Homosexuals on Broadway

[Winokur_fan]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:12pm

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?

[BWIDB Charlie]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:14pm

"I am trying to find out when homosexuals started appearing on Broadway."

Gee, not sure... maybe check with their union?

Come on, it's not like there was a day they decided that their sexual orientation gained them employment.

Not trying to sound like a jerk, at all. Hope it doesn't seem like it.

Charlie
[e-mail]

Edited to add: Wait, did you mean characters? If so, I'm sorry! I thought you meant performers. Updated On: 12/1/04 at 06:14 PM

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:15pm

Do you mean Homosexual actors or characters?

[jmaclover]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:16pm

Magics right.

They didn't just pop in. I'm sure they have been there for many years.

Then the question arrises, who was gay and din't come out of the closet?

It's too much!

[Winokur_fan]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:22pm

I meant characters...

[MaTakeALookAtMe]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:22pm

What the...? They're everywwhere...

Homosexuals probably started appearing on broadway about the time they started apperaing everywhere..in the beginning

[robbiej]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:23pm

Homosexuals only in musicals??

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

[BWIDB Charlie]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:25pm

Okay, my apologies.. I didn't know you meant characters.

Wow, I actually have no idea on this answer. I can think of some fairly old shows but no specific answer. Perhaps one of the more-versed members on here will know.

Charlie
[e-mail]

Edited to add: I don't know if any of this information may be of use to you, but this page looks like it may be informative.

http://musicals101.com/ourlove.htm Updated On: 12/1/04 at 06:25 PM

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:28pm

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.

[Winokur_fan]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:28pm

I had no idea I'd get pounced on for asking such a question. I'm not dumb--I am well aware that homosexuals practically started theater. Do NOT poke fun at me, I would not have posted this question if I knew that some of you were going to make me feel small and insignificant.


If there is anyone on the board that could KINDLY answer my question, please feel free to do so, it would be of great help. Thank you. To the others of you: Feel free not to comment on this thread, it was always an option you know.

[Winokur_fan]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:29pm

Thank you, singingbackup.

[BWIDB Charlie]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:30pm

Winokur - please see my last post... it may have some useful info.

Charlie
[e-mail]

[Winokur_fan]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:31pm

yes I saw your post.

[MaTakeALookAtMe]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:32pm

I realize that the Celluloid Closet was primarily abourt Hollywood, but does it discuss broadway at all? I know that there was a lot of discussion in about the censorship laws and the like.. it may be worth checking into

[midtowngym]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:32pm

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

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:34pm

Whoa, calm down Missy. Your original question was not clear. Don't jump on people because you could not ask the question in a straight forward way. No pun intended. I hope the paper you end up writing is a bit more cohesive.

[Winokur_fan]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:38pm

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.

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

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 6:57pm

I did not take offense, I just didn't understand the question. It is not offensive to discuss Gay history in the Theatre. In fact the late great Vito Russo did the same with Hollywood in what is considered by many to be the definitive book on the subject.

[robbiej]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 7:03pm

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

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 7:09pm

Because the title of this thread should be changed to "homosexual characters on Broadway"? Or "gay characters on Broadway"? I never liked the term "homosexual" -- seems so clinical, like it was a condition.

Updated On: 12/1/04 at 07:09 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 7:31pm

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).

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

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 8:31pm

Though he only made one real appearance in a Broadway show, you should mention Van Der Clyde, better known as Barbette. The first drag trapeeze artist, he was both beautiful and delicately graceful and further distinguished himself by performing as near to nude as possible. After taking his bows and recieving applause from his admiring audiences (who thought that here was an exceptionally pretty teenage girl) he would shock them before leaving the stage by ripping off his blonde wig.
He had his greatest sucesses in the Parisian music halls in the 1930s.

Updated On: 12/1/04 at 08:31 PM

Posted: 12/1/04 at 9:23pm

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.

Posted: 12/1/04 at 9:32pm

I should add that I did not see any of these performers.

Also, I've no idea of their personal sexual orientations.

Just because they entertained audiences in drag does not automatically mean they themselves were homosexual.

Updated On: 12/1/04 at 09:32 PM

[broadwaybaby619]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 10:35pm

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.