Gay broadway actors
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I look up to him in so many ways, and the fact that he’s so open about his queerness is an inspiration: that it’s possible to be both out and successful.” —Meg Fangmann
"100 percet without a doubt Billy Porter! Everything about this show screams queer, from the celebratory cacophony of corsets, stockings, and rock ballads, to the deeply homophobic reviews it got that it steamrolled past to become a cult classic across all media formats.
Honorable mentions
While this list has named a few select titles that have played on Broadway in the recent decade or so, there is a legacy of queer identity as a defining feature of theater itself.
Her portrayal of Emma [in The Prom] is so beautifully real, and her speaking out about her relationship with sexuality and labels have made this little unruly heart of mine feel so validated.” —Jaylin
"[Beth Malone, Emily Skeggs, and Lauren Patten in Fun Home] changed my life and made it so easy that when I figured out my own sexuality, I was completely comfortable to be me.
Surely not coincidentally, they are the two characters that are most obviously the outsiders in a play that focuses on the Jaspers, a prominent Black family in Chicago of preachers and politicians inspired by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his family. Billy Porter for obvious reasons.
Throughout June, the world honors the history, lives, struggles, and contributions of LGBTQ+ people — but of course, that shouldn't start and end with this month. Don’t you? (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?
Key to Landau's best musical productions are her big swings that swerve you into microscopic insights about the human condition before you know it.
Originally published on
New York Theater
Today, the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationally, seems an apt day for my annual census of gay characters on Broadway.
is another one this year.) Cole Escola portrays First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, but she is not a gay character. He’s in the zone in the musical Smash as Nigel, a tart-tongued director/choreographer who, like the actor, is out-and-proud and carving a career in the weird and wonderful world of Broadway. Please oh please, win me this war, Lord and keep my wife from ruining my name.
Since her Broadway debut in 2023, she’s stepped into iconic roles like Mama Morton in Chicago and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. Some critics have described Zidler as a gay character, but I missed that. The Penzance Musical. While there is always more work to be done to ensure that the theatre is an inclusive community for all, it is often a space where LGBTQ+ stories are amplified and uplifted.
But every award is well-earned. But My Son's a Queer, (But what can you do?) is there to tell the wonderful story of Rob Madge and their childhood attempt to stage a Disney parade in their living room for their parents.
Originally set to run on Broadway during the current season, the play has sadly been postponed to the 2024-25 season instead.
They use their platforms to raise awareness of issues, send positive messages to the younger generation, and support us all.”—Liam Nathan Nicks
12 LGBTQ+ artists to watch on Broadway right now
In honor of Pride Month in June, New York Theatre Guide's staff shouted out performers, directors, writers, and more theatremakers whose work you can't miss.
Happy Pride Month!
Both get some beautiful monologues – Naz is the narrator of the play — that have nothing to do with sexual identity. While it premiered in 2002, long after the first queer baseball players came out, the play was written before these monumental moments.
To add nuance to the tale, it is set in the locker room of a baseball team, a space that is as much fueled by the triumphant pursuit of glory as it is riddled with homophobia.
And one of the most significant tragic events in American history is presented as the indirect result of a gay lover’s spat.
Some embrace “Oh, Mary” as gay-positive; if Lincoln is portrayed as a vicious queen, goes this reasoning, he is made so by the oppressiveness of the closet. The Color Purple was originally a novel by Alice Walker that depicted the experiences of several black girls and women in the old South each facing a unique yet interconnected struggle.
Escola, dressed as the titular Mary Todd Lincoln in an enormous hoop skirt and flouncy curls, took eccentricity and made it a Broadway staple.
Get Oh, Mary! tickets now.
Conrad Ricamora, James Scully, and Bianca Leigh
by Gillian Russo
The 2022 Hulu rom-com Fire Island is one of my favorite movies, so I can't shout out just one of its actors without the other when two of them are currently in the same play.
The Transamerica and Hurricane Bianca star's performance as Mary's chaperone, Louise, is as delectable as ice cream — if you know, you know. I feel so lucky to have had a show as amazing as Fun Home as a part of my life.” —Beth
“Max von Essen and his empathetic, relevant portrayal of Marvin in Falsettos.