'A Transparent Musical': A Disco Ball Glitter Party Of Intersectional Self-Discovery As The Pfeffermans Take To The Stage

The recent opening night of A Transparent Musical was joyous: audience members in glamorous drag, flashy dresses or sharp suits and gravity-defying heels filled the Music Center Plaza, sharing welcoming embraces and snapping selfies.

Much of the celebration was simply due to the arrival of the new musical, based on the acclaimed trans-centered story that had its first life as a five-season Amazon series, Transparent.

But there was an added level of revelry, due to the historic and groundbreaking effort to cast authentically: all trans and nonbinary characters in the musical are played by trans and nonbinary actors, and many of the actors and stage crew also identify as queer.

While the American Civil Liberties Union is tracking 491 anti-LGBTQ bills in the United States and antisemitism continues to rise, the signs for the show are loud and proud, shouting intersectional identity with unadulterated jubilation: “Delightfully queer, unapologetically Jewish, and radically joyful.” But jumble the words and it would still be accurate: it’s queer, Jewish and joyful; it’s delightful, unapologetic and radical.

The cast of "A Transparent Musical" in the world premiere at Center Theatre Group / Mark Taper Forum Photo credit: Craig Schwartz Photography

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Creating a joyful space

MJ Kaufman, who is trans, co-wrote the book with Transparent series creator Joey Soloway, who is trans and nonbinary, says joy is central to this production, which plays at the Mark Taper Forum until June 25.

“Our lives are under attack right now as trans people, as Jews living at that intersection, and I want our show to be a space where queer trans Jews like myself feel seen and celebrated, and can honor our traditions, histories, ancestors, our presence, [our] lives, our ways of being in all their beautiful diversity,” Kaufman said.

The news portrays trans people as political “pawns between the right and left, not as full complex humans with lives and dreams and histories,” Kaufman added. “In art, we can restore characters to that full complexity. That’s how we can fight back against dehumanization that is happening around our country. Creating a joyful space for the complexity of trans lives is part of how we can fight back.”

“When you just think of the word musical and what it implies, and what the potential is, it is joy,” said Faith Soloway, Joey’s nonbinary sibling, who wrote the lyrics, music and vocal arrangements. “It is the biggest of emotions. And then we wanted to make sure to express that.”

The songs in which people are revisiting pain, they said, like Act One’s “Chosen Family,” were “exploding out of that place of repression for trans people and queer people, so it was really important to center that joy and the celebration, and most of the numbers do.”

'Transparent,' retold

Both Transparent the series and A Transparent Musical were grounded in Joey and Faith’s family life: Their parent comes out to the family as trans, prompting broad reactions and internal questioning about gender, identity, culture and purpose for the rest of the family members.

From L to R: Liz Larsen, Zachary Prince, Daya Curley, Adina Verson, and Sarah Stiles in the world premiere of "A Transparent Musical" at Center Theatre Group / Mark Taper Forum

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In the musical rendition of the story, Maura reveals her gender identity to family members who are too caught up in their own drama to treat her announcement as an important moment. Pfefferman matriarch Shelly is even more of a stage-hungry ham/diva; middle sibling Josh is still rancid in relationships, and eldest sibling Sarah is overwhelmed by being a mom while husband Len plays fantasy football with his friends. And Ali, the youngest sibling, is still lost, supporting their parent while trying to find out who they are. But despite the similarities, this is neither a sequel nor a shot-for-shot duplication of the series: it’s a retelling, with songs throughout.

Audiences are immersed in the musical’s world as soon as they walk through the doors. The halls of the building are covered with posters advertising events at the Cecile J. Janowitz Jewish Community Center— or CJJJCC — where most of the show’s action happens. Cast members in yellow tee shirts that read “CJJJCC” welcome arrivals, inviting them to sign up for the Purim spiel or participate in other JCC events.

The book straddles the narrative line between a more intimate family story and the larger themes issues surrounding trans, queer and Jewish identity. Song titles and lyrics celebrate the importance of chosen family and recast the word “deviant” as empowering “because we deviate from the suffocating options that this world creates.”

Lyrics in songs with titles like “Who Suffered More,” “You Must Be (Love at the JCC),” and “Emergency Contact,” provokes knowing giggles and guffaws from the Jewish and/or queer members of the audience and beyond.

The show’s vibrant visuals transformed the 700-seat theater — and its basic JCC background — into a disco ball glitter party of intersectional self-discovery. Liz Larsen stole the show as unstoppable, unboundaried Shelly, and Sarah Stiles took Sarah Pfefferman on a journey from frustrated and muddled through a hilarious and sobering epiphany.

Stiles’ hair is a featured character in itself, its volume and wildness seeming to grow to match her own singing intensity as the show proceeds.

Epigenetic trauma

Epigenetic trauma (the theory that trauma can be inherited) comes to life in the second act on two fronts: JCC leader Davina, also Maura’s confidante in the JCC LGBTQ+ group, played with verve and power by trans Broadway actress and RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Peppermint, confronts her family-related trauma, and Ali (Adina Verson) discovers the Pfefferman family’s German historical secrets. That in turn connects to the work of Magnus Hirschfeld, a German Jewish doctor and a leading researcher on sexuality and gender who founded Berlin’s Institute of Sexual Science. As Ali learns about Hirschfeld, so does the audience, many of whom may not know that Hirschfeld had done research around gender and sexuality for five decades.

Joey Soloway said the inherited trauma elements were informed by the work of Merissa Nathan Gerson, an inherited trauma specialist. “It's really going right into why Maura stayed in the closet, and that was because of her epigenetic trauma. And Ali then heads straight to the site of the epigenetic trauma and lives there for a moment.”

“Telling queer Jewish stories and learning about the activists who came before us, whose shoulders we stand upon, is vital when it comes to increasing inclusion and awareness,” said Asher Gellis, CEO of JQ International, a Jewish LGBTQ+ organization whose members tabled on the plaza in advance of the show and were well-represented in the opening night audience.

The cast of "A Transparent Musical" in the world premiere at Center Theatre Group / Mark Taper Forum

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Craig Schwartz/All Uses © 2023 Craig Schwartz

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“I was thrilled to see a full house, not just of LGBTQ+ folks but allies as well. What a blessing especially in times when we are feeling the waves of increased hatred, anti-semitism, homophobia, and transphobia,” he said. Gellis said that the show made him “feel a sense of queer Jewish joy, as well as pride in the legacy of queer Jewish activism.”

Peppermint said the Amazon series “made history.”

“Just having these trans stories being told, and then having trans characters portray some of those stories was obviously very historic, and a really necessary step to get us to where we are today, which is trans people creating their own stories and telling their own stories,” Peppermint said.

"Trauma of not being yourself"

Daya Curley, who is trans and plays Maura, was a gigantic fan of the TV series and used to weep through the opening credits of each episode, because it meant so much to her that trans stories like her own were being told.

“I had this really weird feeling like I was supposed to be there,” Curley told LAist about the series. “And so I time travel to this part of my life, and I'm actually working with the creators of that show, continuing this character that meant so much to me. I find it a profound responsibility and a humbling kind of joy,” she said.

When Curley started her gender transition, she retired from acting, because “there was no path to performance I could see [as a trans woman]”, she said. In 2018, she did some staged readings, but then she found A Transparent Musical, and finally got to play the character who had meant so much to her on the small screen. This performance is her first with a full production since her transition.

“There’s a lot of overlap between Maura and myself,” she said, adding that playing Maura has reminded Curley “of something I already had kind of figured out on my own: when you don't allow yourself to be your authentic self, all sorts of terrible things happen. You're unhappy, you treat other people terribly.”

“You make mistakes that affect other people's lives without really realizing it. You just can't have a life like that, where you have the trauma of not being yourself without it having some negative impact on yourself and the world around you. And that sounds sad, and it is. But if you're able to find yourself within the short time that you're here, then you can correct that stuff.”

The show could have an impact on public opinion and perhaps even legislation as anti-LGBTQ bills proliferate, Peppermint said.

“A lot of these discriminatory bills and laws come along with stories and anecdotes that are meant to frame us as the type of people needing to be legislated out of existence. So, to combat that, the only thing that I can think of is to create our own story, say who we are, from our mouths, from our heart, my mind, and have as much of that sort of content available as possible.”

The presence of these stories also may be able to “change hearts and minds,” especially for those leaning more traditional or conservative with someone in their family who identifies as queer, Peppermint added. The show will also “inspire queer and trans people,” she said, because the show will expose them “to what queer joy is all about.”

“That is something that is invaluable, and it will be hopefully inspiring to the people who are outside of the community to help them become accomplices in this fight. And then it will be protective and re-energizing to the queer and trans people who have to go out there and face their families and face their jobs and live in these states and have all this stuff going on.”

A Jewish space

MJ Kaufman said that from the beginning, it was important for the show to represent a Jewish space — the action mostly takes place at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) — that was multiracial.

“I’ve been pretty disappointed in the way Jews of color are erased from Jewishness,” they said. “I’m a religious Jew who is in spaces that are interracial. Even if people say that’s not the norm, I’d rather build the world I want to see rather than what is. Imagine if we could confront some of the racism in the Jewish community along with homophobia.”

“I don't think the Jewish community as a whole really understands the incredible fear and attack that's happening on trans people and trans lives,” said Rabbi Susan Goldberg, founder of the Jewish spiritual community known as Nefesh and who had served as rabbinic consultant for the Transparent TV series.

Goldberg called the fear understandable, and said, although trans people do talk about their experience of oppression, it doesn’t feel like the Jewish community is hearing it.

“The Jewish community potentially has a place to really be an affirming space for trans and nonbinary people, as we have the roots of an expansive view towards gender inside our Talmud, inside our Scripture and inside our Torah. And that is one of the things that is really uplifting to me, as a Jewish leader, is that many trans people are finding space within the Jewish world to feel not just safe but spiritually nourished and supported.”

Goldberg’s community is committed to being a Jewish space, she said, like several others across the country where trans, non-binary and queer Jews are “fully welcome and embraced,” she said, “but [there are] not as many [such spaces] as there should be.”