Broadway Theater LGBTQ Tour

Professor Andrew Lear is a world-renowned expert on sexuality in art and the author of the best-known book on sexuality in Greek vase-painting.  He is the founder of Oscar Wilde Tours, the gay history tour company, and Shady Ladies Tours, the woman's history tour company.

Andrew Lear

Join us for an LGBTQ tour of New York's legendary theater district and learn the incredible contribution LGBTQ people made to Broadway!

<h3>Can&#x27;t make the live event?  Buy a ticket for a recording and watch the event in your own time!</h3><p>Where did LGBTQ Hollywood stars like Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift get their start?  Where were plays by Tennesse Williams, Edward Albee, and Tony Kushner premiered?  Where was the famously &quot;all gay&quot; musical &#x27;West Side Story&#x27; (with music, lyrics, book, and choreography all by gay people--and a gay lead actor) put on?</p><p>In New York&#x27;s theater district, known for its main street as &quot;Broadway.&quot;  The theater, constitutes one of the city’s primary creative and economic forces, and the LGBT community had a significant and disproportionate impact on the Broadway stage. This included the contributions of major LGBT performers, playwrights, composers, lyricists, librettists, choreographers, set and costume designers, who created many of Broadway’s most iconic shows. Despite the New York Legislature-enacted Wales Padlock Law (1927) that made it illegal for theaters to show plays that featured gay and lesbian characters through 1967, some productions managed to get around this restriction and some became stage classics. This tour will touch on these themes, as well as the historic theater buildings, including:</p><ul><li>Legendary early “female impersonators” Julian Eltinge and Bert Savoy</li><li>The God of Vengeance, which had the first lesbian love scene on Broadway and was shut down by censors in 1923</li><li>Hollywood stars who got their start on Broadway, such as Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Judy Holliday</li><li>Stars of the stage Alla Nazimova, Eva Le Gallienne, Noel Coward, Ethel Waters, Tallulah Bankhead, Clifton Webb, Mary Martin, and Joel Grey</li><li>Famous Broadway lavender couples Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne, and Katharine Cornell and Guthrie McClintic</li><li>Important playwrights Somerset Maugham, John Van Druten, Tennessee Williams, Lorraine Hansberry, Edward Albee, Terrence McNally, and Tony Kushner</li><li>Significant costume and set designers Orry-Kelly, Cecil Beaton, Florence Klotz, and Raoul Pene Du Bois</li><li>Songsters Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Jerry Herman, and Kander &amp; Ebb</li><li>Choreographers Tommy Tune and Michael Bennett</li><li>“All Gay” productions such as West Side Story, created by Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, Oliver Smith, and Irene Sharaff</li><h3>Can&#x27;t make the live event?  Buy a ticket for a recording and watch the event in your own time!</h3></ul>

<p>Jay Shockley is a co-founder and co-director of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. He retired in 2015 as senior historian at the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission where since 1979 he researched and wrote over 100 designation reports covering all aspects of the city’s history. In 1993, he helped pioneer the concept of recognizing LGBT place-based history by incorporating it into the Commission’s reports. He co-authored the Stonewall nomination, which resulted in the first-ever National Register (1999) and National Historic Landmark (2000) listings for an LGBT site.</p>

<h2>FAQs</h2><p><strong>When will the Zoom invite come?</strong></p><p>The Zoom invite will be in the confirmation email from your order AND it will be sent to your email address at 48hrs, 2hrs and 10mins before the event. PLEASE CHECK YOUR SPAM AND SOCIAL FOLDERS IF YOU DO NOT SEE THE ZOOM INVITE IN YOUR INBOX. If you do not receive a Zoom invitation by 1hr before the event please get in contact with us.</p><p><strong>What time zone is the event scheduled in?</strong></p><p>The event is scheduled for 2pm EST (i.e. New York time). You can watch it in any time zone but please adjust to the time zone you are in.</p><p><strong>Refund Policy?</strong></p><p>Refunds are available up to the start time of the event. After the start time, refunds are only available if you have been unable to access the event.</p>

Our {communityGuidelinesLink} describe the sort of content we prohibit on Eventbrite. If you suspect an event may be in violation, you can report it to us so we can investigate.

To report other categories of prohibited or illegal content, submit {link}

Broadway Theater LGBTQ Tour

More events from Andrew Lear

Discover more events from Andrew Lear, from Community to other experiences you might love.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.

Broadway Theater LGBTQ Tour

More events from Andrew Lear

Discover more events from Andrew Lear, from Community to other experiences you might love.

You might also like...

Browse more events with different dates, prices, and formats to find your next great experience.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.