Lesbian Characters in Broadway Shows?- Page 3

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 3/15/14 at 9:33pm

I was just about to add Legally Blonde, but cannot believe no one has mentioned The Color Purple yet.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 3/15/14 at 9:42pm

If Rebecca ever makes it we can count Mrs. Danvers, my favorite literary lesbian ever.

Trunchbull? Both her and Miss Honey are completely unsexed, but the movie Miss T. gave me gay vibes before I even knew what that was.

Kit Kat Girls LouLou and Rosie are having an affair, according to the Emcee.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 3/15/14 at 10:32pm

At first, I didn't realize this thread was from years back. I got a bit wistful when I saw Margo Channing's post. There will never be another poster like Margo.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/15/14 at 10:35pm

No one has mentioned Cordelia and Dr. Charlotte in FALSETTOS?

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/15/14 at 11:06pm

No, no one has. Just the OP in the very first post.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 3/15/14 at 11:26pm

There will never be another poster like Margo.

Or darling Miriam- OnceaDancer2

Much missed <3

[Jon]

Posted: 3/16/14 at 8:32am

In MY ONE AND ONLY, the leading man, an aviator, has a butch little mechanic sidekick. It's possible she MIGHT be a lesbian.

The role was originated by Denny Dillon, who is around 5 foot nothing, making a nice comic contrast next to Tommy Tune.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 4:39pm

Two of the characters (their names escape me) in Sarah Ruhl’s “In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play),” are lesbians (or at least share romantic moments – and a kiss – with each other).

As for out lesbian actors that I don’t believe have been named in this thread yet: Allison Case and Ann Hampton Callaway.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 4:55pm

"Enid in Legally Blonde"

Too bad she's a one-joke character and that joke is that she's a feminist lesbian.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 5:02pm

so OP did, Blaxx. Me bad.

"Yes - in THE CHILDREN'S HOUR, the two women are NOT having an affair, but the one (Karen) realizes she actually is in love with the other, and kills herself.

That was written back in the 1930's, when killing yourself because you're gay didn't seem like such a bad idea."

Jon, it's Martha who kills herself after she realizes that she's in love with Karen, not the other way around. The play in no way expresses or maintains that Martha's suicide is a good idea. Quite the opposite. And though it was the 1930s, some bullied gay people, such as Martha very much was (although in her case the bully lied about Martha being a lesbian and just happened to have been right), still tragically kill themselves. In this respect, the play is still, unfortunately, very topical.
itgetsbetter

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 5:55pm

I was gonna mention Bluefish Cove but I see someone did (9 years ago,) and I guess was just off-Broadway. Some later Tennessee Williams plays would count like the flop two one-acters performed as Slapstick Tragedy or Night of the Iguana, as well as some of his that didn't make it to Broadway.

Off-Broadway musical, but LaChiusa's First Lady Suite has one, arguably two. Doesn't Little Fish as well?

[Kad]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 6:00pm

Even with these examples, lesbians are very poorly represented on Broadway (and in the American theatre in general). Very few are well-rounded, dynamic characters.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 6:00pm

Maureen in Rent is bisexual, no? Well, I doubt she's say bisexual when there are 30 other terms that mean bisexual, but still...

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 6:13pm

She's in a lesbian relationship for the show, so I think it counts :P

I'm actually a little surprised trying to think of examples. Before this thread (or the re-bumping of this thread) I had assumed lesbians were better represented in commercial Broadway theatre than gay men.

Did Mamet's Boston Marriage run on Broadway? I know My Left Breast won an Obie, but don't know if it had a major New York production (great play, though.) There was a successful adaptation of the 50/60s popular lesbian pulp novels, The Beebo Brinker Chronicles that ran off-Broadway for four or so months a little while back. There are a number of accomplished lesbian playwrights, but most of them tend to do more experimental work.

Several of the 1970s off-Broadway "gay musicals" and revues like Let My People Come and The Faggot have prominent lesbian songs or characters...

Oh! I also really like Flaherty's musical setting of Gertrude Stein, Loving Repeating, at least on CD, but I don't think that ever even played New York.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 6:17pm

I figured she'd count, but she wouldn't technically be a "lesbian character in a Broadway show," not that this thread has stayed on topic at all.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 7:27pm

It's bizarre and appalling how few lesbian characters have appeared in Broadway plays and musicals.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 8:55pm

Yeah, go start your own bisexual character thread

I don't think Churchill's Cloud 9 was mentioned--and though it's a favorite play of mine, I completely forgot about it. Of course it too was off-Broadway in New York, but it did have an *extremely* success run (I believe close to 900 performances.) Some of her other plays could be included.

And another off-Broadway mainstay with be Maria Irene Fornes' plays, notably Fefu and her Friends.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 3/18/14 at 10:28pm

"Trunchbull? Both her and Miss Honey are completely unsexed, but the movie Miss T. gave me gay vibes before I even knew what that was."

Trunchbull sings about Zeke, the carnival freak, in "The Smell of Rebellion." Maybe it's just me, but I've always assumed she and Zeke went at it in a pretty freaky way.

[Melissa25]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 10:43am

I know it's not Broadway but I'll always remember Vanessa Redgrave in those sexy lace-up boots as Vita Sackville-West in "Vita and Virginia."

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 11:01am

Trix, "The Aviatrix" from The Drowsy Chaperone, if you can believe The Man in the Chairs commentary...

[Eris0303]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 12:44pm

As for actresses how about Beth Malone?

[bobs3]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 1:15pm

"Last Summer at Bluefish Cover" done it the early 1980s off-broadway. It is most famous for introducing an unknown Jean Smart in the lead role of Lil.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 1:53pm

I'm actually a little surprised trying to think of examples. Before this thread (or the re-bumping of this thread) I had assumed lesbians were better represented in commercial Broadway theatre than gay men.

When you say “better,” do you mean more or do you mean “better” as in the type of representation of lesbians in commercial Broadway are more favorable than those of gay men? Assuming that you meant you had always assumed lesbians were represented more than gay men, that statement surprises me. Please know I am in no way accusing you of anything or looking down on you – I just find it interesting that some might have that impression. As a lesbian, I feel like I am somewhat hyperaware of lesbian representations in theatre, particularly commercial Broadway, and the amount is, sadly, lacking, especially in comparison to the amount of gay men characters. And, as Kad pointed out, when the occasional lesbian characters do appear, their character often serves only one purpose: to make typical lesbian jokes. What with shows like “La Cage,” “Priscilla,” “Kinky Boots,” “The Normal Heart,” “Mothers and Sons” etc., not to mention the numerous shows with gay men supporting characters, it’s obvious to me that Broadway (and American theatre in general) is much more accepting of seeing gay men characters than gay women characters onstage. Now, of course, there is the argument that not all of these gay men characters are necessarily the best representations of real gay men (often playing into stereotypes and often, as well, providing laughs from these stereotypes – making those in the audience who are not completely comfortable with homosexuality feel “safe”), but the American theatre has at least evolved to a place where there can be gay men leading characters who are the protagonists and, in some cases, are written as real, complex people. I certainly hope we see both more gay men AND lesbian characters portrayed onstage in years to come, but it seems, to me, blatantly obvious that amount of gay men characters largely outweighs the amount of lesbian characters we currently see on Broadway (and all over) today.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 1:58pm

I didn't think that sentence out very well. I think I meant "more." Simply because often it seems like lesbian characters pop up a bit more in lit and movies--particularly older ones (where they are often very coded) than gay men in my experience--mind you I'm not talking about how well they're drawn nor about *main* characters.

I do think that in the very commercial *Broadway* theatre neither is that well represented, but gay men are, as you point out (and nearly all the examples I named are plays and shows that never played on Broadway.) However, the all important musical--probably simply because producers have to come up with such a high budget for them--still hasn't done well at portraying either. Major mainstream Broadway musicals honestly haven't done much more with gay characters than La Cage did back in 1983 (84?) And I think that's all about money, despite the fact that so many of these are put together by gay men and the gay male audience is such a cliche as being a major audience factor.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/19/14 at 2:02pm

(ie Normal Heart, Mothers and Sons are not Broadway shows...)

But I'm not arguing the point with you either, I just find it fascinating and am enjoying the discussion--and your points from a different perspective. I mean apparently Kinky Boots isn't even about a gay man

Major Broadway shows that broke some of this--like Angels in America partly managed to, I believe, because they were seen as being about an important issue (which they were, and of course Angels is, IMHO, a superb play, but I'm not sure if in the early 90s it would have gotten a major Broadway production as opposed to an Off-Broadway one, without that fact.)

I guess you could say that even in the mid 50s there was the major Broadway hit Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but that doesn't really directly address Brick's sexuality any more (perhaps even less) than the earlier Children's Hour did with lesbianism.