Neil Patrick Harris proclaimed Broadway is “Not Just For Gays Anymore,” the delightful opening song of the 2011 Tony Awards. Gone were the days of theater as the exclusive domain of tap dancing in 42nd Street and jazz hands in A Chorus Line. Audiences have flocked to the theater to see safe, pleasant productions like Grease and Jersey Boys, and of course the American consciousness is currently obsessed with the hip-hop score of Hamilton.
But good old-fashioned glamorous theater, with self-indulgent drama and big dance sequences, is popular again, perhaps led by the success of Kinky Boots, in its fourth year on Broadway of educating audiences about drag queens and fetish footwear. Gaggles of gay men are once again reclaiming their theatrical turf, converging from across America and descending upon Broadway theaters to see shows rife with high camp, over-the-top costumes and toe-tapping tunes.
Theatrical power players have certainly noticed the gentle shift, and are on the hunt for musicals and plays that serve up a heavy dose of drama while remembering to still leave audiences smiling. Tina Fey’s musical version of Mean Girls is opening in Washington, D.C. on October 31 for its pre-Broadway trial, and Elton John is working on his musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada. Cate Blanchett, fresh off her Broadway run in a play called The Present, is booked to star in a stage production of All About Eve in London opening in 2018, and that play is going to be so delicious it is almost impossible to comprehend.
The Plot
Two gay men from different generations negotiate the ups and downs of developing a relationship, amidst the social and historical implications of LGBTQ equality. It sounds serious, but it’s charming and funny.
Why The Gays Are Going
The show itself is quite good, but the draw here is the lead actor, Harvey Fierstein. As an openly gay man, he was one of the first artists to bring the LGBTQ experience to the public with his plays, musicals, and movies, causing quite a ruckus when he started in the 1980’s–long before Ellen Degeneres made her coming out announcement on her show. He has a long list of awards for his work both as a writer and an actor, including two Tonys, one for writing and one for Best Actor, in the astounding AIDS-era drama Torch Song Trilogy (fun fact: he shared the stage with Estelle Getty, a.k.a. Sophia Petrillo in The Golden Girls). Younger generations of theater fans may know him as Edna Turnblad, the mom in Hairspray, for which he won a Tony award for Best Actor in 2013, and he also played the role in the 2016 TV version of Hairspray Live! Millennials probably didn’t know when they were watching Hairspray Live!, they weren’t just watching a drag queen, they were watching royalty.
And those in the know are now going to see him in Gently Down The Stream at The Public, because of course the show is amazing.
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