Jonathan Larson’s iconic musical Rent is 25 years old this year and this 1990s period-piece is suddenly feeling sharply contemporary again. Forced evictions, gentrification, art vs. commerce, love and drugs - all told against the backdrop of a community managing a pandemic…welcome to 2021. Kicking off this anniversary year, a new production has settled into... Continue Reading →
Adaptation has been on my mind for most of 2020. As we all have had to isolate from each other and figure out a way to move forward amidst this global pandemic, our ability to adapt has remained a formidable challenge. Although we wear masks, work from home, stay six feet apart, and stream movies... Continue Reading →
The prestigious celebration of West End theatre, the Olivier Awards, took place at London's Palladium yesterday. Well, sort of. As with much of theatre this year, the Oliviers were an odd mix of the live and not-quite-live. Some awards had already been given out, with the winners sworn to secrecy, and the full ceremony streamed... Continue Reading →
Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley's frequently hilarious high camp queer absurdist dark comedy Circle Jerk is very 2020. It's confronting, chaotic, unrelenting, far-fetched, deranged, and overstimulating. The theatrical equivalent of spending 100 minutes or so multi-screen doom scrolling yourself down a wormhole of alt right conspiracy theory threads punctuated with viral TikTok lip sync videos... Continue Reading →
The 2020 Tony award nominations were announced this week, and in what is perhaps the most 2020 of theatrical metaphors, nobody actually knows when the winners will be announced. Much like the uncertain future of Broadway theatres, which will remain closed through May 30th 2021. The belated nominations announcement, which should of course have happened... Continue Reading →
The opening of amfAR’s digital The Great Work Begins: Scenes from Angels in America, which premiered on Broadway.com’s YouTube channel on October 8th, places the memory of the AIDS pandemic at its worst alongside now all too familiar images from 2020’s battle with COVID-19. The opener is a stark and sobering reminder of an obvious... Continue Reading →
Back in June 2019, I reported on a wonderful new musical which premiered at the Hudson Theatre (remember theatre?) in Los Angeles called Shooting Star. With a book by Florian Klein (aka real life porn star Hans Berlin), and music and lyrics by Thomas Zaufke and Eric Ransom respectively, the show took a deep dive... Continue Reading →
Second Stage Theater’s planned production of Richard Greenberg’s Tony Award-winning play about a gay baseball player and the reaction to him coming out, Take Me Out, which had been postponed due to the current Broadway suspension, will come to Broadway next year with performances beginning the week of March 22nd 2021 at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater (240 West 44th Street,... Continue Reading →
Larry Kramer will be remembered for many things, and by many people in the Queer community. As an activist, journalist, and community leader. For his many friendships, and his many disagreements with the community. For mobilizing and uniting, for taking on the political establishment. Nobody channelled rage into action quite like Larry Kramer he was... Continue Reading →
Big Finish, producers of cult sci-fi audio dramas, and the BBC have released one of their lesbian-led Paternoster Gang stories for free on YouTube. The full-cast drama features the trio of characters from the BBC's queer-friendly hit-series Doctor Who, spun off into their own adventures. The Paternoster Gang are the sword-wielding Madame Vastra (a reptilian... Continue Reading →
