The Boys the Band and the Limatns of Gay History on Stage | HowlRound Theatre Commons

Contents:

• LGBTQ+ BANDS: OUR TOP 10 FAVORE GAY BANDS
• WHEN HOLLYWOOD STUDS MARRIED OFF GAY STARS TO KEEP THEIR SEXUALY A SECRET
• THE BOYS THE BAND AND THE LIMATNS OF GAY HISTORY ON STAGE
• WH AN ENTIRE ST OF OPENLY GAY ACTORS, THE BOYS THE BAND ARE BACK — AND ON NETFLIX
• THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
• THE GAY ECSTASY OF THE VILLAGE PEOPLE

LGBTQ+ BANDS: OUR TOP 10 FAVORE GAY BANDS

LGBTQ mic history is so much more than a timele of who me out when and which songs beme gay anthems -- 's also about the artists who weren't aaid to be themselv eras when dog so…. Late his life, Esquera sometim performed gay clubs unr the name Fabulash before dyg om AIDS-related 1986 at the age of 51. But 1973, a sger and actor named Bce Wayne Campbell beme what is believed to be the first openly gay rock mician signed to a major label when he buted as the outrageoly flashy Jobriath.

Remarkably, another out gay man, Gary Floyd, also onted another of At’s first-rank punk bands, the Dicks, who would go on to be vered by the lik of The Butthole Surfers, J Lizard and Mudhoney. In Febary of that year, the Risg Free EP by the Tom Robson Band, featurg the song “Glad to Be Gay, ” cracked the top 20 of the U.

” Durg the first half of the 1980s, many artists found mercial succs wh songs and vios that openly picted or referenced queer life, particularly gay nightlife — as seen work of Frankie Go to Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, Soft Cell and others. Pri is a time to regnize the achievements of LGBTQ micians and gay bands as well as the stggl they face whilst exprsg themselv to the world.

WHEN HOLLYWOOD STUDS MARRIED OFF GAY STARS TO KEEP THEIR SEXUALY A SECRET

Takg a polil stance, their songs often ver issu ncerng the gay muny like their song ‘Want Us Dead’, referrg to the treatment of gay people society. Rob Halford, closeted at the time, was spired by the leather and chas of kk clothg and unrground fashn that he found gay clubs and Brish Vogue. Wh 4 out of 5 of the origal members intifyg as LGBTQ+, ’s safe to say the B-52s were a gay band spe that not beg their goal.

In 2019 they released their eighth and most recent stud album ‘sgl and Such’ followg multiple releas sce 2010 and they’re more referenced, ‘That’s So Gay 2009. The sgl and the album ntas songs like ‘F**k Buddy’ and ‘Bill and Ted’s Homosexual Adventure’ stayg wh the gay mic bands theme.

THE BOYS THE BAND AND THE LIMATNS OF GAY HISTORY ON STAGE

Known as one of the first wav of gay punk bands the 70s, Wayne And The Electric Chairs beme a well-known name the mic world workg closely wh the lik of the Backstreet Boys. Queerns uld be appreciated on stage, but the every day liv of major stars was often hidn sham unns known as "lavenr marriag, " acrdg to Stephen Tropiano, profsor of Screen Studi at Itha College and thor of The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lbians on marriag were arranged by Hollywood studs between one or more gay, lbian or bisexual people orr to hi their sexual orientatn om the public. Bowers’ acunt tails sexual enunters, gay and straight, that he claims he both arranged and took part , begng wrote that he had been sexually volved wh leadg actor Cary Grant and his roommate, Randolph Stt, for more than a .

Bettmann Archive/Getty ImagRock Hudson and his bri Phyllis Gat at their 1955 gay actors chose to live openly, spe the risk.

Lavenr marriag beme ls prevalent the 1960s and ‘70s as the gay rights movement gaed momentum followg the Stonewall Rts of 1969. Although reprentatn film and on televisn was still srce, the actual liv of the stars on screen—straight, gay or bisexual—weren’t dictated by studs as much as they had been the past. The key to unrstandg the signifince of The Boys the Band, which is markg s fiftieth anniversary wh a productn on Broadway featurg a starry, all-gay st, is a nasty le that Jim Parsons speaks to Zachary Quto.

WH AN ENTIRE ST OF OPENLY GAY ACTORS, THE BOYS THE BAND ARE BACK — AND ON NETFLIX

The gay characters that existed on stage (and on screen) were largely pathetic figur, or villas, whose ath by suici was preordaed. Or, wh their sexual orientatn only implied, they were peripheral figur that functned as livg punch the dienc of 1968, The Boys the Band offered a ntrast, a play full of reasonably feasible gay men. The script feels dated—the characters stereotyp of unhappy homosexuals who may well end up killg themselv, even though they don’t do so by the curta gay characters that existed on stage (and on screen) were largely pathetic figur, or villas, whose ath by suici was preordaed.

All ne actors are openly gay men, as are the director Joe Mantello and all five producers cludg Ryan Murphy (creator of such TV seri as Glee, Amerin Horror Story, and Fd). The good-lookg, succsful, popular out gay actors aren’t so much re-creatg gay history, or even honorg gay history, when they portray the brtle homosexual characters om the past. As happens, two plays that ran New York May offer very different exampl of focg ventively on actual gay figur om Francis Villa as Tennsee Williams and Daniel K.

THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED

Over the years, they veloped a plited relatnship, om iends to peers to rivals, wh Inge outshg Williams the 1950s, wh a strg of hs on Broadway and Hollywood—Come Back, Ltle Sheba, Piic, B Stop, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs—durg a fallow perd Williams’ own men were gay, but neher ever publicly admted to a sexual relatnship, and historians and bgraphers have only speculated that they might at one time have been lovers. But his tert seems to lie ls the reers of the two playwrights or even the sexual history of the two gay men, but the history of any gay men the 1940s and what impact their sexualy had on their liv. Isaac, a Korean-Amerin actor, portrayed William Inge and Juan Francis Villa, Colombian-Ameri actor, was Tennsee Williams—which I took part as a subtle mentary on the visibily of gay people of lor the era which the play tak place (and the relatively low visibily on New York stag now).

The dience is probably meant to unrstand both plays that the homosexuals are unhappy bee they’re stigmatized by the world at large, but there’s nothg to stop an unenlightened theatregoer om wonrg whether there’s somethg trsilly off-balance the ndn of Lucci as Aled A. John Fryer, a psychiatrist who 1972 mand that homosexualy be classified as a mental illns a nontatn before the annual nference of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, where he wore a bber mask to protect his inty and clared (through a mic that distorted his voice): “I am a homosexual.

THE GAY ECSTASY OF THE VILLAGE PEOPLE

Fryer to help him assist homosexual men who were trouble wh the law—help by claimg to be able to treat them, and th allow the urt to dismiss the charg and be rid of the whole distasteful bs. For all of have somethg to lose” —livered at a time, as 217 Box mak clear, when the general public, and the mechanisms of thory, still viewed homosexualy as a s, a crime and an illns. Arts·QueeriThe film's director Joe Mantello on his starry adaptatn of the inic gay film's director Joe Mantello on his starry adaptatn of the inic gay textBack Row: Rob De J, Michael Benjam Washgton, Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons, Zachary Quto, Charlie Carver, Tuc Watks, Andrew Rannells, Brian Hutchison Front: Joe Mantello, Mart Crowley.

In both s rnatns as a 1968 off-Broadway play and 1970 film, Mart Crowley's The Boys the Band is an exceptnally pneerg gay text. Featurg ne gay characters who meet (and unravel) at an apartment to celebrate one of their birthdays, was one of the first reprentatns of gay life to get any sort of mastream attentn.