He's the Man John Glover returns to Philadelphia -- and Terrence McNally by Matt Smith The Philadelphia Metro May 12-14, 2006

So, where do you keep your Tony Award? Actor John Glover displays his on a bookshelf in his office, next to the trophies his late mother won for hitting a pair of hole-in-ones on the golf course.

"I used to keep it on the top of the toilet tank," said Glover, who won his Tony for Terrence McNally's "Love! Valour! Compassion!"

"When people would come over for dinner and they went up to the bathroom, they could play with it in front of the mirror."

The 61-year-old actor is currently starring in his fourth McNally play, "Some Men," which is making its world premiere at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. Glover takes on multiple characters in the story about the evolution of gay relationships and same-sex marriage in America. "Some Men" bounces from the Harlem Renaissance to the Stonewall riots to today, but it is not a polemic about its controversial subject.

"He's questioning [same-sex marriage]," said Glover of McNally. "He's saying how difficult it is, how difficult marriage is, and commitment. He's not saying, 'This is it. This is the way it should be.' He doesn't want sentiment in it. He wants it to be funny and gritty at the same time."

The play begins previews tonight, and Glover said McNally has been reworking "Some Men" right up until the first curtain. "How often do you have a playwright like Terrence write for you? He hears what we do, and he comes back and he's gone somewhere else because of where we've gone with him."

Glover last visited Philadelphia two years ago, appearing in PTC's production of Edward Albee's "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?" He actually lived in the city during the mid-1970s, acting with the now-defunct Drama Guild. "I had a big part of my life in the theater in Philadelphia," he said. "Philadelphia's changed, but I love it."

These days, Glover splits time between Los Angeles and Vancouver, British Columbia, where the WB series "Smallville" films. Of course, Glover might be best known for his role on that show--the scheming, scenery-chewing Lionel Luthor.

"People have said, 'Are you supposed to be a good guy or a bad guy in the show? We can't figure it out,'" noted Glover. "He's a villain, which somehow we've managed to make interestingly understandable."

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