Newsarama's George Marston reports on a HiloBrow interview with Hanna-Barbera writer Mark Russell: he is to reboot Snagglepuss as "a gay Southern Gothic playwright" in the tradition of Tennessee Williams.
Snagglepuss's adventures in New York will bring him to Broadway, where he'll deal with issues of his sexuality and the place of homosexuals in the repressed culture of the 50s.
"[Snagglepuss's sexuality is] never discussed and it’s obviously ignored in the cartoons ’cuz they were made at a time when you couldn’t even acknowledge the existence of such a thing," Russell explained. "But it’s still so obvious; so it’s natural to present it in a context where everybody knows, but it’s still closeted. And dealing with the cultural scene of the 1950s, especially on Broadway, where everybody’s gay, or is working with someone who’s gay, but nobody can talk about it - and what it’s like to have to try to create culture out of silence."
Oh, what a joyful day to frolic and play. Whaddya say to that? Whaddya say to thaaaaat?
