Homosexuals on Broadway- Page 2

[MyNameInLights]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 10:45pm

Regardless of the confusion in the beginning of this thread and the fact that I have nothing to add (I'm sorry!), I think this is an extremely interesting subject and I think it's really neat that you're writing a paper on it.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 11:15pm

Do you mean homosexual characters? That would make a lot more sense than homosexual actors...

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 12/1/04 at 11:19pm

This is the funniest topis for a paper I have ever read.

Homosexuals evolved around the 1980s. lol

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 12:18am

homosexuals were not allowed to appear on broadway until 1983. Much like the civil right smovement, we had to have "marchs in manhattan" and stage sit ins.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 12:22am

This is the funniest topis for a paper I have ever read.
Homosexuals evolved around the 1980s. lol

Of course! That's when Madonna appeared on the world stage.

And then there was light.

[bbroadwaybb]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 2:50am

Do you mean literally broadway? An ORIGINAL play or musical? Because even Shakespeare had gay characters. In TROILUS AND CRESSIDA the relationship of Patroclus and Achilles is a homosexual relationship. There was a production of it on Broadway in 1932. Or do you mean when people started writing gay characters for Broadway?

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 3:13am

An almost explicitly gay character in Shakespeare is Antonio from Twelfth Night. He's obviously in love with Sebastian: saving his life, fawning over him and giving him money to spend how he likes. I'm sure there was a production or two early in Broadway history.

[robbiej]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 10:54am

broadwaybaby,

The Homosexuality in British Theatre class was FASCINATING. Simply because the focus was on theatre up to and including Oscar Wilde. So nothing really after the turn of the century. The professor (who now teaches theatre at Penn State) is a wonderfully perverse little man who literally wrote the book on the subject. You might even be able to get it at Amazon.com.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 11:05am

wait, you people are sying that there are homosexuals involved in the broadway theatre world? hahahahahahahahaha!! next you'll try telling me that nice man from hairspray harvey whatever was gay too! you people!

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 11:14am

papa, I saw the show the week after Harvey left... it was the end of McKean's firstw eek. I was seated next to McKean's wife, Annette O'Toole. The idiot family behind me kept running on and on about how Harvey Fierstein is straight and Michael McKean is gay. hahahahaha

[Anastasia_Beaverhausen]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 11:20am

Can you imagine what Broadway would be without the gays? Oh lordy, what a different place it would be....if it even existed!!!

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 11:20am

she's such a class act, bg2 (and she's superman's mom!!), but then so's he. you'll never account for the idiocy factor in the american population. i sometimes wonder if some of the more out there rumors that run through the suburbs actually began as someone just sharing the tallest tale imaginable with some gullible provincial just to see if they'd believe it.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 11:29am

yes, I absolutely LOVE Annette. I ran into her the next day at Virgin Mega in Times square and said hello and she completely remembered me.. though we hadn't shared more than a passing hello when she was seated.. and she introduced me to Michael.

That same same idiot family also ran off at the mouth about how Carly jibson had to be a skinny girl that they padded up because "no fat girl can dance like that".

[kdw111]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 11:52am

Pardon, but I'm attempting to use brain cells that haven't been accessed for years.... 1933 or 34 also saw Laurence Olivier in The Green Bay Tree, directed by Jed Harris, a British import about an "innocent" Julian (Olivier's part) almost seduced by one of those evil, well-dressed, rich and cultured homosexuals. The antagonist's character is named Dulcimer, and he likes to arrange flowers, and you realize what THAT means. You know the type, I live in the Castro in San Francisco, all of my neighbors are just like that...

Good grief, I'm brand new here so I better mention that my tongue is planted firmly in my cheek with the above!

Prior to that, around 1926, the same scenario was played out by two women in a play call The Captive, in which a young,bored society women is almost seduced by and another women. In this case the Evil Seductress sends her intended a bouquet of violets. Not only was the play closed by the censors, it was years in New York before anyone would send violets without a lot of nasty snickering.

About the only gay characters n Broadway that spring to mind re: the 1940's are the "coded" characters, whose sexuality is never explicit but who have stereotypical occupations or personal habits, such as the photographer played by Danny Kaye in the Getrude Lawrence musical Lady in the Dark. Oh,and Cole Porter was not above slipping in the occasional gay reference into a lyric, such as the song Farming which I seem to recall is from Something for the Boys, which was done in the early 40's. It's a list song, naming all the rich and famous who have deserted the city for the rural life in Bucks County and contains the lyric

Don't inquire of Georgy Raft
Why his cow has never calfed
Georgy's bull is beautiful but he's gay

All of which, by the way, I learned in a library. It's what we used to have before we got all our misinformation from the internet. :)

Posted: 12/2/04 at 11:56am

I don't know if anyone mentioned BOYS IN THE BAND by Mart Crowley(?). It was not from the 40's though. I do believe it was one of the first plays to be comprised of all gay men. Of course, it was filled with lovely stereotypes, but then again, stereotypes come from some substance of truth.

[JBGolightly]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 12:07pm

In 1919 Bobby Watson portrayed and "effeminate" character in "IRENE"
Danny Kaye, in 1941, played a gay character in "LADY IN THE DARK"
as well as
Ray Bolger in "BY JUPITER" in 1942
And then of course when the seventies came around there were many more openly gay characters (i.e. "COCO", "APPLAUSE", "A CHORUS LINE", etc.)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 12:44pm

KDW,

I remember reading about The Captive, now that you mention it. There were a few other melodramas like that during the 20s that had obviously gay characters.

I just remembered that there are two excellent books by John Clum -- "Acting Gay" and "Still Acting Gay" -- that detail homosexuality in plays from the Elizabethan era (Marlowe's Edward II) to the present day (Kushner, McNally, Rudnick, Greenberg, et al). Definitely worth picking up.

Welcome to the site.

Updated On: 12/2/04 at 12:44 PM

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 12:47pm

For the record, I'd totally change sides for Annette O'Toole...she's still hot after all these years. Bring this babe to Broadway!!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 1:06pm

According to a source I just found,

"The God of Venegeance (191 by Sholom Ash was the first play to introduce lesbian characters to an English-language audience." It played on Broadway in 1922 for 133 performances (which would have made it a hit in those days), starring Morris Carnovsky and Sam Jaffe (not sure who played the lesbians).

[kdw111]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 1:47pm

"...starring Morris Carnovsky and Sam Jaffe (not sure who played the lesbians)."

Dear, dear Margo... I now have this horrible vision of Carnovsky and Jaffe portraying lesbians. I know they didn't, but it's one of those visions that have come unbidden to my clouded mind.

I have to lie down now, as later on today I have to decide between the circus cover or the Easter cover.

[DancerGirl16]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 1:48pm

Well I am not the best theatre historian but from what I remember from "Broadway and American Musical Sensation" on PBS part 3 lol.What ever year La Cage Aux Follies (the original) was, that was not the first time homosexuals were on broadway, but it was the first time that they were out and successful. Especially the subject matter :) I hope that helps

[Mr. Tuttle]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 2:41pm

Homosexulas first appeared on Broadway November 11, 1937.

[perfusion]

Posted: 12/2/04 at 3:15pm

HOMOSEXUALS? ON BROADWAY? NO, YOUR KIDDING ME...LOL!!!!!!!!