The Gilded Age and The Adams Chronicles Intersect

Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski
in The Gilded Age
Credit: HBO

HBO's The Gilded Age is my new favorite binge-worthy show. Some critics have decried it as a low-rent Downton Abbey--sort like when CBS tried to rip off PBS's imported Upstairs Downstairs with an American version called Beacon Hill which flopped quickly in 1975. Like Gilded Age, Beacon Hill boasted a cast of theater actors and it was shot in NY, but its scripts were inferior. (Prominent stage actors on Beacon Hill included George Rose, Beatrice Straight, Nancy Marchand, David Rounds, Kathryn Walker, Edward Herrman and the previous Paul Rudd--not to be confused with the new Paul Rudd.) I enjoyed the first Gilded Age episode--mostly for the gorgeous sets and costumes and for all the Broadway people in the cast. The plot is kinda melodramatic and similar to Downton, probably because both shows are by Julian Fellowes. There's the sharp-tongued queen of the social set (Maggie Smith on Downton/Christine Baranski on Gilded Age), the ambitious young newcomer desperate to make his/her mark (Tom the chauffeur on Downton/the niece from Pennsylvania on Gilded Age), the closeted gay (Thomas the footman/Christine Baranski's son).

Claybourne Elder as a secretly gay John Adams on
The Gilded Age 
(fictional or real)?

The secret gay couple is another point of interest. The secret male lover of Oscar Van Rhijn is John Adams, the great-grandson of John Quincy Adams. By the strangest coincidence, I just finished watching all 13 episodes of The Adams Chronicles on DVD. Like Beacon Hill, this series from the 1970s was chockful of New York theater actors including George Grizzard, William Daniels, Kathryn Walker, Leora Dana, Pamela Peyton-Wright, Nancy Marchand, George Hearn, Philip Anglim, Katherine Houghton, and in tiny roles before they hit it big in TV, Kelsey Graham and Christopher Lloyd. According to the series and my research, it appears this gay John Adams is fictional. The Gilded Age takes place in 1882 and that would make this Adams, the son of one of four Adamses--Henry, John Quincy II, Charles Francis II or Brooke. None of their offspring are the right age for the character, Henry had no children, and none are listed as "bachelors," but more may be revealed in upcoming episodes and I could be proven wrong.

Another attraction of the show is its references to Pennsylvania, my home state. Marion Brook, one of the main characters, hails from Doylestown and must change trains in Lansdale (where my mother now lives) on her way to NYC to live with her wealthy aunts.

When I did telephone surveys many years ago, one of the subjects was people's favorite TV shows. Quite a few people answered Dynasty. When asked what they like about the show, most did not cite the plot, but the clothes and fashions. I never understood it at the time, but now I do. The sets and costumes are award worthy and stunning.

Tony winners/nominees/Broadway people on Gilded Age (Episode One):

Van Rhijn/Brook Household: 

Christine Baranski (2 Tonys for The Real Thing, Rumors)

Cynthia Nixon (2 Tonys for Rabbit Hole, The Little Foxes)

Louisa Jacobsen (Meryl Streep's daughter)

Simon Jones (most recently in Trouble in Mind, also played King George V in the Downton Abbey movie)

Debra Monk (Tony for Redwood Curtain)

Kristine Niesen (Tony nomination for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike)

Russell household:

Carrie Coon (Tony nomination for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)

Morgan Spector (Drama Desk nominee for Russian Transport, HBO's The Plot Against America)

Michael Cerveris (Tony Award for Fun Home)

Celia Keenan Bolger (Tony Award for To Kill a Mockingbird)

Douglas Sills (Tony nominee for The Scarlet Pimpernel)

Patrick Page (Tony nominee for Hadestown)

Scott Family:

Denee Benton (Tony nominee for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812)

Audra McDonald (6 Tony Awards)

Old Money Society figures:

Donna Murphy (2 Tonys for The King and I--1996, Passion)

Kelli O'Hara (Tony Award for The King and I--2015)

Katie Finneran (2 Tonys for Noises Off, Promises, Promises)

Ashlie Atkinson (The Ritz, Spike Lee's Black Klansman)

Claybourne Elder (currently in Company)

(Above) The "downstairs" cast of Beacon Hill; (top) 
Williams Daniels as John Quincy Adams, great-
grandfather of the "fictional" gay John Adams
in The Adams Chronicles.