25 Gayest Moments on Broadway

25.
Boy George’s Taboo
Music by Boy George. Book by Charles Busch. Produced by Rosie O’Donnell. Need we say more? Yes. It’s the gayest musical no one saw about overgrown club kids finding their way and making it: camp with heart.


24.
Grizabella ascends to the Heaviside Layer in Cats
Could there be a more emotional scene than when Grizabella the Glamour Cat leaves the house? Lost, forlorn, tattered, but still magnificent, what better way to go than an old tire as a chariot? We should all aspire to such a final act.


23.
American Idiot
Green Day's rock opera American Idiot -- based on the band's last two albums -- tells the story of a trio of burnout band buddies all struggling to make it during confounding times. A collaboration between the band and Tony Award-winning Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening), the most intense and queer tension in the show comes when a charismatic drug dealer (Tony Vincent as St. Jimmy, right) tries to seduce Johnny (John Gallagher, left) away from his girlfriend (Rebecca Naomi Jones). "There's a way to read it as a love triangle," Mayer told Out.




22.
The Little Mermaid
You don’t go see a Disney musical to bask in artistic merit. You go for the familiar songs, the splashy dance numbers, and tales of beautiful down on their luck girls who always eventually find their prince. And if you’re taking in a matinee performance of The Little Mermaid (and haven’t been driven insane by the 4-year-old repeatedly kicking the back of your seat), you’re probably there to worship at the sandy altar of Ursula the Sea Hag, who was reportedly inspired by the dirtiest drag queen of them all, Divine.


21.
Cabaret
This one has been on Broadway in three incarnations: in 1966 (21 previews; 1,165 shows), in 1987 (18 previews, 261 shows), and in 1998 (37 previews; 2,377 shows), in a production directed by Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall. The most remarkable role in all of the productions is that of the emcee. The original had the terrific ramrod-stiff Joel Grey in a tux, the last had the marvelous Alan Cumming sporting a way more flamboyant style. The clip here is from a special performance of “Wilkommen” at the Kennedy Center, sung by no less than Grey and Cumming.


20.
Nathan Lane
Where do we start? The baby-faced (still, at age 54) entertainer has picked up a couple of Tonys, an Emmy or two, and a hatful of other awards for his remarkable stage and TV work and can dance, sing, and crack wise without breaking sweat. Here he is at the 55th Tony Awards show, as Max, back in 2001 (he won a Tony at the ceremony.)


19.
“What More Can I Say” from Falsettos
If you caught any of the 487 Broadway performances or the 23 previews, you’ll know the story well. If not, it deals with a man (Marvin) admitting his gayness and leaving his wife, his son’s fear then that he too will be gay, Marvin’s attempt to forge a new family with his lover, the collapse of that, and then a leap forward to the (straight, as it happens) son’s bar mitzvah and the revelation that the reconciled lover has a mysterious illness (AIDS) and his death soon after. It’s about love and discovery and baseball and fear and loss and a lot of good singing along the way. This clip is shaky, but lovely. It’s Marvin and the doomed Whizzer, in bed one morning.


18.
“If You Were Gay” from Avenue Q
Avenue Q is like adding a cup of Sesame Street to a blender, plopping in a liberal dollop of The Jerry Springer Show, topping it off with a few pinches of Rent, hitting “pulse” six or seven times, and pouring the resulting contents all over a Broadway stage -- but a lot less messy. We especially love “If You Were Gay” -- a love song dedicated to a closeted puppet by his straight roommate.


17.
“His Name is Lancelot” from Spamalot
Hank “Hunk” Azaria as Lancelot is outed in this scene from Spamalot featuring disco, sequins, feathers, headdresses, leather armbands -- just about everything except gay sex.


16.
Harvey Fierstein in Hairspray
A breathless Harvey Fierstein in a pink muumuu as Edna Turnblad sums up his experience in Hairspray during a curtain call. Queens onstage weep; queens in the audience squeal.


15.
Patti Lupone’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from Evita
Before Madonna slapped in a pair of brown contacts and took to the balcony of the Casa Rosada, Patti Lupone was coaxing tears and commanding standing ovations for her portrayal of Eva Peron. She was awarded a Tony for her trouble and her 1980 Grammy performance of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” leaves no question as to who is the fairest -- and fiercest -- Evita of them all.


14.
Phantom of the Opera
We couldn’t ignore Broadway’s longest-running production (love or hate him, Andrew Lloyd Webber knows how to put on a show), especially one dealing with the issue of masks and hidden identity and forlorn love. Even at the height of his obsessive love, Erik is a true romantic, and really pretty gay -- what straight man would wear a cape, a mask, and tote around a red rose with him? And then let the girl go at the end? Whatever, when Erik confesses he has never been kissed, even by his own mother, our hearts melt. This clip is from the 9,000th Broadway performance.


13.
Xanadu
Short shorts, a headband, roller skates, and Cheyenne Jackson. Now why would anyone think Xanadu is a gay show? This episode of the online The Cubby Bernstein Show, parodies both the accusations and the protestations from an insider’s point of view. Funny and hot.


12.
“Sodomy” from Hair
“Sodomy, fellatio, cunni” -- as an ode to sodomy, the song is rather, er, inclusive (fine, maybe it’s not meant to be an ode), but it serves to remind us how radical a musical Hair was -- and still is.


11.
“Defying Gravity” from Wicked
Kermit the Frog wasn’t the only one who learned being green isn’t easy. Elphaba, the soon-to-be Wicked Witch of the West, played here by Idina Menzel, decides to take her destiny -- in the form of a broomstick -- into her own hands and delivers one of the most inspirational (and, it must be said, hokiest) songs ever to grace Broadway. Whether a witch, a homo, or some other garden-variety outsider -- the song became an anthem for anyone who’s ever felt grounded by a world that didn’t understand them.


10.
Jennifer Holliday’s “I Am Changing” from Dream Girls
If there’s one thing a theater queen loves, it’s a costume change. Big fat bonus points get awarded if the actress is gutsy enough to undertake the costume change while singing onstage, and the all-time high score has to go to Jennifer Holliday for “I Am Changing” from Dream Girls.


9.
Rent
A rock opera for Generation X that didn’t skimp on the harrowing or the heartbreaking, Rent, based on Puccini’s La bohème dealt with love, loss, drug addiction, sexuality, and survival. Often credited with making theater accessible to a younger audience, the musical has starred, at one time or another, Neil Patrick Harris, Idina Menzel, and Anthony Rapp, among others, won a Tony for Best Musical and was adapted for the big screen.


8.
Stephen Sondheim (by Jeff Whitty)
With 19 major musical scores to his name, plus the unforgettable lyrics of Gypsy and West Side Story, Sondheim redefined musical theater forever.


7.
“I Hope I Get It” from A Chorus Line
5, 6, 7, 8. A turn, turn, touch, down. Jazz hands, air splits, Capezios, and tight tees. We get it, and we love it! This performance features the original 1975 cast performing at the 1976 Tony awards.


6.
Spring Awakening
A whole show about sexuality? OK, a load of straight stuff, but it’s so well done we totally forgive that; besides, teens are teens, and all those memories of chaotic, confused urges! Not to mention when Hanschen seduces Ernst.

This one erupted all over the Broadway stage in December 2006, picked up eight Tonys the following year, and finally closed after 888 performances (and 29 previews) later.
This clip is the sexually charged “Bitch of Living.”


5.
Lauren Bacall in Applause
As if the musical were not in and of itself an art form made by gays for gays (and the occasional tourist), in Applause, based on the film All About Eve, Lauren Bacall proves there’s no such thing as overkill by heading to a Greenwich Village gay bar and then bursting into a song about it.


4.
The shower scene from Take Me Out
“Gay” is stretching it; “hot” is more like it. The shower scene from the play by Richard Greenberg about a baseball player coming out of the closet is like a gay boy’s fantasy: all the joy of watching without the fear of being caught.


3.
Paul’s monologue from A Chorus Line
Whenever this monologue is performed, there’s rarely a dry eye in the house -- even when the performance is just an audition (and especially when it’s this particular audition by Jason Tam).


2.
Angels in America
Tackling coming out, religion, AIDS, mental illness, and just about every other meaty sociopolitical issue imaginable, Tony Kushner’s theatrical opus not only upped the ante of what a Broadway show could pull off, it proved once again how valuable theater is to our lives and how life-changing art truly can be.


1.
Arthur Laurents