In his Tony acceptance speech this month, Jonathan Groff thanked his role as the gay character Melchior Gabor sixteen years ago in “Spring Awakening” for inspiring him “to come out of the closet when I was 23. I’m now 39 and musical theater is still saving my soul.” But the character for which Groff won his Tony, Franklin Shepard Jr. in “Merrily We Roll Along,” is uber heterosexual, cheating on his second wife.
Broadway is an industry that has long employed LGBTQ people; a community that has served as a refuge; and an art form that’s offered a pioneering showcase for LGBTQ characters and their stories. But the showcase fluctuates
Last year, I counted eight Broadway plays or musicals that were running during Pride Month featuring LGBTQ+ characters, which seemed a record. Only two from that list remain.
True, tonight is opening night for a queer version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats,” one of the longest-running shows on Broadway. But the new production is not opening on Broadway; it’s at the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center site, which will also tomorrow launch the Criminal Queerness Festival. These are the latest in a month’s worth of pride-related activities leading to Pride Weekend, including the Broadway Pride Block Party in Times Square on June 28, and culminating in the NYC Pride March on June 30.
It seems an apt time to revisit the list of gay characters on Broadway. There were a couple of shows that have opened on Broadway in the year since my last accounting, and then closed, that have featured explicitly LGBTQ characters (“Lempicka” and “Melissa Etheridge: My Window.” Rob Madge’s solo show “My Son’s A Queer” was scheduled to open during the season, but was postponed. ) There were a few more opening during the season with arguably a queer sensibility, and likely all of them with gay cast, crew or creative team members.
Below is an alphabetical listing of the currently running shows with queer characters – not all of them explicitly, unmissably so.
Philippe Arroyo as Francois Justin David Sullivan as May in & Juliet
May (portrayed by Justin David Sullivan), who lives outside gender binary labels, launches into Britney Spears’ hit “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman,” which of course was about her age; May makes it about gender transition. May and Francois (Philippe Arroyo) kiss, realize their attraction, and sing the NSYNC hit “It’s Going to Be Me” (pronounced May — get it?)
One could argue that the musical number “Turn It Off” is an allusion to being in the closet, especially since the chorus boys performing the number are wearing red-sequined satin vests.)
The homosexuality in this production of Cabaret is largely implied, in the decadent dance numbers, and with such deliberately double-entendre as In the song “Money,” when the emcee smirks:
If you happen to be rich,And you feel likeA night’s entertainment,You can pay for a gay escapade.
We are meant to understand that Clifford Bradshaw (Ato Blankson-Wood), the writer who falls for Sally, is bisexual. (The actual Anglo-American writer upon whose autobiographical writing “Cabaret” is based, was actually famously gay.) But even this is treated coyly:
SALLY: Are you homosexual in any way? Bobby said he thought you might be.
CLIFF: Bobby?
SALLY: One of the boys at the Club. He said he met you in London at the Nightingale BarCLIFF: The Nightingale Bar?SALLY: Is it possible?CLIFF: I guess – anything’s possible. I’ve been to lots of barsSALLY: And did you and Bobby have an affair?CLIFF: Did he say that?SALLY: He implied it.CLIFF: I see.SALLY: Cliff – if you don’t mind – I should like to withdraw the question. Because – really – it’s none of my business. I think people are people, I really do, Cliff. Don’t you? I don’t think they should have to explain anything.
“Illinoise,” which opened at the end of April and won the Tony Award for choreography, is the queerest show now on Broadway. It’s a dance-theater piece whose central story focuses on Henry (portrayed by Ricky Abeda) who falls for Carl (Ben Cook) Henry’s small town friend and first love, whose first love is with Shelby (Gaby Diaz). Henry moves to Chicago, where he meets Douglas (Ahmad Simmons) who becomes his big-city mature love , which prompts Sufjan Stevens’ most popular song:
I fell in love againAll things goAll things goDrove to ChicagoAll things know All things know…
Jenn Colella as Carrie Chapman Catt and Shaina Taub as Alice Paul
The musical based on the history of the suffragist’s successful effort to give women the vote, includes the historical figure of Carrie Catt, the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, who was married to men twice, and widowed twice, then partnered with fellow suffragist Mary Garrett “Mollie” Hay for 38 years; the two are buried next to one another in Woodlawn Cemetery. In the musical, Carrie Catt (Jenn Colella) is painted as the old guard who,, backed by Mollie Hay (Jaygee Macapugay), makes life difficult for the more radical and effective Alice Paul (Shaina Taub), the musical’s central character. In one scene, after Alice Paul has sidestepped Carrie Catt’s authority and put together her own team to put on the first-ever March on Washington for women’s rights, Carrie and Mollie visit her.
Carrie: Well, Miss Paul, it looks like you got your field hockey team. Alice: Carrie!Mollie: That’s Mrs. Catt’s to you!Alice: And Miss Hay! Good evening.
That reference to a field hockey team might sound like catty innuendo, but both Alice and Carrie played field hockey in college, which might not be all they had in common. And later in the scene, Carrie agrees to fund Alice’s activities. “Sanctioned activities,” Mollie adds.
