The ACTUAL February House!!! Finally [George Davis] reached tiny Middagh Street, a four-block lane clinging to the edge of the northernmost bluff overlooking the Fulton Ferry and the dockyards below…Halfway down the last, dead-end block, nestled in a row of ordinary brick homes, stood the object of his search, resembling in every detail his nighttime vision. George let his gaze drop to the sign in the parlor window. It read, as he knew it would, HOUSE TO LET. While neither he nor Carson [McCullers] had enough money to rent the entire brownstone, each could afford a small piece of it. And if they invited friends to move in as well, together they could raise enough money for the rent and expenses. It would be the group life that Carson had been dreaming of, he explained excitedly, a sanctuary for themselves and others who were also, for financial, political, or any other reason, finding it difficult to to focus on their work. He knew, for example, that Auden was looking for a cheaper place to live. If such a respected poet moved in, everyone else would follow. It would be an experiment, he told Carson—a test for himself and a test for each other. But surely it was worth trying. The rent would be low—$75 a month—with one month’s security deposit due on signing. Roughly the same price as a small apartment on the East Side in Manhattan, the four-story house was a bargain—particularly now that the prospect of war had led to more weddings and a housing squeeze in New York. Sherill Tippins, February House, 2005

The ACTUAL February House!!!

Finally [George Davis] reached tiny Middagh Street, a four-block lane clinging to the edge of the northernmost bluff overlooking the Fulton Ferry and the dockyards below…Halfway down the last, dead-end block, nestled in a row of ordinary brick homes, stood the object of his search, resembling in every detail his nighttime vision. George let his gaze drop to the sign in the parlor window. It read, as he knew it would, HOUSE TO LET.

While neither he nor Carson [McCullers] had enough money to rent the entire brownstone, each could afford a small piece of it. And if they invited friends to move in as well, together they could raise enough money for the rent and expenses. It would be the group life that Carson had been dreaming of, he explained excitedly, a sanctuary for themselves and others who were also, for financial, political, or any other reason, finding it difficult to to focus on their work. He knew, for example, that Auden was looking for a cheaper place to live. If such a respected poet moved in, everyone else would follow. It would be an experiment, he told Carson—a test for himself and a test for each other. But surely it was worth trying.

The rent would be low—$75 a month—with one month’s security deposit due on signing. Roughly the same price as a small apartment on the East Side in Manhattan, the four-story house was a bargain—particularly now that the prospect of war had led to more weddings and a housing squeeze in New York.

Sherill Tippins, February House, 2005

itsaustin1:

“Wanderlust”
February House
Stephanie Hayes, Kristin Sieh, Erik Lochtefeld, A.J. Shively
Music and lyrics by Gabriel Kahane

So we’ll drive along the wide roads
toward those amber waves of grain,
breathing deep the dusty sideroads,
keeping pace with rusty trains,
and the towns all full of neon signs
will be our fruited plain,
which we’ll look upon with wonder
as the thunder turns to rain.

I basically wept non-stop through this show yesterday at the Public. It only took about 10 seconds of listening to this song for the tears to start again. If you are gay, a writer or ‘intellectual’, or broke in NYC, this musical is highly relevant to your interests. Your mileage may vary, but it’s the best musical I’ve seen in years. If you care about musical theater and bemoan the dumbing down of musicals by Broadway (c.f. Ghost, Leap of Faith, Spider-Man, Newsies, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, et. al.), you owe it to yourself and the theater gods to see this show before its scheduled close June 17. (FYI $20 rush tickets available an hour before the show.) If February House continues to haunt me over the next few days with even a fraction of the way it did over the past 24 hours, you might even see me there. Just look for the young faggot who can’t stop crying.