A clean-cut U.S. Army pta vtigatg a btal murr; a scrappy boxer fightg for regnn and remptn; a slick rerd producer fakg his way to the top; and a young gay man navigatg his way through church, bars and motel rooms. Delve to a variety of plays and mils featurg pellg and gutsy rol wrten specifilly for Black actors.
Contents:
- THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME
- THE FIVE GAY PLAYS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
- WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE GREAT GAY PLAY? EVERYTHG.
- AN EPIC NEW BROADWAY PLAY ON MORN GAY LIFE ASKS: N WE LOVE OURSELV?
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS
- CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER
- JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT
THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME
Gay-themed Broadway mils have e a long way the past fifty years. The on are the bt. * plays about gay *
“In the first part of Tony Khner’s epic, set 1980’s New York Cy, a gay man is abandoned by his lover when he ntracts the AIDS vis, and a closeted Mormon lawyer’s marriage to his pill-poppg wife stalls. The Temperamentals tells the story of two men—the munist Harry Hay and the Vienne refugee and signer Rudi Gernreich—as they fall love while buildg the first gay rights anizatn the pre-Stonewall Uned Stat. Inspired by the te story of the earlit stirrgs of the Amerin gay rights movement, madp classic s-style lghs give way to provotive drama as two “All-Amerin” upl are forced to stare down the closet door.
Created by out playwright John Cameron Mchell, Hedwig spired a feature film and a Broadway revival, wh gay actors like Neil Patrick Harris and Andrew Rannells takg on the Home This crilly-acclaimed Broadway mil was adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeane Tori om Alison Bechl's 2006 graphic memoir of the same name.
The storyle was a darg productn for the time -- even though alt wh a lbian romance, was weled by the public and beme a huge Sex Another award-wng play by Harvey Fierste, Safe Sex premiered on Broadway 1987 and took dienc to the life of a gay man rg for his lover as he succumbs to AIDS-related illns. After his partner's ath, the protagonist mt meet his lover's wife and Pri Set both the 1950s and 2008, The Pri, wrten by Alexi Kaye Campbell, parallels two gay love stori two very different eras. As most know, the stage productns were adapted for numero French films and a very famo Amerin remake, starrg Rob Williams and Nathan This 1979 play, wrten by Mart Sherman, revolv around the persecutn of gays Nazi Germany, and tak place durg and after the Night of the Long Kniv, the vlent 1934 uprisg that brought Hilter to power.
THE FIVE GAY PLAYS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
In the first half of the 20th century, you uld be arrted for stagg a gay play. Theatr uld be packed and shows sold out, but that wouldn’t stop them om beg shut down for "obscene" ntent. * plays about gay *
Wh a st of exclively gay actors om a Greenwich Village club, the play was a huge fancial succs, but was wily panned by crics and shut down due to obsceny laws and never ma to Broadway as planned. It is by no means as ntroversial as many plays wh central male gay them, but has to work doubly hard bee of this lack of other lbian storyl on the stage, somethg that is dire need of changg and that Fun Home self uld In Ameri by Tony Khner The exploratn of AIDS 1980s Ameri an epic unrtakg, and Angels Ameri is a suably epic play. In this chronologil list of semal events and selected theatril landmarks, you’ll fd a wi variety of gay, lbian and transgenr characters and stori – om gay men New York stgglg wh self-loathg The Boys the Band to a young lbian North Carola proudly facg her fay The Cake.
1975: The Rz by Terrence McNally(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3f, 14m) Terrence McNally managed to be both a tradnalist and a pneer wh this uproar 1975 Broadway h; he set his tradnal door-slammg farce a gay bathhoe. 1978: Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierste(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2f, 4m)In 1978, gay “clone culture” was on the rise; many gay Amerins tried to assiate by appearg more “straight, ” and Amerins beme more faiar wh imag of butch gay men. ) “At the height of the post-Stonewall clone era, ” wrote playwright Charl Bch a 2002 article for The Advote, “Harvey [Fierste] challenged both gay and straight dienc to champn an effemate gay man’s longgs for love and fay.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE GREAT GAY PLAY? EVERYTHG.
Jt bee pri weekend is past don’t mean the celebratns of gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people on and off Broadway are over. * plays about gay *
1981: March of the Falsettos by William Fn(Full-Length Mil, Dramatic Comedy / 1f, 3m, 1 boy) Two years after his experimental mil In Troers troduced a gay character named Marv ntemplatg the women (and men) his life, William Fn expand Marv’s universe the one-act mil March of the Falsettos, which premiered at Playwrights Horizons on May 20, 1981. Wrten before AIDS reached the public nscns (and premierg jt two days after the first published report of what was later lled AIDS) Fn’s nrotic, lightful mil celebrat gay fai, therapy, Jewishns and personal growth wh no ht of the panmic to e. A barely fictnalized acunt of Larry Kramer’s life experience as -founr of GMHC and ACT-UP, the play ncerns Ned Weeks, a gay activist enraged at the difference of public officials and the gay muny.
Through several further llaboratns, cludg Brave S: Another Lbian Tragedy, The Secretari, Bris of the Moon and Oedip at Palm Sprgs, The Five Lbian Brothers ntued to create and perform over the next two s, a time when news of gay men and AIDS often overshadowed stori of lbian liv.
AN EPIC NEW BROADWAY PLAY ON MORN GAY LIFE ASKS: N WE LOVE OURSELV?
Angels Ameri – that “gay fantasia on natnal them” – is lightg up the Lyttelton stage at the Natnal Theatre this summer. * plays about gay *
2004: The History Boys by Alan Bent(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1f, 11m)First prented by the Natnal Theatre at the Lyttleton Theatre London on May 18, 2004, and subsequently prented on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on April 23, 2006, Alan Bent’s The History Boys subtly explored gay them s pictn of life among an unly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form (senr) boys a Brish boardg school 1983.
A kaleidospe that ternnects to portray growg up gay and black, Bootyndy tells the story of Sutter, who is on an outrageo odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms, and even nursg hom. 2013: Fun Home Mic by Jeane Tori / Book & Lyrics by Lisa Kron(Full-Length Mil, Drama / 4f, 2m, 1 girl, 2 boys) Nearly a half-century after the birth of the morn gay rights movement, Broadway fally weled s first mil wh a lbian protagonist. In s portra of a lbian artist and her memori of her closeted gay father, the groundbreakg work brilliantly and heartbreakgly picted, the microsm of one fay, the ntrast of generatnal experienc the LGBTQ+ muny.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS
In recent shows, ias of gayns are expandg, bg and disappearg all at once. * plays about gay *
2015: Perfect Arrangement by Topher Payne(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4f, 3m)Inspired by the te story of the earlit stirrgs of the gay rights movement, Perfect Arrangement merg madp s-style lghs wh provotive drama as two closeted U.
Reachg back over 60 years before s premiere, Perfect Arrangement addrs the prediment gay and lbian cizens faced pre-Stonewall Ameri, turng a harrowg perd Amerin history to a rto but thought-provokg edy. Set Uganda, a untry subjected to severe anti-homosexualy laws, The Rollg Stone is an timate yet explosive fay drama about two brothers at odds – one a gay man a clanste relatnship, and the other a church pastor who fervently rails agast the liftyle his brother is forced to nceal. 2017: The View UpStairs by Max Vernon(Full-Length Mil, Drama / 2f, 8m)Des after the birth of the morn gay rights movement, this ntemporary mil, which opened off-Broadway at the Lynn Redgrave Theatre on Febary 28, 2017, revised the 1973 UpStairs Lounge arson attack and the ensug s of gay history.
CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER
’The Inherance’ is a portra of lennial gay male life New York Cy, and is a picture both celebratory and utnary. * plays about gay *
The heartbreakg drama tells the bgraphil story of celebrated graphic artist Alison Bechl as she disvers her sexual orientatn while tryg to unrstand how she relat to her father -- himself a closeted gay man who ms suici four months after she out. Prolific gay screenwrer John Bowen, whose bt known Play for Today is the folk horror classic Rob Redbreast (1970), ntributed a subtle dose of queerns to the strand wh A Photograph (1977) – now available on Blu-ray for the first time. Comg Out (1979)© BBC ArchiveThis multi-layered play by Jam Andrew Hall neatly skewers a certa placent metropolan ele of affluent gay men late-1970s Bra – a post-‘liberatn’, pre-AIDS world of apparent fort and relative assiatn belyg very real stggl beyond this sy bubble.
Yet he’s not ‘out’ and when he wr a provotive magaze article unr a psdonym cricisg what he se as gay men’s promiscuy and victimhood, the ensug flood of letters sends him on his own journey of self-disvery. Andrew Taylor’s sole Play for Today script chews sensatnalism favour of quietly grippg drama, as San is bullied and beltled by her volatile bohemian mother (a rivetg performance by Sylvia Kay), a predatory teenage girl-next-door, a homophobic lleague and a GP who tri to refer her to the “head shrkers”.
The gay characters here are plex and flawed; even Stephen, who’s ma a “al wh the vil”, urtg favours om a closeted bigwig South Ai’s ultra-nservative Natnal Party a risky bid to get Jam home. Gay men are a mory group – but they are still whe men, ” he pots out, addg that took until the wave of (often radil and queer) femist theatre the late Seventi and Eighti for such narrativ to really make onstage.
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT
* plays about gay *
The tensn between the sire to settle down nventnal, heteronormative relatnship, or embrace a liftyle fed by sual sex, is one that now – an age of both gay marriage and of datg apps – feels hly pertent.
One of the better-known plays of the season, Bent is the story of a gay man sent to Dach ncentratn mp, and has had several high-profile theatril ns – featurg stars cludg Ian McKellen and Alan Cummg – as well as beg ma to a movie starrg Clive Owen and Mick Jagger 1997. But beyond s undoubted artistic mers, Sherman’s play is also creded wh massively raisg awarens of the persecutn of gay men by the Nazis, which prevly had been ltle-discsed the public sphere.