for the murder of her father and step-mother who were murdered by a hatchet. She was a spinster, in her late thirties and rumoured to be in a relationship with a woman. She was completely vilified by the press even though she was not convicted. Obviously women in late 1800s America did not have very much power, especially if they were unmarried. The show uses comedy to point that out and the similarities to how women and Queer people are treated now, especially in America with the over-turning of Roe Vs Wade and the Don’t Say Gay bill in Florida.
I like to describe our version as a raucous, hilarious, Queer, parody of the Legend of Lizzie Borden, sort of like if The Muppets were doing a production of The Crucible as directed by John Waters. I play Lottie’s homosexual brother who had his pelvis removed as a child which turns into a fun thing I don’t want to spoil. Anyway he’s her best friend so you have this gay character and this oppressed woman. It’s a madcap satire on what is happening today.
OK so if Lottie Plachett is like The Crucible performed by the Muppets, directed by John Waters. Which muppet would you be in this scenario?
My character would be Gonzo. Lottie’s Dad would be Sam the Eagle. The step-mother would be played by Sweetums, the big one with the deep voice and who probably had a human inside of him. Lottie would be played by Janice. Actually I’m obsessed with Janice. When I was a kid I thought she was a boy. I love that for me. Now, looking back, I’m like, ‘Oh my Gosh, Janice was like the original non-binary, gender-fluid kids TV character.’
Lottie Plachett is kind of like a drag queen but a panto-dame version. I was wondering who your favourite panto-dame was?
Well, I haven’t seen any pantos in person. I have seen a drag queen who is a dame though – Dame Edna. I’ve seen her twice and I have never laughed so hard. Barry Humphries was such an inspiration and it really made me want to figure out how to do more solo stand-up comedy shows which I have ended up doing!
My friend Becky Lythgoe, married the son of Nigel Lythgoe, they live in Los Angeles now and they have started to produce pantos at the Pasadena Playhouse there. But Americans just don’t know what pantos even are, let alone that they are really popular.
Pantos can be a little politically-incorrect for these times.
There is a level of humour of pantos in our show, like inappropriateness. My character is being oppressed for his sexuality, he is called certain names by other characters, but I think we are all able to laugh because we are all Queer people who have all written the script and are essentially reclaiming the names. It’s kind of a throwback to this era of John Waters’ inappropriateness on purpose vibe.
Your previous show, Tilda Swinton Answering An Ad On Craigslist, was so successful. What was the most surreal moment for you?
The most amazing one was the four-and-a-half star review in The Guardian. I was like ‘We can go to The West End with this review!’ We’d been self-producing it the whole time. We actually just wrapped up doing some performances in Los Angeles, so I think we’re going to look at doing it again with a bigger set-up.
But the most surreal moment was when Gwendolyne Christie came to the show. I sent her an invite and it turned out she was friends with Tilda’s actual stylist! So Gwendolyne came straight off the runway at a Miu Miu show, wearing the same outfit from the catwalk and she was like, ‘I wore this for you! It’s Miu Miu, Miu Miu!’ She started taking pictures of us and she was so fun! We have a Bryn of Tarth joke in the show so it was all just very apropos. My mind was blown.
In your Press Bio it says that you being gay influenced Andrew’s own sexuality which I was not aware of.
I feel bad because there are so many versions of what happened out there and I guess the writers have said somewhere, ‘Oh yeah, he’s gay.’ But I’m like, ‘Well you could have told me because I thought I was just asexual!’
To be honest I have all the series on DVD, and although I’ve not watched them for a while, I didn’t remember Andrew being gay….
That’s the thing, if anything I feel he was representing the Q and questioning his LGBTQIA. He definitely wasn’t in touch with his sexuality. The thing is you can interpret it anyway you want, that’s the great thing about storytelling on TV, you can project onto the character. I do the same thing with Bridgerton, for me Eloise is a lesbian and that one brother is gay if not bisexual.
With Andrew, at that time there were already two openly gay characters in the show, so you couldn’t have another, right? The whole thing was that these three characters started out as nerdy comic book guys so I assumed that I was the same as the other two. They started adding jokes the more they got to know me, but it was always used for comedy’s sake. Andrew would say something like, ‘Isn’t Buffy beautiful? Her hair is so shiny’. Yes, that would be a very gay thing to say but also in his mind he is in love with her. He was definitely out of touch with his sexuality and trying to figure it out. You see, that’s also the thing, there are so many new options now that we didn’t have back then. Was he pan? Was he bi? Was he asexual? So I leave it up to the viewer to decide.
There’s always talk of a Buffy reboot or spin-off. If there was to be a spin-off who do you think would be the lead?
I hate to burst people’s bubble but I don’t think it would ever happen with the original cast. Obviously I needed a spin-off though! I am always about Justice for the Side Character Actors! If you liked us in the show, hire more Queer people. Hire Queer people to play Queer roles, hire Queer people to play straight roles. We can do other things.
Lastly we are named after the biggest-selling single of 2001 so we always ask, what is your favourite Mariah Carey song?
I have an affinity with the ‘Honey’ video because it was so over the top where she was riding the jet ski and in that bikini coming out the water. Last time I said her Home Shopping Network ‘moments’ clip? Yep, I’m sticking with that! ‘It’s a hoop earring moment! Can you go wide, she’s having a moment!’ I recently just watched her Vogue Life in Looks and it’s interesting because her response to so many of the dresses is ‘Someone stole it’ or ‘I wish I had it but I don’t have it now.’ I’m like ‘How many break-ins did Mariah Carey have and where are all these dresses? Have they been sold on the black market?!
Lottie Plachett Took A Hatchet, Assembly Roxy (Upstairs), 8.35pm, 4-27 August (not 17)
For tickets see www.assemblyfestival.com
