LGBTQ Broadway and the incredible contribution of the Gays!

Where did LGBTQ Hollywood stars like Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift get their start? Where were plays by Tennesse Williams, Edward Albee, and Tony Kushner premiered? Where was the famously “all gay” musical ‘West Side Story’ (with music, lyrics, book, and choreography all by gay people–and a gay lead actor) put on?

In New York’s theater district, known for its main street as “Broadway.” The theater, constitutes one of the city’s primary creative and economic forces, and the LGBT community had a significant and disproportionate impact on the Broadway stage. This included the contributions of major LGBT performers, playwrights, composers, lyricists, librettists, choreographers, set and costume designers, who created many of Broadway’s most iconic shows. Despite the New York Legislature-enacted Wales Padlock Law (1927) that made it illegal for theaters to show plays that featured gay and lesbian characters through 1967, some productions managed to get around this restriction and some became stage classics. This tour will touch on these themes, as well as the historic theater buildings, including:

• Legendary early “female impersonators” Julian Eltinge and Bert Savoy
• The God of Vengeance, which had the first lesbian love scene on Broadway and was shut down by censors in 1923
• Hollywood stars who got their start on Broadway, such as Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Judy Holliday
• Stars of the stage Alla Nazimova, Eva Le Gallienne, Noel Coward, Ethel Waters, Tallulah Bankhead, Clifton Webb, Mary Martin, and Joel Grey
• Famous Broadway lavender couples Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne, and Katharine Cornell and Guthrie McClintic
• Important playwrights Somerset Maugham, John Van Druten, Tennessee Williams, Lorraine Hansberry, Edward Albee, Terrence McNally, and Tony Kushner
• Significant costume and set designers Orry-Kelly, Cecil Beaton, Florence Klotz, and Raoul Pene Du Bois
• Songsters Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Jerry Herman, and Kander & Ebb
• Choreographers Tommy Tune and Michael Bennett
• “All Gay” productions such as West Side Story, created by Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, Oliver Smith, and Irene Sharaff

Can’t make the live event? Buy a ticket for a recording and watch the event in your own time!