Gay broadway actors
Pride Month Highlighting LGBTQIA+ Excellence on Broadway
24 June /
Posted by Austin Snodgrass
Broadway has become much more diverse in recent years, featuring more LGBTQIA+ actors and actresses than ever before. As we celebrate Pride Month, we also rejoice the trailblazers who have helped pave the way for LGBTQIA+ excellence on Broadway.
Feature: Ben Platt
Role: Evan Hansen, from Dear Evan Hansen
Ben Platt portrayed Evan Hansen in the original Broadway film that launched at the Music Box Theatre on December 4th, At 23 years old, Platt, an openly homosexual man, won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for a Musical and used his award as a platform to energize other LGBTQIA+ individuals.
When asked about his time playing the role of Evan Hansen, Platt said "There's something really powerful about getting absolutely fully in his mind and in his eyes," Platt said of Evan. "That was really exciting to me in terms of the last step of fully realizing this person. And then, secondly, my most thrilling thing was that final act an
June is Pride month, where the LGBTQ+ community and their allies honor the pioneers of the past, celebrate the present, and look ahead the future.
This year, New York City is gearing up for WorldPride to commemorate the 50th anniversary since the Stonewall riots (and the birth of the modern gay right movement), with the annual Lgbtq+ fest March taking place June Theatre has its have intricate history with the queer community. While there is always more labor to be done to ensure that the theatre is an inclusive society for all, it is often a space where LGBTQ+ stories are amplified and uplifted. Beyond onstage representation, the theatre people is made up of many LGBTQ+-identifying artists, who bring their talent, encounter, and artistry to inform important stories across the country.
We asked our social media followers to contribute the LGBTQ+ heroes who inspire them.
Flip through the gallery to see 50 LBGTQ+ theatrical heroes:
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50 LGTBQ+ Theatre Heroes
The Evolution of LGBTQIA+ Narratives on Broadway
It’s impossible to talk about the history of Broadway theater without talking about the history of LGBTQ+ theater. Stories featuring queer characters, storylines, and themes have been told on stage since as far back as ancient Greece. Though they were suppressed for a long day, LGBTQ+ narratives have been integral in shaping modern plays and musicals. There would be no Broadway as we know it today without the queer playwrights, directors, actors, and producers who have created many of the most important and successful shows of all time includingStephen Sondheim,Edward Albee,andTennessee Williams.
It wasn’t until the late 20th century that Queer issues could be spoken about openly in front of mainstream audiences, and still more recently that they could be spoken about without fear of stigma or consequences. It’s been a long journey to get to a place of acceptance, and there’s still further to go.
The Early Years: Subtext and Secrecy
Homosexuality is known to have beenopenly practiced in ancient Greek
Chenoweth Fires Back at Newsweek for Criticizing Gay Actors
Postby Bill Minnick »
May 10, , am
Chenoweth Fires Back at Newsweek for Criticizing Male lover Actors in Straight Roles
By DAVE ITZKOFF
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes in the Broadway revival of “Promises, Promises.”
Not that we possess any beef with Kristin Chenoweth to begin with, but we’d think prolonged and hard about picking a war of words with her after this. On Friday, Ms. Chenoweth, the Tony Award-winner and star of “Promises, Promises,” posted a lengthy online rebuttal to a Newsweek article that she called “horrendously homophobic” for contending that gay actors could not play straight characters, and citing her “Promises, Promises” co-star Sean Hayes as an example.
In the original Newsweek article, called “Straight Jacket” and published online in April, Ramin Setoodeh wrote: “While it’s OK for direct actors to play lgbtq+ (as Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger did in ‘Brokeback Mountain’), it’s exceptional for someone to tug off the trick in reverse.”
Among the openly gay actors Mr. S