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

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 8:18pm

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?

[Jwaa]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 8:28pm

a reason why gay men might sub-conciously be more attracted to theatre is the idea of having to act a straight-role until you build the courage to come out to your family and friends...

maybe there is a sub-concious link to playing characters?

maybe...i dont think there is a specific answer..:)

[The W.A.N.D]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 8:57pm

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.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 9:06pm

As Eve Harrington said to Bill Sampson (in the movie "All About Eve", after he finished his speech to her about the theatre).... "I just asked a simple question" (or something to that effect).

from Roman in Austin, Texas.. T.O.P.L.F.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 9:10pm

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

[Isabella2]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 9:29pm

a little harsh, Elphaba? Maybe he wasn't trying to be offensive...

I don't really have that much to contribute to this conversation because i only have a couple friends that are gay and they don't really like musical theatre. They do like rent but then again, everyone likes rent, except for myself and a few others. PLease don't take offense.

Yeah, I'm a girl so no one really assumes I'm gay. I think it's a lot more of a touchy subject with guys.

i think the number of gay men who like musical theatre is not that much bigger than the number of straight guys who like musical theatre, but i'm not sure... Maybe it's just more noticable when gay guys like musical theatre just like it's more noticable when you see a fat italian. haha.

... and i can say that because i'm prejudiced. No, just kidding I am Italian.
Updated On: 9/6/06 at 09:29 PM

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 9:48pm

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.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 12:46am

sorry, it ranks right up there with...."some of my best friends are (fill in the blank)"
Whether he meant it or not, it is insulting. It IS a homophobic statement and people need to think before they speak/type/whatever how it might be taken.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 1:40am

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.

[emo_geek]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 2:10am

Stupid sterotypes.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 7:03am

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.

[kasim]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 7:52am

JUST an FYI one of my gay friends who's bf runs a musical and comedy skit cabaret in columbus HATES musicals.

In fact the running joke is its gonna be and his bf going to go see them and not him and the bf.

I think the stereotype is largely untrue.

I mean its just like saying women like musicals, i know plenty of girls who hate them.

[BialyBloomInc02]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 7:57am

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!

[Cameron26]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 8:04am

I was a straight guy, enjoying some beer and buffalo wings with my wife, when someone put on the original Broadway cast recording of "Hello, Dolly!" Suddenly, I got up off the couch and started doing fan kicks. I am now dating a lumberjack and have an addicition to sequined vests and jazz hands. That's the power of the showtune.

Posted: 3/20/06 at 11:59am

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

[jpbran]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 12:14pm

Well, most stereotypes are based in observable fact....

And most stereotypes have a billion exceptions.

I'm gay, LOVE musical theater (well, most of it), and my partner for the most part does not. (But he does love dance music, so he earns his card for that.)

It is hard to find a gay man who doesn't like one or the other: music theater or dance music. It is pretty easy... REALLY easy... to find straight guys who like neither.

[robbiej]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 12:17pm

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.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 12:36pm

To the guy who said he was straight, drinking a beer and heard one showtune and suddenly started dating a lumberjack, would you mind naming the tune you were listening to? I'm sure many on this site would like to add THAT one to their repertoire!

[children&art]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 12:38pm

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

[ACL2006]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 3:04pm

Being straight, I love musicals/plays. Even collect playbills. But I also love most sports(basketball, football, soccer) and have/wear numerous jerseys. I've been asked if I'm gay and I take offense to it. In high school I did the school's yearly musical but also played on the basketball team. And sometimes I've seen a broadway show during the day/matinee and then went to see a Knicks game at night.

[Flahooley]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 3:07pm

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.

[children&art]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 3:15pm

was anyone else offended by the implications in ACL2006's recent post? it seemed to be shouting out, in not so many words, that being gay is exclusive of liking or tolerating sports. wtf?

[Flahooley]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 3:26pm

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.

[The W.A.N.D]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 3:27pm

I'm sorry if I offended anybody in my post and NO it was NOT ment to be homophobic. How would you like it if you told somebody you liked somthing "straight" and then they asked you "and you're gay???" Thats what I'm talking about.

[backalleybaby]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 4:08pm

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