Love! Valour! Compassion! (film)

Synopsis

The story of eight gay male friends who spend the three major holiday weekends of one summer (Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day) together at a lakeside house in Dutchess County, New York. The house belongs to Gregory, a successful Broadway choreographer now approaching middle age, who fears he is losing his creativity, and his twenty-something lover Bobby, a legal assistant who is blind. Each of the guests at their house is connected to Gregory's work in one way or another. Arthur and his longtime partner Perry are business consultants; John Jeckyll, a sour and promiscuous Englishman, is a dance accompanist; and die-hard musical theater fanatic Buzz Hauser is a costume designer and the most stereotypically gay man in the group. Only John's summer lover Ramon and twin brother James are outside the circle of friends. Ramon is outgoing and eventually makes a place for himself in the group, while James is such a gentle soul that he is quickly welcomed. Infidelity, flirting, AIDS, skinny-dipping, truth-telling, and soul-searching mix questions about life and death with a dress rehearsal for Swan Lake performed in drag.

Cast

In this film adaptation, McNally reunited the original cast, with the exceptions of Nathan Lane and Anthony Heald. Jason Alexander stepped in for Lane and Stephen Spinella replaced Heald.