Stephen Sondheim Loved How Gay Broadway’s ‘Company’ Revival Is

Contents:

• PRAY THE GAY AWAY® THE MIL
• LGH YOUR FEARS AWAY WH 7 OF THE FUNNIT GAY COMEDIANS EVER
• JERROD CARMICHAEL OUT AS GAY HIS NEW EDY SPECIAL
• STEPHEN SONDHEIM LOVED HOW GAY BROADWAY’S ‘COMPANY’ REVIVAL IS, SAYS STAR MATT DOYLE

PRAY THE GAY AWAY® THE MIL

Risg to fame followg her special "Nate, " Gadsby has phed edy to new levels by weavg together personal stori, art history lsons, and sthg monologu — routely takg hs at men and the chronicl her childhood growg up as a lbian Tasmania, where homosexualy was illegal until 1997. Yang beme the first Che-Amerin and third openly gay st member on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" edian, who hosts a pop culture podst lled "Las Culturistas, " has proven his range on the "SNL, " masterfully portrayg characters om a Che tra reprentative ed as "Tra Daddy" to former Democratic printial ndidate Andrew Yang. Amstell, who beme known for appearanc on "Pop World" and "Never Md The Buzzcks, " stand-up edy as a nfsnal, workg through issu like his parents' divorce, eatg meat, and timacy the Brish ic speaks openly about his sexualy durg sets, Amstell said he was "terrified" of beg gay before g out durg his Netflix special "Set Free.

Cho, who grew up San Francis and had parents that owned a gay bookstore, has squashed the stereotypil tras placed on Asian-Amerin gaed populary by wrg and starrg a s lled "All Amerin Girl" and has bee a celebrated stand-up ic. He often jok that he knew he was gay before he knew he was 's sce lnched a succsful stand-up reer — appearg on "The Late Late Show Wh Jam Corn, " "Late Night Wh Seth Meyers, " "CONAN, " and more.

But is only the past fifty years or so that tuners have actually featured openly gay characters onstage—and the rult has been some of the bt Broadway shows of all time. If this same-sex central romance broke new ground, however, the show’s sre—by show-tune master Jerry Herman (Hello, Dolly!)—wears s classic Broadway sound like a sash of honor, om the openg para of cross-drsed beti to drag queen Zaza’s first-act fale (and stant gay-pri anthem) “I Am What I Am” through the celebratory “The Bt of Tim.” Revived on Broadway 2004 and 2010, the old girl has held up surprisgly well as a morn twist on nostalgia. A Chos Le (1975)Broadway began movg toward gay visibily the post-Stonewall era—the gay-bar scene Applse, Tommy Tune takg a long step forward Seaw—but was 1975’s A Chos Le that blew the closet door off s hg.

LGH YOUR FEARS AWAY WH 7 OF THE FUNNIT GAY COMEDIANS EVER

Several of the dners are gay, and Pl—a character moled on Nicholas Dante (who wrote the show’s book wh Jam Kirkwood Jr.)—is given one of the show’s only two solo spots onstage: an emotnal monologue about his trmatic childhood. A Chos Le won a Pulzer and ran for a rerd-breakg 15 years, and s msage me through loud and clear: Not jt that there were gay people on Broadway, but that there had been gay people on Broadway all along, kickg up their heels right unr our nos. Book wrer Jeff Whty and -poser Jeff Marx—joed by future double-EGOT wner Robert Lopez—brg a regnizably morn gay sensibily to the show, as exemplified by the characters of Nicky and Rod, Avenue Q’s take on Same Street’s rint odd uple, Ernie and Bert.

The origal 1966 versn of this portra of German life the early 1930s—wh a book by Joe Masteroff and a classic sre by John Kanr and Fred Ebb—scbbed the gayns om s source material, Christopher Isherwood's 1939 novella Goodbye to Berl. Even s newt form, Cabaret is hardly a Gay Pri show (spe the tle song’s paean to a hard-partyg Chelsea queen); s queer elements largely functn as nce, irony or obstacle. Whether the bt LGBTQ edians are observatnal, suatnal, absurdist, blue llar, abstract, alternative, dark, or a long form storyteller, all of the funnit gay edians are unique, hardworkg, and hilar.

Kathryn McKnon Berthold (born January 6, 1984) is an Amerin actrs, edian, and mician wily known as a regular st member on The Big Gay Sketch Show (2007–2010) and Saturday Night Live (2012–prent). However, he is perhaps bt known for beg a rrponnt on The Daily Show wh Trevor Noah, He quietly left the show November 2021 and is workg as a wrer and executive producer on the upg HBO seri adaptatn of the book The Gang’s All Queer: The Liv of Gay Gang Members. After breakg to the edy scene, this South Korean-born edian released their but stand-up album, Mol Mory, which vered racism the gay muny and his experienc fyg stereotyp about Asian Amerins.

JERROD CARMICHAEL OUT AS GAY HIS NEW EDY SPECIAL

He filmed the documentary How Gay Is Pakistan?, worked as a wrer on the queer Netflix dreamed seri Sex Edutn and opened for Queer Eye‘s nonbary fashn maven Jonathan Van Ns on tour. While he has been regnized as an important ntributor to the creasgly acceptg edy world, he has also acknowledged that gay edians existed long before he and his peers me around.

Pray the Gay Away® tak place 1980’s Monka, Mnota and shows the llisn urse of two boys beg subjected to the ntroversial practice of gay nversn therapy, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod that says “homosexual behavr is trsilly sful”, a Youth Pri LGBTQ support group fightg for human rights, and the lol muny ught the middle.

For his fourth full-length mil, Conrad Askland, former mic director of Cirque du Soleil and Rock of Ag, has traed his satiril missile system on the cultural, polil and theologil forc that surround the paful world of gay nversn therapy and the “pray away the gay” movement. Raised North Carola, Sampson faced a lot of bigotry growg up beg both black and gay, and he’s turned his experienc to hilar stori puncturg the prejudice of small-md twerps.

STEPHEN SONDHEIM LOVED HOW GAY BROADWAY’S ‘COMPANY’ REVIVAL IS, SAYS STAR MATT DOYLE

Thanks to the shownners drivg thentic stori, filmmakers buckg s-old heteronormative paradigms, actors embolned to live more hontly and platforms bankrollg so much of , beg gay, queer, transgenr or any other other has never been more wily embraced the entertament s gural Pri issue, The Hollywood Reporter homed on the talent and makers helpg boost visibily and creatg opportuni for members of the extend LGBTQ muny. After more than a of Watch What Happens Live Wh Andy Cohen, where he beme the first openly gay host Amerin late night, Bravo's exec turned talent tackl all kds of media (SiriXM show Rad Andy, multiple books), while upliftg and advotg for the LGBTQ muny. Puttg his stamp on The Ln Kg — he played Timon to great acclaim the billn-dollar-earng Disney reboot — the out-and-proud funnyman will next play Matt Ddge  Amerin Crime Story: Impeachment while his upg Judd Apatow-produced feature at Universal is set to be the first gay rom- om a major stud.

Creator of the NBC s One Big Happy and her own YouTube talk show This Jt Out, Feldman recently ma her Netflix edy outright queer, as Dead to Me's sophomore season revealed a lead character to be bisexual. Watchg Rickie Vasquez, a gay character played by an openly gay actor, Wilson Cz, certaly felt like the most hont and rpectful portrayal of a gay teen I had ever seen.

I'LL FEEL GOOD ABOUT HOLLYWOOD'S LGBTQ REPRESENTATION WHEN "When 'gay actor, ' 'gay director, ' 'gay wrer, ' 'gay story, ' et cetera, are no longer labels even worth mentng. In addn to speakg, and sgg, publicly about his own gay relatnships, Platt plays bi on The Polician — acuntg for several of the seri' many entangled LGBTQ romanc. ' Yet, is still all too rare to fd — or produce Hollywood — stori where the humany of gay black men is not qutn, but is a given and is central to the story.