When I've worked on theater productions where people have said, oh, what if we filmed the whole rehearsal process?

What if we make a documentary of this entire production?

And I look at them and think, are you out of your mind?

The idea of recording every moment and every mistake and of making sure that no one gets to fail

privately is absolutely obscene. You know, that's a good way to make people freeze and not try

anything new, not try something that's not going to work, but will be a step towards something

that just might. That if you eliminate privacy, it's really crippling.

Although, and I did just read something where it said we should avoid the word crippling

because that also could be an insult to the disabled community,

which is something that I've actually thought about.

But, of course, I just actually been thought about. But of course,

I just use the word anyway.

Welcome to the unspeakable podcast. I'm your host, Megan Dome. My guest, playwright, novelist,

and screenwriter Paul Rudnick is one of the most celebrated humorous of his generation.

From his 1993 breakout off-Broadway hit play, Jeffrey, which was groundbreaking in that it managed to be a comedy about the AIDS crisis to Broadway hits like I Hate Hamlet,

screenplays for films like In and Out, Adam's Family Values, and Sister Act,

Paul is a master of not just the quippy one-liner, but also deeply realized characters

and relatable, if often absurd, situations. He's also been a regular contributor to the New Yorker

for decades and is the author of several books, most recently

the novel Playing the Palace, which is about a gay relationship between a young New York

party planner and an imagined version of the Prince of Wales. Paul spoke with me about gay subject

matter in his work over time, his fascination with the British royal family,

...