In recent shows, ias of gayns are expandg, bg and disappearg all at once.
Contents:
- THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME
- 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
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. * gay broadway plays *
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.
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.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE GREAT GAY PLAY? EVERYTHG.
* gay broadway plays *
) 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.
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.
AN EPIC NEW BROADWAY PLAY ON MORN GAY LIFE ASKS: N WE LOVE OURSELV?
Jt bee pri weekend is past don’t mean the celebratns of gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people on and off Broadway are over. * gay broadway plays *
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. 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. Dperate and on the n, Max asks his own ‘discreetly’ homosexual Uncle Freddie for help as the olr man offers ltle more than suggtns on how to live, as he do, practicg homosexualy on the si.
Sce his work was classified top secret for years after the war, no one knew how much was owed to him when he was put on trial for breakg another the taboo agast homosexualy. Turg, who was also the first to nceive of puters, was nvicted of the crimal act of homosexualy and sentenced to unrgo hormone treatments which left him physilly and mentally bilated.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY THEATER, THREE ACTS
“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.
The story revolv around a group of gay iends g together for a iend's birthday party Manhattan, and ends wh stori about long-lost lovers, and one character g out to his wife. 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.