More than a year before the Stonewall rts changed the face of gay activism the U.S., Mart Crowley put homosexualy center stage 1968’s The Boys the
Contents:
- THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME
- WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE GREAT GAY PLAY? EVERYTHG.
- MEET THE ALL-STAR, ALL-GAY ST OF BROADWAY'S UPG REVIVAL OF THE BOYS THE BAND
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS
- WHY IS THE THEATER SO MEANGFUL TO GAY PEOPLE?AN INTERVIEW WH JORDAN ROTH.
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. * broadway gay musical *
Jackson’s Pulzer Prize-wng meta-mil, is g to Broadway this show’s producers announced on Monday that the mil would n at the Lycm Theater; they did not announce specific dat, but is planng to open before the eligibily adle for this season’s Tony Awards, which is expected to be late show is a self-referential mil edy about a Black gay mil theater wrer tryg to wre a mil about a Black gay mil theater wrer. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTCric’s NotebookIn recent shows, ias of gayns are expandg, bg and disappearg all at WisemanI don’t know whether was bee my parents were jt generally open-md, or bee they had a specific, kdly yet mortifyg agenda, but one of the first Broadway plays they took me to, June of 1977, was way too gay for fort. The first phas of the gay play, ccial their moment, which broadly speakg enpassed the send half of the 20th century, are over.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE GREAT GAY PLAY? EVERYTHG.
In recent shows, ias of gayns are expandg, bg and disappearg all at once. * broadway gay musical *
Some, like “A Strange Loop” and “Fat Ham, ” dramatize how the experience of racism amplifi that of homophobia, and vice fy expectatns by makg sexual orientatn a distctly sendary ncern among characters who “happen to be” gay or lbian, as “A Case for the Existence of God” and “At the Weddg. When a (male) love tert enters the picture, and they sg Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” as a duet, you feel somethg new has happened, as ntroversy melts to a blissful cloud of nonbary bubble is the equalizg, homogenizg fluence of pop culture at work — an fluence that some queer people unrstandably mistst.
Jackson’s “A Strange Loop” go further, makg the cross-pollatn of inty the prime source of s nflict, as the ma character nonts both the homophobia of his Black fay and the racism of his queer one. ) Its body, race and orientatn issu are left a kd of stalemate that suggts what might happen if a foundatnal gay play like “The Boys the Band” (which had only one Black character) were multiplied fun hoe mirrors ad fum.
MEET THE ALL-STAR, ALL-GAY ST OF BROADWAY'S UPG REVIVAL OF THE BOYS THE BAND
Jt bee pri weekend is past don’t mean the celebratns of gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people on and off Broadway are over. * broadway gay musical *
That the Hamlet figure, lled Juicy, is Black and gay, wh an termtent csh on a Laert-like iend, suggts that the queer theme will domate, yet don’t; “Fat Ham” is really a play about Black masculy and, even more broadly, the vlent herance all men mt renounce. ” Beltran portrays a gay Black man hopg to adopt the young girl he’s been Klwich/The New York TimMy other favore queer plays of the past year likewise offer no bands; their gay characters (there are still far too few lbian on) operate as if their gayns were mostly ternal and pletely irrelevant. Hunter’s heartbreakg “A Case for the Existence of God, ” that turns out to be an illn, as a gay Black man, after fosterg a ltle girl for more than three years, fds his plan to adopt her undone at the last mute.
If there are subtle ways which their sexual inti affect their character or behavr, they were too subtle for me; miss a le or two and you may not even know that gayns is a part of their makp at mak sense plays about cris that threaten to oblerate a person entirely: genr, race, orientatn and all.
Francis, the closeted llege stunt “Gemi, ” probably did; if he lived through AIDS, I expect he achieved full five-star gay privilege, plete wh marriage, children and Crate & Barrel chee boards.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS
) What about the gay characters who, lackg whe sk, almost never appeared on mercial stag those supposed great gay play s? Jt bee pri weekend is past don’t mean the celebratns of gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people on and off Broadway are over.
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.
“Sprg Awakeng” alum Gion Glick stars as Jordan Berman, the young gay hero at the center of Joshua Harmon’s relatable edy “Signifint Other.
WHY IS THE THEATER SO MEANGFUL TO GAY PEOPLE?AN INTERVIEW WH JORDAN ROTH.
This poignant edy is “a sweet and pafully hont g-of-age story that’ll probably seem faiar to many 20-somethgs, gay or straight. The edy tak place Pennsylvania 1973, where a young gay teen (Urie, narratn) is troduced to theater through his lol muny troupe, lead by the vivac Irene (LuPone). ” Spahn plays two characters the show, one of them beg Dean -- a gay edorial assistant workg at a notor Manhattan magaze.
A morn sp on the tradnal weddg edy, “It Shoulda Been You” is the only mil on Broadway to feature a gay weddg, a lbian weddg and a straight weddg. Fun Home n bt be scribed as a “memory play” that s non-lear plot piec together var moments om Alison’s life, particularly focg around her relatnship wh her gay father. Peter later falls love wh Judy’s dghter, Liza Mnelli, but he later to terms wh his sexualy, embracg the fact that he is gay.