queerculturewithintheatre

[queerculturewithintheatre]

Cast in the 1968 production of The Boys in the Band. “Look Back at Past Productions of the Boys in the Band.” Playbill, playbill.com/article/look-back-at-past-productions-of-the-boys-in-the-band

Queer communities began to be incorporated within theatre culture after the premiere of “The Boys in the Band” in April 1968. This play was the first introduction and portrayal of “gay life” on Broadway, which later inspired more queer-themed productions; it has even inspired Ryan Murphy’s Netflix adaptation. The author of the original play, Mart Crowley, had deliberately written it to be as funny and gay as he could make it as a response to the theatre critic, Stanley Kauffman. In 1966, Kauffman had previously written a “New York Times essay headlined ‘Homosexual Drama and Its Disguises’” where he asked “why that era’s most famous gay playwrights…didn’t write about themselves and leave straights alone,” (Green, par 2), to which Crowley responded, “‘I had enough self-hatred built up in me to go around’… ‘I didn’t need Stanley Kauffman to tell me that,” (Green, par 3). In a later interview documentary, The Celluloid Closet in 1995, Mart Crowley admitted that he had purposely incorporated “pre-Pride attitudes” due to “‘the self-deprecating humor...born out of low self-esteem, from a sense of what the times told you about yourself,” (Colleran, par 4).

Colleran, Jim. “Pride Timeline: 50+ Years of LGBTQ+ Plays and Musicals.” Breaking Character, Breaking Character, 12 July 2022, https://www.breakingcharacter.com/home/2020/6/15/pride-timeline-50-years-of-lgbtq-plays-and-musicals

Green, Jesse. “A Brief History of Gay Theater, in Three Acts.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Feb. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/t-magazine/gay-theater-history-boys-in-the-band.html.

[queerculturewithintheatre]

“The Ritz.” Scott Pask Studio, www.scottpaskstudio.com/the-ritz/

Crowley’s play changed the course of theatre culture “for the gayer.” It was part of the catalyst that inspired the LGBT patrons to fight back against police raiders in the Stonewall Inn, which caused the beginning of the Gay Liberation Movement in 1969. It was also the reason NYC’s Stonewall Anniversary March became known as the first LGBTQ+ Pride parade (Colleran, par 5 & 6). Crowley’s play even inspired future Broadway productions incorporating or focusing on the queer community. An example is The Ritz by Terrence McNally, which was introduced to Broadway in 1975 and ended up being a hit. The Ritz was a comedic farce about a gay bathhouse, and McNally was described to “be both a traditionalist and a pioneer,” with its production and success (Colleran, par 10).

Crowley’s play and the 1975 Boston production caused a significant cultural turning point for theatre culture because they challenged homophobia within productions. Queer themes and images within media were banned during the 1930s and so on for being considered “scandalous” and a “social problem,”(Blaney, par 3). Queer images were banned on Broadway stages, and the Hays Code worked to ban queer themes on Hollywood screens; those who went against this ban were usually arrested. Because of this ban, there was a lot of “censorship of gay themes in theatre and film…in the US from the 1930s through the 1960s,” (Blaney, par 3). Although Crowley’s production played into societal stereotypes and incorporated his own self-hatred, it inspired future queer productions. Most productions were made to be comedies as well, such as the 1975 Boston production, but it worked to incorporate more queer themes within the media.

Blaney, Dr Darren. “1964: The Birth of Gay Theater.” The Gay & Lesbian Review, 6 Nov. 2015, https://glreview.org/article/1964-the-birth-of-gay-theater/

Colleran, Jim. “Pride Timeline: 50+ Years of LGBTQ+ Plays and Musicals.” Breaking Character, Breaking Character, 12 July 2022, https://www.breakingcharacter.com/home/2020/6/15/pride-timeline-50-years-of-lgbtq-plays-and-musicals

[queerculturewithintheatre]

Wong, Curtis M. “Why Broadway's 'Falsettos' Is a 'Reality Check' for LGBTQ Audiences.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 29 Dec. 2016, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/broadway-falsettos-lgbtq_n_585bfb72e4b0d9a59457533b/amp.

Over the years, queer representation within theatre culture continued to progress. A more modern example is the musical Falsettos, which is also a book by William Finn and James Lapine. It is made up of the musicals March of the Falsettos (1981) and Falsettoland (1990). The story follows Marvin who has left his conventional life consisting of a wife and child to be with his boyfriend Whizzer. The story shows what his family goes through upon Marvin’s coming out and how they deal and adapt to it in 1979 New York. It also includes the AIDS epidemic, “Written before AIDS reached the public consciousness (and premiering just two days after the first published report of what was later called AIDS),” (Colleran, par 20). Critics described it as challenging public opinion and Broadway norms. It has since been revived in 2016 and remains culturally important and impactful even with gay rights and representation becoming more mainstream.

Colleran, Jim. “Pride Timeline: 50+ Years of LGBTQ+ Plays and Musicals.” Breaking Character, Breaking Character, 12 July 2022, https://www.breakingcharacter.com/home/2020/6/15/pride-timeline-50-years-of-lgbtq-plays-and-musicals