Where are all the good gay plays?

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 10:15am

I would have posted this article on the West End board, but I thought it was interesting as a New York theatergoer.

From The Guardian:

While it's right to bemoan the lack of new gay and lesbian plays, the key is to write queer theatre that's so good, artistic directors can't ignore it.

Where are all the gay comedies? wonders Michael Billington. Where are all the lesbians in theatre? laments Stella Duffy. But look a little more closely and there's room for rejoicing.

For one thing, Duffy doesn't mention the thriving queer performance art scene. Gay artists have been instrumental in the renaissance of Burlesque, and performers like Ursula Martinez, Amy Lame, Chris Green and Adrienne all know playing seductive, teasing games with gender is part of the appeal of theatre. Crossgender casting is on the rise, too, both at the Globe and in troupes such as Kneehigh and Cheek by Jowl, whose shows continue to enchant all audiences.

As Billington points out, Southwark Fair and Mother Clap's Molly House were both National Theatre hits. As I write, Summer Strallen is slapping her thigh as the principal boy in Mark Ravenhill's panto and a radical lesbian feminist is considering whether to tie the knot in The Marriage Bed.

This year has seen a retrospective of Martinez's theatre work, a revival of Bent, and plays by Christopher Shinn and Caryl Churchill, who's hardly shy when it comes to writing gay characters. A teenage girl found religion and came out in Crooked - possibly just to irk her mother. Emma Rice and Tom Morris' adaptation of Nights At The Circus portrayed a rapt lesbian romance. Beautiful Thing sold out and got pre-clubbing audiences whooping.

Read on...
Where are all the good gay plays?

Updated On: 12/12/06 at 10:15 AM

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 10:19am

Little Dog Laughed...Spring Awakening...

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 10:36am

SWIMMING WITH SHARKS...also Kushner is working on what he describes as a "large gay play". YEEEE!!

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 10:56am

A large play... or a gay play about large people?

Big-fat-fatty gays?

[Kringas]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 10:58am

I hope it's the latter.

[Calvin]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 10:59am

I smell a Tony nom for Bruce Vilanch!

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:01am

Is THAT what that smell is?

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:11am

Richard Griffiths and Harvey Fierstein better have a steamy sex scene.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:14am

Oh, now STOP, y'all!

Also, Terrence McNally has SOME MEN, which has horrible word of mouth, but it's gay....I also think DEUCE is about lesbians, but I'm not sure.

Hey, there's a better topic: Where are all the LESBIAN plays?

Women together????? EWWWWWW!!

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:36am

My only problem with "gay plays" is that (with all good drama) they need a villain. In most gay plays, the villain isn't a gay character... it's "intolerance" or a "dreaded disease."

Since most of the ballyhooed gay plays out there have already tackled these subjects from many angles and eras... I think most authors are thinking "what's the next step?"

The other problem is that if you DON'T tackle the subjects of intolerance or disease, the play is usually perceived as shallow (and often is).

I'm hoping the next step is to see a play with (mostly) gay characters, that is well-written and well-acted, that DOESN'T focus on the iconic issues... and instead focuses on interesting, compelling characters, with a human villain, and a good story line.

Nah... It'll probably just get slammed as "shallow" for not tackling intolerance and disease.

Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:39am

...long tiiiime passing...

[fflagg]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:49am

I do not have a good answer.

I do not think most playwrights--gay or straight--have the talent, discipline, or training as did other generations.

SPRING AWAKENING looks like a pretentious bore, LITTLE DOG is memorable only for the lead actress [the play itself is thin and already dated], THE PILLOWMAN was loud and pretentious. The last fine play on Bway was DOUBT.

It is even worse for musicals. When Mr. Sondheim passes on, so will the artform.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 11:57am

I'm president of the Board of a gay and lesbian theatre and gay plays are not hard to find. GOOD gay plays are hard to find, because they are not produced as often as they should be. (And of course the running joke is there is no such thing as a lesbian comedy. )

We've had huge recent success with Del Shores plays SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES and SORDID LIVES (neither of which have had a Broadway "blessing"). This year will also be producing the recent off-Broadway musical THRILL ME, and Alan Ball's FIVE WOMEN WEARING THE SAME DRESS.

For next year, we are considering ZANNA DON'T! and Noel Coward's PRIVATE LIVES in our mix.

So the work is out there. You just have to go look for it.

Richmond Triangle Players

[BreakingTheCircle07]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 12:10pm

It obviously looks likes you haven't seen enough about Spring Awakening, fflagg, because it is a musical. Must be kinda hard to call something pretentiously boring when you don't know its medium. And to use the word pretentious to describe two well written shows comes off as bland and under-thinking on your part.

[LostLeander]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 12:13pm

There's McNally's Lisbon Traviata, which is a just a great character driven drama, with more queeniness than any Elizabeth.

[steveshack]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 12:58pm

Hmmm... I can think of at least one really great musical about a gay marriage currently getting rave reviews...


The one I was thinking about...

[philcrosby]

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

... and THE LAST SESSION (which we did at RTP a couple of years ago) ain't bad either.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 1:17pm

I think gay plays and gay characters are experiencing a rebirth. I think much of the heralded gay plays are time capsules and reflect their respective eras. I think alot of the content was based on oppression of the times and dealt with often serious and weighty issues. I also think of the humor of Charles Busch and its camp value and how important and culturally significant that was.

I think with changing social norms, gay characters are more infused into new works and are less the subject of their own plays. I think gay people are being normalized into more work and are showcased less as being different-reflective of the true tapestries of people's lives (most people have a netowrk of LGBT people in their lives who are not singled out). I like that gay folks are treated like everyday people and are not made to stand out or be treated like the "identified patient" in a dramatic work. I still feel the need for new works dealing with LGBT issues, but not just coming out or heavy handed dramas.

I also got tired of crappy gay plays that incorporate male nudity or jokes about Judy Garland or Mommie Dearest that pander to gay audiences and stereotypes. We can handle complexity and don't need a sassy queen with one-liners or an actor with his package out to get us in the seats.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 1:18pm

Once again....did the lesbian play birth and die with THE CHILDREN'S HOUR?

[Mischief]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 1:36pm

I like William H. Hoffman Jr.'s definition of a gay play in his introduction to "Gay Plays: The First Collection"

To paraphrase: A gay play is a play that sleeps with another play of the same sex.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 1:42pm

Lets face it, "Gay" isn't edgy anymore and people like their plays edgy. "Child abuse" has replaced "Gay", which accounts for plays like Doubt, Pain and the Itch, Festen, Pillowman...
Will and Grace, for all the good it did, basically put an end to Gays as being "taboo", so now we have plays that might include gay characters, but are not about "GAY". Which I suppose is a little bittersweet.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 1:52pm

Sueleen you raise a great point. Trauma is the new taboo and audiences really like darkness and emotional pain and writers are gravitating towards it. The success of shows like "Six Feet Under" (I know that is a not a play) demonstrate that people have an appetite for deep sadness and underyling dark emotional issues. It might give them some hope or help them realize they are not alone.

[Jesus]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 2:25pm

Brad Fraser has contributed several breath taking "Gay" plays. Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, Poor Superman, Wolf Boy, Ugly Man.

Posted: 12/12/06 at 2:28pm

Gee, too bad. Tsk, tsk. What now? You're all going to boycott all regular plays now?


Updated On: 12/12/06 at 02:28 PM

[Insider2]

Posted: 12/12/06 at 2:53pm

In addition to the usual suspects (McNalley, Crowley, Beane, Lucas, Rudnick, etc.):

THE LAST SUNDAY IN JUNE by Jonathan Tolins - New York Times - "smart, timely and funny.....pushes the 'gay play' forward into its next generation of concerns."

END OF THE WORLD PARTY by Chuck Ranberg

THE CRUMPLE ZONE - by Buddy Thomas - "The kind of domestic comedy that might have been written by Neil Simon if he were gay and 40 years younger!" N.Y. Times. "A little gem." Liz Smith. "Guaranteed to keep the laughter in overdrive!" N.Y. Daily News. "Sparkles! The first fresh comedy of its type to come along in years. It is not going too far to draw parallels between Neil Simon or Kaufman & Hart at the top of their powers.... A rollicking farce with a heart of pure gold." LGNY Newspaper.

RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS by Andrew Barrett, CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY by Steven Fales, AVOW by Bill C. Davis, TEXAS HOMOS by Jann Buttram, R&J by Joe Calarco, SNAKEBIT by David Marshall Grant, MESSAGE TO MICHAEL by Tim Pinckney, BEAUTIFUL THING by Jonathan Harvey, MY NIGHT WITH REG by Kevin Eylot, LONELY PLANET by Steven Dietz