Time Out's gui to the bt LGBTQ+ theatre shows across London. Coverg everythg om lbian drama to queer baret to gay theatre classics, here's where to fd the latt LGBTQ+ shows across the cy.
Contents:
- GAY LONDON, LGBTQ+ CLUBS AND EVENTS
- PRI SPECIAL: 5 GAY PLAYS IN LONDON
- FAVOURE GAY THEMED PLAYS CELEBRATN OF THE PRI
- GAY THEATRE LONDON: HOW THE PAL'S VENU ARE FLYG THE RABOW FLAG
- THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME
- SHENTENS: MY TOP TEN FAVOURE GAY-THEMED PLAYS
GAY LONDON, LGBTQ+ CLUBS AND EVENTS
* gay themed plays in london *
Until 16 September 2023 Sleepg Bety Tak A Prick TicketsSleepg Bety Tak A Prick at Charg Cross Theatre 23 November 2023 to 13 January 2024 Strangers Between TicketsThe Goln Goose Theatre is revivg classic Atralian drama Strangers Between by Tommy Murphy, which looks at the highs and lows of growg up gay morn Atralia.
PRI SPECIAL: 5 GAY PLAYS IN LONDON
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. * gay themed plays in london *
Here are ten of the plays that have ntributed to LGBTQ+ theatre's rich Drag by Mae WtThe Drag follows Rolly, a gay man who marri a woman to hi his sexualy, and the nsequenc of this. 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. Max (played by Ian McKellen the origal n at the Royal Court) is a gay man Berl the 1930s, taken to Dach wh his boyiend Rudy after the Night of Long Kniv.
FAVOURE GAY THEMED PLAYS CELEBRATN OF THE PRI
Disver gay London, wh our guis to all the bt LGBTQ+ live events, shows, clubs and bars the cy. * gay themed plays in london *
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. Hot on the heels of the Angels Ameri revival, Matthew Lopez asks what is like for the next generatn of young gay men New York, growg up and livg the shadow of the AIDS crisis. Penned by Tarell Alv McCraney (whose tobgraphil play beme spiratn for the Osr wng Moonlight) this 2008 play talks about what means to be black and to be gay.
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. 1969, June 28-July 3: Stonewall Uprisg – Transgenr, gay and lbian patrons of the Stonewall Inn Greenwich Village, NYC, fight back when police raid the tablishment. 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. The btal portra of gay men’s persecutn Nazi Germany shocked dienc, shed a spotlight on a cril perd gay history, and earned cril acclaim on both sis of the Atlantic.
GAY THEATRE LONDON: HOW THE PAL'S VENU ARE FLYG THE RABOW FLAG
A gui to what to see the Wt End, wh a gui to London Theatre - om big mils and starry dramas, to the bt of gay theatre London. * gay themed plays in london *
Dperate and on the n, Max asks his own “discreetly” homosexual Uncle Freddie for help, but the olr man offers ltle more than suggtns on how to live a closeted life. 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.
The show also troduced a powerful and endurg gay anthem; “I Am What I Am, ” which celebrat gay inty, beme the soundtrack for generatns of LGBTQ+ protts, march and celebratns. 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. 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.
THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME
Lookg for LGBTQIA+ events London? We've round up the bt happengs the cy lettg you meet, mgle and celebrate wh the queer muny, om bottomls drag bnch and neo-burlque nights to gay speed-datg soire. * gay themed plays in london *
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. 2013, December 17: Part of a s-long wave of antigay legislatn Ai, The Uganda Anti-Homosexualy Act 2014 is passed, wh a punishment of life prison for “aggravated homosexualy”. 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. ris Urch’s portra of vlent homophobia Uganda premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchter 2015 before transferrg to the Orange Tree Theatre London. 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.
SHENTENS: MY TOP TEN FAVOURE GAY-THEMED PLAYS
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. When W, a young fashn signer om 2017, buys an abandoned buildg the French Quarter of New Orleans, he fds himself transported to the UpStairs Lounge, a vibrant seventi gay bar. When Denmark was occupied by Germany 1940, Dr Carl-Peter Vaer’s rearch to a ‘cure’ for homosexualy turned him to a Nazi favoure, and a war crimal.
Anyone who's Googled ‘Ben Cohen Naked’ (NSFW) will be lighted wh Odd Shaped Balls, a bare-chted look at homophobia the 15-a-si sport as Matthew Marrs’ Jimmy is outed at the start of a promisg reer. Anchorg a send Queer Season at the Kg’s Head pub theatre Islgton om 2 Augt Sptg Image claims to be the UK’s first ever openly gay play, produced the same year as The Boys the Band, at Hampstead Theatre Club where starred ‘Bernard’ om Y Mister, Derek Fowlds and Julian Holloway as a gay uple who nceive a child amid the prejudice of not-so-swgg sixti London. […] In 2018, The Boys the Band ma s Broadway but at the Booth Theatre an unprecented productn featurg a st of entirely out-and-proud gay actors.
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.