Why Do (Many) Gay Men Love Musical Theatre? — Page 2

Why do straight men love beer nuts, nascar, and Dick Cheney in an orange vest? Why do lesbians shop at Home Depot, still bowl, and mate for life? Why do straight women play ping pong, get manicures, and wish they had a new gay friend to take them to a piano bar and sing show tunes with, or a lesbian to bowl with?

---

I'm straight and every time I tell people how obsessed I am with MT they all get this look like "Are you gay?" and it pisses me off every time.

I'm straight and every time I tell people how obsessed I am with MT they all get this look like "Are you gay?" and it pisses me off every time.


oh real nice want.....damn homophobe, go find the straight men for men room, scratch your nuts and fart.....moron
You aren't MAN enough to be gay, Princess.......and frankly you'd never pass the entrance exam

---

I'm straight and every time I tell people how obsessed I am with MT they all get this look like "Are you gay?" and it pisses me off every time.

I totally agree with you. And no he wasn't being offensive. It's a pain in the ass and it's annoying. I have many gay friends and I am not a homophobe but it's still annoying to be asked that all the time.

---

If only gay men were interested in MT, the theatres wouldn't be filled every night. But then, who cares about sexuality? My mother always used to say "it's rude to intrude." In fact, my dad, like me was a straight man. He was a rough, tough sonofabitch soldier, a decorated war hero, who lived for musical theatre, ran his own theatre company, knew how to field strip a carbine rifle, tap danced wonderfully (much like Jimmy Cagney) and I can say proudly I saw him once break the arm of a knife-weilding thug who tried to ruin a chaperoned high school party and weep at the finale of "Phantom of the Opera."

And I'll bet the same could be said about many of our gay friends out there.

---

Last Comment (I think) I will make on this topic: My intention.... and ONLY intention... was to seek out the opinions of THOSE gay men who happen to LOVE musical theatre, as I do. I wanted to elicit their thoughts of their love for the musical theatre. It's as simple as that. I did not say..."ALL gay men".... I said:...."....why do (many) gay men love musical theatre. I am quite aware of likes and dislikes in any social group. I was just focusing SOLEY on a specific social group, of which I am most familiar with. If others don't like musical theatre, more power to you. If straight men like M.T., fantastic. If you happen to be someone who doesn't like M.T., that is your choice. I was just trying to ask a simple question, but even that can get complicated when people don't understand my original and singular intent. Shalom y'all. RC in Austin, Texas... (p.s. I don't mind if people disagree with something I may have said, but please try to be polite. I'm the sort of person who's inclined to believe, in an "eye for an eye." But I am aware of the guidelines of this forum and adhere to them. While I might want to respond in kind to a couple of "not very nice" posts, I don't want to go there. ) Have a nice day.

---

John Kenrick, author of Musicals101.com, wrote a very interesting essay on Gay men and their deep affection for and longtime association with musical theatre. It's a fascinating perspective.

Our Love is Here to Stay:
http://www.musicals101.com/ourlove.htm

Hopefully this proves insightful!

Not all gay men love musical theatre, but the ones who do are very special, appreciative, creative, intelligent, deep, and sensitive - qualities that should be admired and coveted by everyone (especially straight men). Also, I love Patti Lupone! She and my mom are the 2 reasons I became a singer.

Regards,

Glinda2, Straight Witch

Hey Patti Lupone FANatic,

I got what you were saying...don't know why so many misunderstood your post. Apparently there are A LOT of hangups for these straight folk who love musicals and are ALWAYS asked if they're gay. Wait...let me work up a few tears for them.

Somebody mentioned getting to be someone else...not having to be themselves while in a musical. For me, it's exactly the opposite. Musical theatre attracted me because it was a safe place to allow everything that was inside me out. I was free of whatever constrictions I felt my life placed on me. I was able to express myself from a very deep place. Since I've gotten older, I've learned to be more myself in 'regular life'. But the stage is still a haven that lets me express all that is good and bad about myself.

---

i'm gay and i dont love musical theatre....i ADORE it SWEETIE!

---

I've asked myself that question a dozen times. I know book has been written on the subject:

Something for the Boys: Musical Theater and Gay Culture
by John M. Clum

I haven't read it. Ultimately the question is rather pointless unless you are a sociologist and are interesting in the question of what makes any sub-culture interested in this or that.

I'm gay. I love the Musical Theatre. I've wondered why, but I am pretty sure I won't ever find a satisfactory answer and I also know I don't need one.

I wasn't offended. I honesty think it must be very hard for straight men to enjoy things that are usually associated with gay culture. I also think it can show straight men the deep intolrence that straight culture has imposed on them.

ACL2006, I say enjoy your beer and broadway.

check out the book Place for Us: Essay on the Broadway Musical, by D.A. Miller. Here's the amazon description:

Everybody "knows" that gay men love show tunes; as D.A. Miller writes in one self-mockingly academic passage of Place for Us, the original cast albums "were used, scholars now believe, in a puberty rite that, though it was conducted by single individuals in secrecy and shame, was nonetheless so widely diffused as to remain, for several generations, as practically normative for gay men and it was almost unknown for straight ones." Miller's elaborate pondering of the intersection of homosexuality and Broadway shifts between critical exegesis of shows like Gypsy and autobiographical reflections written in a curiously distancing (and, at times, generalizing) third-person voice. Although some will be put off by the academic tone, there are treasures to be found sprinkled throughout these pages, such as the black-and-white reproductions of Michael Perelman's Broadway-inspired oil paintings. Or Miller's description of an ironic piano-bar singer, "like a third-rate magician who, thinking to take advantage of his inferior talent for illusionism, devises a novelty act in which he gives away the familiar tricks of his betters ... out to betray the habitual prestidigitation of the whole enormous population of gay composers, lyricists, librettists, choreographers, and others" who coyly cloaked their sexuality in misdirection and innuendo.

on amazon

---