A Special
Reference
Section of
Queer Music
Heritage

Rene Auberjonois

Lauren Bacall & Lee Roy Reams

Gay Musicals, an essay by JD Doyle

What is a "Gay Musical" and why do we care? Well, I produce a radio show and website called Queer Music Heritage, with an aim to preserve gay and lesbian music culture. And by using the term "Gay Musical" I immediately have to define myself. Musicals have always been a big part of our culture, to the point of it being stereotypical. But I'm not talking about musicals like "Chorus Line," or "Dreamgirls," "West Side Story," "Follies," "Gypsy," "Cats," "Cabaret," or on and on, even though many may have had a gay sensibility, or gay writers behind them. Being a purist, I'm talking about gay musicals where the central characters and plots were gay, and I further limit my focus to those that had soundtracks that made it onto vinyl or CD. Otherwise, only a few get to share the experience. In the early years, recording them didn't happen very often, as the productions were generally low budget affairs, far removed from even being off-off-Broadway.

To put things in perspective, the first non-musical gay play to have a soundtrack was "Boys In The Band," and that wasn't until it was made into a movie in 1968. It didn't take all that much longer for a gay musical to make it to vinyl. My research indicates the honor of being first happened in 1973, and goes to a musical called "The Faggot." It got a lot of attention then and its first run lasted over 200 performances. It featured a large cast of men and women, and songs by a hustler, two leather men, a fag-hag bar owner, and included the characters Oscar Wilde and Bosie, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and Catherine the Great. I think we can safely say the plot was not memorable.

But that started our "Gay Musicals" history. Not many of them attracted much mainstream attention, with "La Cage Aux Folles" being the huge exception. Others that stand out, in quality, for me were "Boy Meets Boy," "In Gay Company," "Ten Percent Revue," "Get Used To It," "The Ballad of Mikey," "Fairy Tales," "The Last Session," "Bed Boys & Beyond," "Songs From an Unmade Bed," "Bare," and audibly and visually, "Naked Boys Singing." You could probably do a thesis on how gay rights have progressed over the years, citing particular musicals, and this is of course a history worth preserving.

To mention just one topic, as life inspires art, gay or otherwise, the 90s brought us a number of musicals dealing with AIDS: "Falsettoland," "All That He Was," "Elegies," and one I don't quite classify as a "gay musical" but need to mention just the same, "Rent." And over the years "our" musicals captured, I guess, the same elements as musicals in general: finding love, losing love, sex, politics, life in times of war and trials, etc. To which we add: coming out, dealing with homophobia, gay marriage and more. And, have you ever heard of "Straight Pride"? That's where we have it all over those "other" musicals, as gee, we're just a bit more fabulous.

[ A few years ago the director of a musical in London asked me to write the introduction for the program of a new show, and was on a tight deadline. I did so, but then never got a reply back as to if he received it, liked it, used it, nothing. Which I thought a bit rude, but figured,
might was well share what I wrote here ]

Queer Musicals: Boy Meets Boy to Jagged Little Pill (2025)
by Robert W. Schneider

This brand-new book intrigued me immediately. A large section of my website Queer Music Heritage is devoted to Gay Musicals, and has been for many years. So I was curious about what I may have missed, or what they missed. Well, the approach was very different. At my site there was more of an encyclopedic angle, this book talks more in general, and focuses on ten musicals selected to span our history, spanning 45 years.

Their criteria was which ones made it to Broadway, mine was which ones existed…On and Off-Broadway, and Way Off, though they had to have had a recorded album. If you cannot hear it, what is the value?

Anyway, their list is quite good, starting with “Boy Meets Boy” (1975) and “La Cage aux Folles” (1983), “The Knife” (1987)…on to “Falsettos” (1992), “Hedwig,” (1991), “Bare,” (2007), “Kinky Boots” (2013), “Fun Home,” (2014), “The Prom,” (2018) and finally “Jagged Little Pill” (2020). Of course, many more musicals are mentioned, as points of reference.

I was very Very impressed regarding the deep dive the book took into the various show histories, each got its own chapter, with trivia of which I’ve never heard. Of course, “La Cage” was a huge landmark hit, and there was lots of history to tell. Contrary to that, “The Knife” closed after three weeks and I don’t believe a cast recording was done, despite it starring Mandy Patinkin. So, I’ve already lost interest. It did have going for it a historic transgender theme, likely the reason for its inclusion.

I’ll highlight “Bare the Musical” next, as I love that show. On my site I called it the “best gay musical in years.” I was able to interview the composer, Damon Intrabartolo, in 2008. He told me “Bare” is a musical that tells the story of a group of seniors, boys and girls, in a Catholic school during their last semester. The central relationship in the story is that of Peter and Jason, who are challenged keeping their love secret under the watchful eyes of their friends, their parents, and God and the Church.”

I fell in love with the soundtrack, the voices, the heart of it all. It did not make it to Broadway, but they were still trying, and major revisions were done over the next few years. The country had also changed and I never knew about those attempts, so glad to read about it here.

“Fun Home” got a very good accounting of its remarkable history, and for “The Prom” they did not leave out the extreme roasting of James Corden in the film version. I agreed with seemingly everyone that he was horribly miscast. He should never be in another musical. Okay, just my opinion.

Finally, the entry in the book that took me by surprise was “Jagged Little Pill.” Only being barely aware of a few of the show’s songs, I never knew about any queer theme or the inner controversy: how to decide to portray the character Jo as cis-gender or non-binary. This is a very complex area during the show’s short run, and despite it getting multiple Tony nominations, the muddy water never really cleared.

Again, I am very impressed at the depth this book takes digging into our queer musical history. Since I mentioned it, my own (very different) Gay Musicals website section is on this page.

I was quite pleased Schneider have me a shout out in his intro.