PLAYBILL POLL: What Is Your Favorite LGBT-Themed Show? Readers Respond | Playbill

Playbill Pride PLAYBILL POLL: What Is Your Favorite LGBT-Themed Show? Readers Respond NYC Pride Week will come to a close June 29 with the annual New York City Pride March. Following Playbill.com's 30 Days of Pride initiative, we wondered what are our readers favorite LGBT-themed shows.

Playbill.com polled our readers via Facebook and Twitter. Their responses follow:

George Hearn
Photo by Martha Swope
La Cage aux Folles

Janet Moskowitz La Cage aux Folles The 1983 version with George Hearn

Jen Lau La Cage aux Folles

Based on the French play of the same name, La Cage aux Folles opened on Broadway in 1983 at the Palace Theatre starring George Hearn and Gene Barry. The original Broadway production won six 1984 Tony Awards, including Best Book for Harvey Fierstein and Best Musical. The show has enjoyed two Tony Award-winning revivals; both the 2004 and 2010 productions won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.

Michael Arden
Photo by Joan Marcus
bare: a pop opera

Hunter K. Taylor bare: a pop opera is not only my favorite LGBT musical, it's pretty high up on my list of favorite musicals in general! The music is amazing, and the story is something new, raw, and beautiful for me, and so many people. I love the studio album released a few years ago with Matt Doyle and others. It's a great musical with a heart.

James Dickens bare: a pop opera

Bryan Giansanti bare: a pop opera

Tristan Halstead bare: a pop opera

@CaseyLeeClark bare: a pop opera

@superflyky91 Oh my God, bare: a pop opera was one of the most outstanding shows I've ever seen

Bare: A Pop Opera follows the struggles of two gay high school students attending a Catholic boarding school and is loosely based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The musical debuted at the Hudson Theatre in Los Angeles in 2000 and opened Off-Broadway at the American Theatre of Actors in 2004, starring Michael Arden, Jenna Leigh Green and Natalie Joy Johnson. A recording of the musical was released in 2007. A new and revised version, titled bare the musical, opened at New World Stages in 2012 starring Taylor Trensch and Heathers star Barrett Wilbert Weed.

Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal in Rent.
Photo by Joan Marcus
Rent

Dina Trojan I think RENT started the conversation long before any others...

Ally O'Brien RENT. It's about relationships in general. A beautiful story stunning emotional music.

Margaret Daisy Rose RENT!!

Jacob Wallace RENT

@EvanAnzalone RENT

@CrissyLeeC RENT!! smile

Jonathan Larson's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent tells the story of a group of bohemian artists struggling to survive against the threat of AIDS, poverty and drug addiction in New York's East Village. The musical opened at the Nederlander in 1996 starring Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs. The musical was revived Off-Broadway in 2011 starring Tony nominee Annaleigh Ashford as Maureen Johnson and Adam Chanler-Berat as Mark Cohen.

Beth Malone, Sydney Lucas and Alexandra Socha
Photo by Joan Marcus
Fun Home

@beccacnachman Fun Home!

@taylor_fulgham Fun Home!

@alejoplay Fun Home

Penned by Tony nominees Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, Fun Home is a musical adaptation of Alison Bechdel's 2006 graphic memoir of the same name. The musical premiered Off-Broadway at The Public Theater in 2013 starring Michael Cerveris and Judy Kuhn. Fun Home was a critical favorite and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical and Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Lead Actor (Michael Cerveris) and Outstanding Featured Actress (Judy Kuhn); the musical is aiming for a Broadway arrival in 2015.

Stark Sands
Photo by Matthew Murphy
Kinky Boots

@JustJordan418 Kinky Boots! Such a perfect, inspiring, beautiful show!

@Nicol3Abbott Kinky Boots

Kinky Boots opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, where it continues, in 2013 starring Tony Award winners Billy Porter and Lena Hall as well as Tony nominee Stark Sands. Based on the 2005 British film of the same name, Kinky Boots tells the story of a young man who inherits his father's failing shoe factory and, with the help of a famous drag queen, plans to produce custom footwear for drag queens in order to pull the business out of bankruptcy. The musical by Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper won numerous 2013 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Actor (Porter) and Best Original Score.

The Boys in the Band

Elliott Sirkin The Boys in the Band --I don't think it has been surpassed, after all these years.

Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band opened Off-Broadway at Theatre Four in 1968. The play is about a group of gay men who hire a hustler as a birthday present for their friend but wind up spending the night of the party airing their pleasures and miseries. One of the first plays to deal with contemporary life among gay men, Band went on to become a 1,000-performance hit in its original production.


Michael Rupert
Photo by Carol Rosegg
Falsettos

John Verderber Falsettos. It's about people and the human condition. Bill Finn "started the conversation" long before anyone else, beginning with In Trousers in 1979.

@Gary112 FALSETTOS...groundbreaking musical. Changed my life.

James Lapine and William Finn's Falsettos opened on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre in 1992. The musical features the final two chapters of a trilogy that played Off-Broadway, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland (the first chapter is titled In Trousers). The original Broadway production, which starred Michael Rupert, Chip Zien, Barbara Walsh and Carolee Carmello, won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score of a Musical.

Joe Mantello
Photo by Joan Marcus
The Normal Heart

Laura Beth Dailey The Normal Heart! The Laramie Project is a very close second. Both tell heartbreaking, real stories that need to be heard long after the actual events unfolded.

Katelyn Shirley The Normal Heart

@Gary112 The Normal Heart...the bravery to say what Mr Kramer said was earth shattering.

Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart was originally produced Off-Broadway at The Public Theater and opened on Broadway in 2011 starring Tony winner Joe Mantello and Theatre World Award winner Jim Parsons. The play revolves around the HIV-AIDS crisis between 1981 and 1984 and is told from the perspective of writer Ned Weeks, the founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. The 2011 production garnered five Tony nominations, winning three, including Best Revival of a Play. A film version starring Mark Ruffalo, Matt Bomer, Jonathan Groff, Joe Mantello and Jim Parsons recently premiered on HBO.

A scene from Torch Song Trilogy
Torch Song Trilogy

R. Scott Reedy There are many including Angels in America, but Torch Song Trilogy would probably be number one.

Tom Quicksell Torch Song Trilogy

Tomoka Arai Torch Song Trilogy

Mel Adkins Torch Song

Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy is a three-act play that tells the story of gay drag performer Arnold Beckoff and his tumultuous relationship with his closeted lover; however, Arnold's struggle for acceptance meets its greatest challenge in his intolerant mother. The play, which premiered Off-Off-Broadway at La MaMa ETC in 1978, opened on Broadway at the Little Theatre in 1982 and ran for 1,222 performances before closing in 1985. The play won the Tony Award for Best Play, and Harvey Fierstein won his first Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as Arnold.

 
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