Homosexuals on Broadway

Help!! I'm doing a research paper on Broadway musicals in the 1940's. I am trying to find out when homosexuals started appearing on Broadway. One site told me it was in the 1940s, which would be great, b/c it would help my paper--but that's only one source. Does anybody know?

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Do you mean Homosexual actors or characters?

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I meant characters...

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Homosexuals only in musicals??

Cause THE CHILDREN'S HOUR was what? 1933 or something?

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The same year as the STONEWALL riots, Rene Auberjonois played Sebastian Baye in Coco (1969) -- this was the first openly (albeit hateful) gay character in a Broadway musical. A year later in Applause (1970), Lee Roy Reams played the hairdresser Duane, the first likeable openly gay character in a Broadway musical. Applause also included a scene in a gay bar. A few years later, Tommy Tune won his first Tony portraying a gay choreographer in Seesaw (1973). A Chorus Line (1974) was the first major Broadway musical to let gay characters discuss the sexual aspects of their lives.

The first musical written by and for gays to receive mainstream attention was Off-Broadway's Boy Meets Boy (1975). This charming hit by Solly & Ward imagined what the 1930s might have been like if gay and straight lifestyles were equally accepted, allowing two men to have an Astaire & Rogers-style romance. Off-Broadway's Gulp! (1977), which took a musical comedy look at the trials and tribulations of a gay lifeguard, was co-authored and produced by John Glines – the same gay impresario who later brought Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy (1982) and William Hoffman's As Is (1985) to Broadway.

Thank you, singingbackup.

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yes I saw your post.

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This board can be rough Winokur, but you did ask what appeared to be an offensive question. My first response was 'he's F***ing with us.' Badly phrased, my friend

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Sueleen, granted I could have made my question more clear, was it necessary for people to respond the way they did? And I would have no reason to try to offend any homosexual.

EDIT: I suppose I thought it was common knowledge to theater-lovers that homosexuals were a main part of theater. My bad for assuming.

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Updated On: 12/1/04 at 06:38 PM

I actually took a class called HOMOSEXUALITY IN BRITISH THEATRE. Fabulous course.

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Not sure of the very first gay characters on a Broadway stage (Hellman's "Children's Hour" in the 1930s was one of the first major successful plays to deal with homosexuality), but I know Mae West got in a lot of trouble in the mid-1920s for her play "Sex" (I believe she and her cast were arrested). I know one of the reasons for the controversy was the play's unapologetic depiction of gay characters.

Even more controversial -- so much so that it never played Broadway, but instead had a short run in Newark as I recall -- was her play "The Drag" which was, as the title indicates, about drag queens ("sissy boys" was West's affectionate term for her cast). VERY outrageous at the time.

Look for a good Mae West bio for more info on the those two plays (there might be something online as well).

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Updated On: 12/1/04 at 07:31 PM

In the 1890s Vaudeville's reining queen of female impersonators was "the gorgeous hussy" Mr. Lillian Russell, Pete Shaw. With class and taste, and a closet full of costumes of Parisian design, Pete Shaw was no good as a singer and a bit plump, but was the first of the direct sex appealers. "The prettiest girl in the 90s."

After Shaw retired and opened a ladies shop, Gilbert Sarony held court as a scrawny, garrolous old woman. Supposedly Mr. Sarony was the funniest of female impersonators.

Vaudeville was also the playground of Vesta Tilley, billed as "the incredible male impersonater." Victor/Victoria, move over!

Julian Eltinge, the greatest female impersonator to grace Broadway, so they say, made his debut in a musical at the Bijou Theatre in 1904. Mr. Eltinge has the distinction of having a theatre named after him, the Eltinger, on West 42nd Street. It was recently moved a few feet to the West and incorporated into a multiplex movie house.

Robbiej, "The Children's Hour" was 1934 (very close btw). Although the only reason I know is because I have to make a prop from it for stagecraft. And I'd be very interested in that course you took, it sounds interesting.