'Lempicka' showcases a little-known queer artist's dazzling life

Once the toast of 1920s Paris, Tamara de Lempicka's story is now on Broadway. She was a modernist art deco artist who's better known in Europe than in the U.S.Musicals can be inspired by a variety of sources. Just this spring, three shows based on books that were turned into movies have opened on Broadway:"I found this art book and I just thought, oh, this isn't a play," said Kreitzer."Like, words are not going to be enough.

She and her husband, who together led a privileged life in St. Petersburg, fled Russia during the October Revolution, settling in Paris. There, she made a name for herself painting modernist portraits and nudes and became known for painting the"New Woman" — the moniker for those who were kicking off gender roles by driving cars and cutting their hair. They were exploring socially and sexually, and Lempicka joined in.

In the musical, Lempicka is in a love triangle with her husband and Rafaela, though historians don't actually know if Tamara and Rafaela were lovers. "We show Tamara in the relationship with her husband and also the relationship with Rafaela," said Eden Espinosa, who plays Lempicka in the musical,"and how those gender norms and the way that you're supposed to behave with one person and the other person, how that shifts."Lempicka is not always portrayed as likable in the musical — she's focused more on her work than on her family, and she does what she needs to in order to survive.

We really do allow Tamara to be as flawed and complicated as any male protagonist has ever been allowed to be."We really do allow Tamara to be as flawed and complicated as any male protagonist has ever been allowed to be. And women very rarely are, because for so many reasons, we're worried about 'Is the woman likable?' And so, you end up flattening out character after character, when, of course, what makes for good drama often is a thorniness.

Source: Entertainment Trends (entertainmenttrends.net)

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