Cabaret Vet Steve Hayes Steps Out in Trick:  Do Tell Mama

By Mark J. Huisman, HX magazine (July 23, 1999 issue)

"When I was younger,, I had some Warner Brothers melodrama moments with the person I loved," says actor Steve Hayes, who makes his film debut in Trick.  "I went about screaming because I just happened to see Mildred Pierce that day.  My character in Trick had a silly moment, too.  He said, 'Oh, I wish you'd move out!' and the guy actually did.

A native of upstate New York, Hayes taught theater for a year, and when the stage bug bit, he moved to Manhattan.  During the past decade, he has made quite a name for himself locally in the cabaret world, winning the MAC Award for Outstanding Comedian three times.  In Trick, he plays Gabriel's mentor Perry, a middle-aged composer/performer estranged from his lover.

"Perry is a guy who's so clear about what everybody else should be doing, although he's really screwed up his own life," Hayes laughs.  "He wants things to work out, but he can't help saying what he thinks."  Life imitates art as a man carrying a tiny, very hairy dog walks past.  Waving a fluttering hand, Hayes squeals, "What a lovely handbag!"

Such comic timing landed Hayes the role over the objections of some who urged director Jim Fall to cast a name actor.  Hayes says hearing "we want you" was a golden moment, particularly since like Hayes, Perry is something  you rarely see in a film or on television -- a middle-aged gay man with a love interest.

"Let's face it, we're all headed  in that direction," Hayes says with a whistle.  "Not to sound maudlin, but I'm almost 50, I'm alive and I have a boyfriend.  You just start to let the shit go.  Life's too short."

No one-trick performer, Hayes recently finished writing a sitcom pilot.  A musical for which he co-wrote the lyrics, Kiss Me Quick Before the Lava Reaches the Village, will be produced in Seattle next spring.  And on July 26, Hayes (and "straight man" comic partner Tom Carlyle) open at Don't Tell Mama in The Reception, the story of college friends conspiring to wreck a female pal's wedding. 

That his big scene in Trick takes place in Eighty-Eights is very fitting for Hayes.  "Cabaret is the only place I can really experiment," he says, "I write my own stuff, perform my own characters.  I don't have to rely on someone casting me. Everyting I've ever done has come from my act."  Indeed, Fall first saw Hayes in a club.

Lately Hayes has been thrilled to see the Trick posters about town or the trailer in theaters.  But one moment outshone all the rest.  "When my boyfriend saw the film for the first time, I looked over and his eyes got wet," says Hayes, his own eyes tearing.  "That's what matters.  Having someone support you in whatever you do.  Being loved, and loving him back."

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