Gays on Broadway

by Ethan Mordden

A fascinating look at the gay and lesbian influence on the American stage by an internationally-recognized authority on the topic

From the genteel female impersonators of the 1910s to the raucous drag queens of La Cage Aux Folles , from the men of The Normal Heart to the women of Fun Home , and from Eva Le Gallienne and Tallulah Bankhead to Tennessee Williams and Nathan Lane, Gays On Broadway deftly chronicles the plays and people that brought gay culture to Broadway.

Writing with his customary verve and wit, author Ethan Mordden follows the steady liberation of gay themes on the American stage. The story begins in the early twentieth century, when gay characters were virtually banned from productions. The 1920s saw a flurry of plays closed on moral grounds as well as the Wales Padlock Act, which forbade representation of “sex degeneracy”. While authorities made consistent attempts to shutter the movement, the public remained curious, and after a few decades of war making, a truce broke out when The Boys In the Band became a national smash hit. From this point on, gay theatre proved simply too popular to abolish.

With this change, theatre was graced with a host of unforgettable characters - from thrill killers to historical figures to drag performers, as well as professional gays (such as the defiantly effeminate window dresser in Kiss of the Spider Woman ), closeted gays, and those run-of-the-mill citizens who don't reside entirely within the colorful nonconformist identity (such as the two male lovers in the dinner-theatre comedy Norman, Is That You? ).

Spoken plays and musicals, playwrights, directors, and actors all played their part in popularizing the gay movement through art. Gays on Broadway is an essential chronological review of the long journey to bring the culture of gay men and women onto the American stage.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, LGBT, Gay, Queer, Theatre, Adult

240 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2023

Reviews

[JoshD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ethan Mordden knows Broadway. There's no disputing that. But if you know his books, you know to expect an idiosyncratic and highly opinionated rant on the topic at hand, not a comprehensive or scholarly work. Which is a shame a) because there's much more to the phenomenon of Gays on Broadway than is explored here, and b) because Mordden has the experience and knowledge to deliver a much more insightful overview. If anything, Mordden is more all-over-the-place than ever, darting off on tangents, down rabbit holes and up blind alleys, frequently leaving the reader bemused, frustrated and dissatisfied. Yes, there is some worthwhile exploration of gays on-stage and off, particularly around the early-to-mid 20th century. But overall this is a curiously selective and wildly unbalanced history. Mordden is inclined to devote page after page to relative oddities, while glossing over or entirely missing far more important/interesting people and events. For example, he writes at great length about Edward Albee as Broadways Greatest Gay Playwright, yet never once mentions The Goat (or Who is Sylvia?), arguably Albee's gayest play. Mordden's views are also what you might call "unreconstructed", and I suspect many younger readers will find some of his arguments quaint and questionable. For example: his largely uncritical devotion to The Boys in the Band. While Gays On Broadway is an overdue exploration of the subject and a worthwhile addition to the library of broadway histories, Mordden leaves plenty of latitude for anyone attempting a more definitive work.

[Kate Henderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

**Listened to the audiobook**

The premise of this book sounded right up my street, however i was left really disappointed with this. I found the level of detail in each of the sections to be really varied. Some chapters were really detailed - and went off on some tangents, whereas other sections just felt way too brief.
I would have liked more sections on more recent years on Broadway - but maybe Mordden is saving it for a second edition of the book.

The narrator was a tad annoying too - very whiney voice - but this wasn't my main issue with the book.

Some parts of this book were interesting, but a lot of the time I found myself wanting to 'skip' through.

[V. Briceland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long-term fans of Ethan Mordden's deep delves into theater history know what to expect from his volumes: slightly-left-of-center surveys of Broadway's development with no shortage of wry and opinionated commentary. If you like what he serves—and I certainly have, over the years—you'll get a heaping helping of it in 2023's Gays on Broadway.

"It all starts with drag queens," Mordden commences, before guiding readers through the massive appeal of early 20th-century female impersonators Julian Eitinge and Bert Savoy, then contextualizing the subsequent and subversive theatrical career of Mae West—probably history's most dangerous and seductive cis female queen. Those explosive beginnings propel the reader through the coded dramas of the first half of the twentieth century, through the sexual revolution, and then past the anything-goes revolution of 1968's seminal The Boys in the Band. Throughout scores of dramas and musicals, Mordden manages to illuminate what's important about famous and forgotten productions alike.

I do have quibbles, however. Mordden has structured his work by the decade, but the book's latter half especially abandons the general guideline set by the chapter titles to veer drunkenly across forty years of Broadway. The chapter on the 1980s gives a mention to 1984's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, but its bulk feels devoted to Charles Busch's 2000 play, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife and the 1998 William Finn musical, A New Brain. The final chapter, assaying productions after 2010, does take readers through Fun Home and 2013's The Nance, but then swerves back a half-century for an extended dive into Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe.

It's just a little weird.

And for a book about Gays on Broadway, Mordden is surprisingly unsubtle about sidelining any and almost all mention of the AIDS pandemic that affected, and killed, so many gay men during the 1980s and 1990s. He lumps a handful of dramas into an 'AIDS plays' section at the end of the chapter on the nineties, but I truly think the book would've been improved by contextualizing the pandemic from its earliest developments throughout the decades it devastated the LGBTQ community. Instead, it's interned an overwhelmingly large topic into a very small ghetto.

And look, I get it. Gay men of a certain age—myself included—have lived with both the threat and realities of HIV in our population for decades, now. It's wearying and painful to discuss. But Mordden's eagerness to speed right past such a monumental and all-reaching phenomenon seems willfully contrary. The musical Rent, for example—a play that did more to lead straight and especially young audiences to emphathize with stories of LGBTQ characters and characters living with AIDS than perhaps any other production in Broadway's history—gets a mere two-sentence mention in the 1990s chapter as Mordden instead prefers to spend the following two pages on the Broadway adaptation of The Who's Tommy, which has vanishingly little gay content. It almost borders on offense.

I admire the work Mordden's done here in collecting and (kinda) putting into a chronology the many ways in which LGBTQ playwrights, composers, and characters have moved from the margins of the Broadway stage into its spotlights. Some of the narrative choices he's made along way wouldn't have been my own, but that doesn't make the volume any the less interesting or readable.

[Júlia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Molta informació, bastant caòtica, amb repeticions i referències massa nínxol per algú sense coneixements previs que s'ho llegia per aprendre.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times a good overview, it was inconsistent. It would spend 3-4 pages on a minor play and then devote one or two sentences to a major one. The title is wrong too. It is not just Gays on Broadway, but Gays in theatre. Interestingly this is forecast by the cover photo featuring the original Off Broadway production of The Boys in the Band.

It is supposedly organized chronologically, but even that jumps around. Shows from the 80s take up a good portion of the chapter about the 1970s, and likewise the 1980s chapter covers about 20+ years. A minor quibble, I know -- but the chapters could have been named something else, other than after a decade.

I think this could have used a much stronger editor.

[staykind · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential gay historian

[Milwaukee Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was much too encyclopedic for me. There was so much information in every chapter that not nearly enough time could be spent on any topic.

[Russell Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good historians are storytellers. They draw you in with their stories, offering tantalizing details and just enough analysis to make you think about the events being told. Having just finished a tedious book by a Hollywood historian reporting on the films of the 1950s and being thoroughly filled “up to here” with analysis, endless descriptions of plots, and the historian’s own opinions—and his use of obscure vocabulary, I truly thought I would be turning to a different experience with Ethan Mordden’s Gays on Broadway. After all, Broadway is one of my favorite subjects, and I am thrilled to read more about shows I already know quite a bit about and learn fascinating tidbits about others I know little about. But boy was I wrong! This book and its author repeat the sins of the author of the previous book, albeit in a much shorter manner. I grew very tired indeed of Mordden’s lengthy plot descriptions, his opinions of shows, his use of insider language, i.e he calls gay culture “the parish.” And most of all, I grew very tired of his use of French terms. I have a rather good vocabulary, and I have studied French, but I was baffled by much of the terms Mordden threw about. And sadly, most applied to theater, a profession I’ve been in for more than fifty years. I did enjoy some of the discussion of shows I knew, but the final discussion turned me off almost completely. Mordden declares Edward Albee to be the “Great American Gay Playwright.” He then goes on, in plodding depth, to look at each of Albee’s works—most of which were flops—and trash them thoroughly. Yes, he admires Albee’s masterpiece Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but most of the others, Mordden doesn’t seem to really like. All of this being said, I rather liked a lot of the history he told of Albee because I know very little about the playwright. I’ve directed one of his one-act plays, walked out of a production of Virginia Woolf, and enjoyed the Burton/Taylor movie, plus on a second assessment, loved the Katherine Hepburn film of A Delicate Balance. Other than that, I knew very little. So thank you, Ethan Mordden, for enlightening me.

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I listen to the audio sample of Daniel Henning I knew I was going to enjoy this book and boy did I! Being only a fan of great literature and not having seen mini Broadway plays I knew there would be so many familiar names in this book but I was so shocked when the title upon of the first books I read called Jesus Doesn’t Mind given to me by my aunts “lifelong female roommate” it is a book I didn’t know was made into a Broadway play and one that I have looked for cents and cannot find the mini other things in this book that we’re new to me but some weird things I have heard before but all was very interesting from Ethel Merman and her relationship with Cole Porter, The loan on again off again Broadway rider Terrence McCauley and so much more the author goes from decade to decade tells you what became a part of the zeitgeist the things that were protested against and things that just didn’t work he even tells into the delicious rumors that’s around it Broadway the subliminal messages in the not so subliminal and so much more. I thought the author did a wonderful job covering decades of entertainment in those things that were fraud with problems due to the pearl clutchers and those who think they are just too moral for the room. My dad passed away a few weeks ago and every time I read books like this and booked on race I am so thankful I was raised by a man who loved everyone in the those he didn’t he made no comment about but let them live their life while he lived his something I think if we all did this world would be a much happier place although maybe not as interesting? I am a big fan of history and so this book was right up my alley in one I highly recommend. I received this book from NetGalley and Tantore audio but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned quite a bit from this book but have to give it only 3 stars, for the same reason I gave his earlier book The Happiest Corpse I've Ever Seen 3 stars. To quote from my previous review: "Like all of Mordden's books about Broadway, this is equal parts fun and frustrating. He includes lots of information and entertaining gossip, but he also assumes that the reader already knows as much about Broadway as he does. His idiosyncratic style is sometimes fun, sometimes irritating." In this case, more often irritating.

The book covers gay characters and gay playwrights (oddly, though he points out the gay feel of Auntie Mame, he misses the fact that Patrick Dennis, the author of the novel that inspired the play, was bisexual) and he mushes them all together. The chapters are arranged by decade but he winds up talking about things wherever the urge strikes him. The photographs in the book are a strange selection: he spends less than a full page of text on the Mame character but gives over three pages of photos to her, but has no photos from plays by Tennessee Williams or Noel Coward or Sondheim, and only one from an Edward Albee play, the author he devotes the most attention to. He states authoritatively that Noel Coward never had sex with his wife because "the ghost of Noel Coward told me." His insights in the first half of the book, into the 1960s, are fairly interesting, but from the 70s on, maybe because there is so much to choose from in terms of gay theater, his coverage is less complete. And, while this may be unfair, a book called Gays on Broadway has a photo from an off-Broadway play, The Boys in the Band, on its cover. Certainly a very important play to discuss, but it makes for a somewhat dissonant image matched with the title. Get this from a library if you want to read it.

[Eleanor McCaughey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was SO disappointing. I read a fair amount of non-fiction books, and I have to say this is one of the most info-dumping and nonsensical ones I've seen so far. The author acts like everyone reading this has an intimate knowledge of every single Broadway performer and producer in history. And even when he bothers to explain who someone is, it's not relevant again and is immediately followed by the introduction of about 3 more people. It's just an insane amount of information that's not really presented in a cohesive way.

The entire book kind of reads like a PhD thesis (or, if I'm being honest, me writing a paper and putting in the most random arguements I can think of) being written for someone who's already an expert, with arguments that are HUGE stretches. Like, claiming "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" is a metaphor for gay men coming out? With 0 evidence other than it was written by a gay man? What?

Or even more egregious, saying that Riff from West Side Story is gay because there's a SINGLE LINE where he says he lived with a buddy for a year? Talk about a stretch.

The amount of focus on some shows over others is also kind of insane: So much time is spent on "Virginia Woolf" while "Falsettos" gets like one page? "Rent" gets like a paragraph?

I will say, it was interesting to learn that Bobby from Company was based on Anthony Perkins, and that that may be part of the reason for the character's odd and confusing backstory and actions.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun read! Ethan Mordden writes at the beginning that readers are free to write their own history so you know this history will be selective. But Mordden's writing is so tangy and funny and smart that I didn't mind the omissions. Some of the other reviewers think he focuses too much on "Boys in the Band," and although it is dated today (as all past work is, even Shakespeare's plays), no one can dispute its importance in a history of gay theater. And just putting gay people in the main roles is important, even when they are self-hating as many of these characters are.

I read the later chapters first because I had seen most of the productions he discusses. I was surprised that he omitted "Take Me Out," but he does include "Fun Home," "The Nance," and "Buyer and Cellar," three of my favorite shows inn recent years. And he is consistently smart in his overview of them.

Mordden recognizes the importance of art in advancing progressive ideas, even though, and even more important, we are living through a backlash right now. Art forces people to see the humanity of those that many politicians and pastors would like to make invisible and hated. Just by putting these characters into their texts shows that queer people have always existed.

[Alistair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mordden has a well established track record in writing about the arts through a gay lens. His latest is of interest to both serious readers, and amateurs (as I am). I am not an aficionado of Broadway theatre - even the spelling tells a story, but I was interested in his take on “gay” Broadway. Unarguably Mordden is au courant with the scene, however his writing style can become insular, particularly with his use of non-English phrases: is he trying to prove something? What I found problematic about this book were the suppositions he often makes; for example: “Sometimes it seems as if musical comedy is essentially a gay form.”
Excuse me?
And some of of his declarative sentences rub me up the wrong way. For example: “ And that brings us to the question of who is the Great American Gay Playwright. We know who the Great Playwright itself is - Eugene O’Neill. It’s official so don’t argue.”
Never mind:
Miller
Kushner
McNally
Albee
Williams

On the positive side, I learnt many people I’ve known through film have substantially contributed to gays on Broadway. There are a couple of black and white photographic reproductions that add little interest to the book’s narrative.

[Harrison Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I consider myself an average fan of Broadway, so this book of just over 200 pages caught my eye. Also, I was familiar with Ethan Mordden's expertise in this area, although I had yet to read one of his books. This book seeks to explore the influence and participation in LGBTQ individuals in Broadway for more than a century. While the book is set up in chapters fairly much following the decades since 1900, the author does digress quite a bit, both forward and backward, as he explains how individuals, shows, public morals, and the law fit into his narrative. I did find his frequent digressions, and overly conversational style, a challenge to follow at times. Additionally, anyone reading this book without a lot of knowledge about Broadway may find it difficult reading, as many names and even shows are not readily known to the modern audience. Overall though, an interesting and fun read.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this! It was like trying to follow a lecture that was being given on a moving walkway, and made me want to take a survey class in this topic covering the books he discusses. I liked getting the introduction to seminal works (I had never heard of The Boys in the Band before) but the book "worked" the most for me when he discussed plays I had already read/seen. If you're looking for a deep dive, this isn't the book for you, but it is a good overview/introduction/survey.
I especially liked that Mordden talks about how many gay stories, in order to get past the censors, were about seemingly hetero characters in order to tell queer stories.
I also liked the narrator - it was very conversational and friendly.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jon Hewelt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice overview of gay theatre on Broadway in the 20th and 21st centuries, but a little unfocused. The writing style is casual and conversational which makes for fun reading but can be confusing when the author lists a bunch of names and shows in a run-on sentence.

Also, I'm curious about the author's bias and what he chooses to emphasize. Plenty of space is given to Tennessee Williams, The Boys in the Band, etc., but the musical Rent is only afforded one paragraph, and that seems like both a choice and an odd one.

Still, a pleasant enough reading experience. I'd recommend this as a nice intro and encourage someone to read any of the plays listed therein (as well as the ones that aren't).

[Monroe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am so interested now in learning more about the tons of shows that were mentioned. But it was all over the place that I don’t even remember enough of what it was that I wanted to learn more about. Also, there was definitely extreme focus on certain shows with little reference to others that played a huge role in the history of queer rep on Broadway such as Falsettos and Rent which were both mentioned but Rent especially was barely so. While I don’t think I would have been able to stay focused enough to read a print copy, the audio book definitely did not help with my confusion/ losing track. Still very glad I learned about this book though as I truly learned a lot and with one of my special interests being theatre, this fits perfectly.

3.5 stars

[Philip Parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gays on Broadway is a lively, witty tour through the history of queer presence on the American stage. Ethan Mordden’s deep knowledge of theater shines through, and the book is packed with juicy stories and behind-the-scenes details.

Mordden knows his stuff and tells it with wit and affection. Sometimes it feels like you’re being introduced to everyone who ever stepped on a stage, but the anecdotes and cultural insights keep it lively. I especially loved seeing how queer stories evolved from whispers to center stage. If you love theater or queer history (or both), this is a great pick.

If you’re fascinated by how queer artists shaped Broadway, this book is a compelling, well‑research chronicle—with some dishy insider gossip to boot.

[Jennifer Colvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.
If you're looking to do some research on this topic, I'd recommend this. While I believe the author could have used some sensitivity readers, I think they did a good job with the history and evolution of gay representation and writers in theatre. I enjoyed that each play had some description of what it was about and we were given depth on certain characters being played. I expected more but was entertained with the amount given. It was informative and interesting. I'd say I was indifferent with the narrator.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC.

[Herbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting and thorough chronicle of gay/queer actors on stage and gay/queer material. I especially liked when Mordden's personality, point of view, and not-so-silent observations came through.

Generally, I liked the way it was structured (roughly by decades), but found the organization flimsy at times. The last chapter is titled "The Present" but spends a bulk of the pages talking about Edward Albee's work post-Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well researched and written survey of gay Theatre. The title Is not specific enough because a lot of the players mentioned in this book had runs off Broadway and not on Broadway. The authors opinions are very idiosyncratic and that makes this book delightful reading.

[Ella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating but slight history of gay theatre on Broadway in the US, albeit rather poorly organised

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brad gave this to me for Christmas, and kept nagging me for not reading it. And of course, once I picked it up, I read a chapter (a decade) every night - so well researched, so fascinating.

[John Beyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

It had so much potential and sounded so good but read like a bad history book. I could not get a feel for who those past broadway characters were. I wanted to skip most of it. I only partially enjoyed the chapter on recent broadway. Only because I had a relationship to those shows and knew them already. It was very poorly written.