James Corden is in another musical, so of course, he promoted Cinderella on The Late Late Show yesterday with his co-stars Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, and Billy Porter.
What is the best way for him to do it? It is finally time to bring back Crosswalk the Musical after an 18-month hiatus. So he did.
It was the same old schtick. He thinks he should play the lead. He is obnoxious to everyone. The bigger names claim their lead roles. They do a few songs in between red lights, and then they are done.
However, this time he changed it up because Porter, the Fairy Godfather, turned him into a rat. Making all of our dreams come true.
Billy Porter plays Pray Tell on Pose, a character who is HIV+. The actor recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and shared with them that he was diagnosed with it in 2007.
It was the worst year of his life. It started out with him being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and then he filed bankruptcy papers. If that was not enough, he developed a pimple on his butt that would not go away. In June, he went to the doctor to have it checked out, and they asked him if he wanted to take an HIV+ test. He agreed to do it because he did it every six months. However, this time the results were different. This time he was positive.
Although the stigma about HIV/AIDS had changed a lot by then, he remembered what it was like when he came out when he was 16. Back then, people shunned anyone who tested positive for the disease. Therefore, he has only told a few people in 17 years.
One of the people he didn’t tell was his mom. He thought she would go to her grave without knowing. Then on the last week of filming Pose, he finally told her. She was like, why didn’t you tell me earlier?
That is what a lot of people are going to tell him today. But I understand where he is coming from. I was an AIDS activist, and there was a stigma towards people who had it. So they opted to keep their diagnosis secret just like they had kept the fact that they were Gay hidden.
That was then; this is now. Porter’s generation broke down the barriers so the younger generations would not have to go through what he went through as a Gay man. And now he is doing the same for people who are HIV+.
HIV is no longer a death sentence. But there are still ways to prevent getting. There are more options than then there were in the ’80s and 2007. Therefore if you have sex with someone new, get tested, use condoms, and take PrEP if your lover is positive and you are not.
FX released the trailer for the final season of Pose. Pray tell; we are going to be crying with Pray Tell (Billy Porter) as he slowly loses his battle with HIV/AIDS. I mean, we don’t know that he is, but that is how I expect the series to end, with his death. I could be wrong, so I will be watching every minute, starting on May 2nd, to find out. Will you be watching with me?
Back in the late ’60s, Stephen Stills wrote a song called For What It’s Worth (Stop, Hey What’s That Sound) that was sung by Buffalo Springfield. Its message was so strong that it became an anthem for the civil rights movement and the Vietnam protests.
As time has gone, it still remains a powerful song. The meaning behind it is as strong today as it was 50 years ago. That is why Billy Porter decided to release his take on the folk song.
He updated the sound so to make it soulful, but the lyrics remain the same. They are perfect no matter what year it is.
“One of the heartening things that I’ve seen during the Coronavirus outbreak is how we’ve all banded together. Everyone doing their part, checking on each other, using technology to connect with one another,” said Porter. “I think the messages in ‘For What It’s Worth’ are so relevant now. It’s a song about unifying and coming together to make a change.”
There are four songs from that era that have left a huge impact on me. They are The Animals’ We Gotta Get Out of This Place, Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells, Jefferson Airplane’s Somebody to Love, and this one. Therefore, I am sensitive to covers that people make for those protest songs.
When it comes to Porter’s version, I totally approve. It is a groovy take that not only got my approval, it also got the thumbs up from the writer. Stills said, “For many years no one tried to ‘make it theirs’ as covers are supposed to do. That an artist of Billy’s caliber has chosen to add his flourish to my song from so many years ago is totally in keeping with what I intended.”
