Lack of LGBT Protagonists

This is my very first post, so here it goes....

This is something that has been on my mind for a while. There’s a severe lack of LGBT protagonists on Broadway, which I’m sure can be shocking to some since it's musical theatre, but this is just something I’ve taken notice. I’m aware that there are a few gay characters in shows like Mean Girls or Come From Away, but they’re secondary or minor characters. Even in Kinky Boots, Charlie Price is straight and the main character, while Lola is more of a supporting role.

Now you may be asking “well what about Angels in America or The Boys in the Band that are showing right now?”, well they’re not exactly new, and something that many theatre fans already know. Can we get something fresh and new, please?

Oooh Afterglow….oh, it’s Off-Broadway….well, fine I guess…oh it’s a one-act play….and I’m not a big fan of plays; I prefer musicals.

There is some LGBT representation on Broadway, and they’re definitely doing a better job than Hollywood. But in the whole grand scheme of things, there’s just not many gay characters that are placed on the forefront in a big-budget musical. I can count Falsettos or La Cage aux Folles, but again, they’re old shows that we already know.

And there’s so few and far between. The last new big musical with an LGBT protagonist would be Fun Home, and that was a couple of years ago.

This is just strange since Broadway has a huge gay following; I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of the audiences were gay. So you would think that there would be more gay protagonists and not playing second to their straight counterparts.

If you look at the first page of Broadway.com, and look at musicals from The Lion King to The Phantom of The Opera, you’ll see that NONE of them have gay protagonists. Sure, some of them have gay characters, but again, they’re not protagonists. And that’s kinda what I’ve been thinking about.

Even if there’s a couple of new ones coming out soon, it’s still not enough because of the large amount of musicals and plays with straight protagonists.

What are your thoughts?

Updated On: 4/18/18 at 02:32 PM

If you're only speaking of musicals (and NEW musicals at that), you're speaking about shows that have to take in millions in tourist dollars for years in order to break even. Did HEDWIG break even? Did the FALSETTOS revival break even? Did any of the LA CAGE revivals (hateful as I may have found them) break even? There's your answer in a nutshell.

As opposed to the overwhelming number of LGBT protagonists on TV and in movies?

Evsever said: "If you look at the first page of Broadway.com, and look at musicals from The Lion King to The Phantom of The Opera, you’ll see that NONE of them have gay protagonists. Sure, some of them have gay characters, but again, they’re not protagonists. And that’s kinda what I’ve been thinking about.

What are your thoughts?"

I always thought the Lion King would be a better story with a gay lion. It is called Pride Rock, after all.

It is the most peculiar thing to me. That there should be so many queer folks making shows, being in shows, seeing shows... but rarely reflected in the characters. Especially when musical theatre has such a reputation for being a queer space.

(The stats are even worse if you take out "Shows specifically about the aids crisis" of which there are quite a few)

Thinking over the last ten shows I've seen Fun Home and Hedwig come to mind. The OP has made a fail at first post. Two minutes in the penalty box.

Evsever said: "Actually, there's no clear percentage of the LGBT population since it's difficult and tricky to detect someone's sexual orientation. Besides, are you saying that minority groups should have less options and less representation than straight, white people? That doesn't sound right to me."

I'm saying that the representation on Broadway in regards to sexual orientation and gender identity isn't out of whack with the population as a whole. I'm all for more representation, and think that's a worthy goal. But the current level of representation is not a horrific slight to the LGBT community that you seem to feel it is. Plenty of minority groups have less representation on Broadway than the LGBT community does.

SeanD2 said: "I'm saying that the representation on Broadway in regards to sexual orientation and gender identity isn't out of whack with the population as a whole. I'm all for more representation, and think that's a worthy goal. But the current level of representation is not a horrific slight to the LGBT community that you seem to feel it is. Plenty of minority groups have less representation on Broadway than the LGBT community does."

LGBT people feel that they're underrepresented, and how they feel about it is valid and understandable. The fact of the matter is, there has been a huge lack of LGBT protagonists. There's just not that much to choose from. And using the percentage of their population against them is rude and unfair: "Oh there's only three percent of you guys, so you get one show with a gay protagonist once a year, and that's it!"........Um no.

Updated On: 4/18/18 at 04:54 PM

SeanD2 said: "LGBT Americans make up roughly 3.4% of the population. There are 25 musicals currently on Broadway. Mathematically only 0.85 shows should feature an LGBT protagonist to accurately reflect the makeup of the country."

Oh boy, why would you say this? Ugh. Firstly, some sources are saying 10%, others are saying 5%. Either way, it doesn't matter and it's illogical to use a minority group's population as a tool to show how many times they should be represented. I mean for crying out loud, 0.85 shows? You might as well leave them with crumbs.

Everyone deserves equal representation. Period.

Updated On: 4/18/18 at 05:10 PM

Luminaire2 said: "Representation matters, and is important. We need more representation of every group in general. How great would it be if it could just be normal to have random minorties be protagonists for no reason at all? Why can’t it just be normalized?"

Yes, but that is different from saying something is underrepresented, based entirely on a feeling, since that isn't anything that can be addressed, since it is defined solely by the person making the claim. I'm not a lesbian cartoonist or a black drag queen, so from my standpoint, Broadway hasn't really spoken to me aside from Significant Other lately, hmm, only I think that character was Jewish, and I'm not Jewish, so that's only half a point toward representation.

And if you ask Harvey Fierstein, Lola represents trans people, but if you ask Billy Porter, Lola is a drag queen, so which part of LGBT does she (or he) represent?

Also, limiting a discussion to representation within theater to Broadway is like judging Hollywood only on blockbusters, and ignoring all of Off-Broadway and independent movies, which is where (let's face it), you're going to find more LGBT representation.

Updated On: 4/18/18 at 05:54 PM

A solution: Pick up a pen & paper, and start writing a musical with an LGBT protagonist.

Luminaire2 said

Imagine a show where a character was gay, or black, or First Nations, or Asian and it really didn’t matter to the story, it wasn’t a part of the story persay, it was just a part of who the person was?

Isn’t this exactly what’s going on at Frozen???