LGBTQ theatre

United States

In the United States, the New York City theatre scene was the center of LGBTQ theatre in the country during the mid-20th century. Caffe Cino was the birthplace of Off-Off Broadway, where The Madness of Lady Bright, the first admittedly LGBTQ play was performed in 1964.^[10] The show was the longest-running at the Caffe Cino and was performed over 200 times to packed houses.^[11]

Four years later, the first LGBTQ play to be on Off-Broadway, was performed, The Boys in the Band.^[10] This play garnered serious attention, as it was performed at a legitimate playhouse. Although reactions were mixed, The Boys in the Band cemented a legacy for itself and is considered one of the classic LGBTQ plays.^[12]

By 1983, a mainstream LGBTQ musical on Broadway was performed. La Cage aux Folles was a musical based on the 1978 movie La Cage aux Folles.^[13] The story surrounds a middle-aged homosexual couple who learns how deep their love truly is after navigating obstacles. The play was groundbreaking because of the characterization of its main characters, one being the owner of a Saint-Tropez drag club and the other its star performer. The play received high praise and won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1984. It was performed 1,761 times, and was revived in the fall of 2004.^[13]

United States

The mid-20th century saw the rise of LGBTQ plays and their popularisation. Even with the stigma around the LGBTQ community, especially with the rise in the AIDS epidemic, LGBTQ pride and media were becoming mainstream. Plays, TV shows, and films about LGBT-identifying people were becoming common pieces of media. Popular musicals began to pop up throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the most famous being Rent, which came out in the 1990s. The musical is set in the early 1990s, and it centers around a group of New Yorkers, as they struggle with their careers, love lives, and the AIDS epidemic. The play was seen as groundbreaking and was performed over 5,000 times and ran for 12 years.^[14] The legacy that Rent produced allowed for a range of LGBTQ productions to be performed across the world. Subsequent notable American LGBTQ musicals include Fun Home, The Prom, and A Strange Loop.

South Asia

The tradition of men playing women's roles has a "long history" in the theatrical traditions of South Asia, being mentioned both in Patanjali's Mahabhashya and in the Natya Shastra . In contemporary tradition, female impersonation is still practiced in the dance/theatre forms of Kathakali (Kerala) and Ramlila (Uttar Pradesh), among others, but has "vanished from the urban cultural zone".^[18]

Taiwan

Within Taiwan, cultural conservatism continues to impact the LGBTQ community.^[17] However, since the lifting of martial law in the country, queer theater has become more popular. One notable figure in Taiwanese LGBTQ theatre is Lai Sheng-Chuan, a playwright who both has popularized LGBTQ theatre and criticized the government.^[17]

The first known queer theatre company in Taiwan was Maoshi, which was established in 1988 by Tian ChiYuan, who lated died from AIDS. Tian used theatre to fight both homophobia and stigma against AIDS during times of extreme conservatism.^[17] Some of Tian's most known plays are adaptations of Whitewater and Legend of the white snake, which were both centered around homoerotic love, a topic unseen in public during the 1990s.^[17] After Tian's death, people have continued to create adaptations of Whitewater because of its symbolism of queer trauma.

Turkey

In the 2010s into the 2020s, trans women have become more prominent in Turkey's alternative theatre spheres, both as creators of works and as subjects of works. However, beyond the smaller productions helmed by trans women, which are "characterized by themes of hope and resistance", theatrical representations of trans women have largely been produced by cisgender actors and creators, with a focus on "trans women's suffering," "often [ending] with the main character's death.^[19]

Estonia

Following an end to theatre censorship following the Singing Revolution and the country's independence in 1991, Estonian theatre began to explore formerly taboo themes of gender and sexuality, and "[embraced] LGBTQ+ themes, characters, and aesthetics".^[20]

United Kingdom

Some Shakespeare plays have been identified as having LGBTQ themes, such as As You Like It and Twelfth Night,^[21] both of which have female characters who crossdress as men and enter into flirtatious interactions with women.

In the UK, restrictions on LGBTQ theatre existed into the 20th century. The Lord Chamberlain was empowered by the Licensing Act 1737 to act as a theatrical censor, a power which was held by the office until 1968.^[22] However, later some of those restrictions would be lifted and in the 21st century many LGBTQ plays have been performed.

British theatre companies with a specific focus on LGBTQ works include Above the Stag Theatre, Aputheatre, Gay Sweatshop, and Milk Presents.

Canada

In the Canadian province of Quebec, LGBTQ playwrights in the 1980s and 1990s saw success in marketing gay and lesbian-related theatre to mixed audiences of both LGBTQ and straight people.^[23]

Canadian theatre companies with a specific focus on LGBTQ works include Buddies in Bad Times, and the Frank Theatre Company.

United States

LGBTQ theatre has been relatively well known in the U.S. for the past few decades. It has been around for longer than that but suffered a lot of controversy.^[24] Some American LGBTQ shows include Rent, an adaptation of La boheme following a group of friends during the AIDS crisis, and The Prom by Chad Beguelin, which follows a teenage girl trying to bring her girlfriend to the prom in a conservative town in Indiana. Although LGBTQ-related plays and musicals are present on Broadway, they are also put on across the country in smaller regional and community venues. The U.S. is also home to some theatre companies which primarily focus on LGBTQ-related works, including Celebration Theatre, The Five Lesbian Brothers, Pomo Afro Homos, Split Britches, StageQ, The Theater Offensive, Theatre Rhinoceros, Triangle Productions, and the Triangle Theater Company.^[10]

Australia

By the mid-1990s, the "divisions between gay and mainstream theatre" were "increasingly blurred" in Australia; however, academics noted that LGBTQ representation in Australian plays and musicals was largely limited to gay men.^[25]

Australian theatre companies with a specific focus on LGBTQ works include ActNow Theatre.

United States

In December 1935, authorities in Boston declared that the play The Children's Hour did not meet the standards of the Watch and Ward Society due to its "lesbian content" and that it could not be performed in the following month as scheduled. Producer Herman Shumlin filed a $250,000 suit for damages with support from the ACLU,^[28] but in February 1936 a Federal judge refused to prevent the city from interfering in the presentation of the play.^{[29]: 49–50 [30][31][32]} In January 1936, a municipal censorship ordinance was used to decline granting a performance permit for The Children's Hour in Chicago.^{[29]: 50 [33]}

In March 1970, when the play The Boys in the Band was staged in the Black Box Theater at the Atlanta Memorial Arts Center, the Fulton County Commission threatened to cut public funding due to its portrayal of gay life, labeling it "filthy content."^[34] Nevertheless, the play continued to be staged for two weeks and would be staged again at Buckhead Theatre in 1976.

The 1996 premiere of Angels in America in Charlotte, North Carolina was threatened with cancellation due to protests from locals. This made the show more successful because more people gathered to see what the fuss was all about, selling out the tickets.^[35]

In the 2020s, the cancellation of shows has occurred most often in school plays, as school administration may cancel shows due to their content. For example, at Florida's Duval County Public Schools in January 2023, administrators stopped production of the play Indecent, which detailed a love affair between two women, due to its "mature content."^[36] In February 2023, Indiana's Northwest Allen County Schools canceled a production of the play Marian after adults protested over its depiction of a same-sex couple and a non-binary character.^[36]

Russia

In November 2022, performances of a children's play at a theatre in the Southern Russian city of Novosibirsk were canceled just days after local Culture Ministry authorities stated that they would investigate whether or not the performance violated anti-LGBTQ legislation set in place in 2013.^[37] Although the Siberian Theater announced that the play was canceled due to technical difficulties, the show's cancellation came only days after many posts emerged on social media to investigate whether the show broke the Russian laws banning the "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations with minors."^[38] The show was canceled just 20 minutes before the start, and while authorities declined to say whether the cancellation was due to the announced investigation, many believe that the cancellation was due to the relationship of two characters in the show where they act out a scene from The Princess and The Ogre as two men.

Hungary

In June 2018, the Hungarian State Opera canceled over a dozen performances of the musical Billy Elliot after a newspaper columnist accused the production of being "gay propaganda."^[39] A June 1 column by Zsofia N. Horvath in the conservative paper Magyar Idők claimed that the musical exposed young audience members to "unrestrained gay propaganda," going "against the objectives of the state...in a situation where the population is already aging and decreasing." This caused 15 of the show's performances to be canceled.^[40]