Gay broadway actors

is another one this year.) Cole Escola portrays First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, but she is not a gay character. Funny business becomes Brooks.

Cole Escola

by Austin Fimmano

Creator and star of Oh, Mary!Cole Escola has been the darling of the 2024-25 Broadway season for doing no less than being true to themself.

It's a masterful performance and terrifying as such — and it proves Peck as a bonafide Broadway talent capable of putting a thoroughly unique take on a role that's been reinterpreted by icons time and time again.

Taylor Trensch

by Billy McEntee

A Broadway mainstay, Taylor Trensch always promises a thoughtful, charming, and singular performance.

If you don't, get a ticket.

Get Oh, Mary! tickets now.

Jinkx Monsoon

by Austin Fimmano

Not only is Jinkx Monsoon the only drag queen to win RuPaul’s Drag Race twice, but she’s well on her way to becoming queen of the Broadway stage too. It’s taken me two years for me to feel comfortable dancing in heels.”)

Oh, Mary

Many argue that “Oh,Mary” reflects a gay sensibility — which one can most safely define as a show to which gay theatergoers are eager to buy tickets.

Lastly, Caitlin Kinnunen for filling my mom and I with joy every time we see The Prom on TV or somewhere. They include Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winners, stars of both stage and screen, and names that may not be household ones, but ones you should know. Naz (John Michael Hill)  is a member of the family, the youngest son, but he is its black sheep, neither a politician nor a preacher, but a Nature photographer — and asexual.

While representation in film and television has been a struggle, especially after the passing of the Hays Code, theater has been an arena where the queer community has always shone.

Here are some of the best LGBTQIA+ shows that have graced the Broadway stages and left a mark for the ages.

Cabaret

A Kander and Ebbs masterpiece, Cabaret opened on Broadway in 1966.

After appearing in hits including To Kill a Mockingbird, Wicked, and Hello, Dolly!, Trensch is back at Lincoln Center Theater in the cult-favorite musical Floyd Collins. And this play tackles that and so much more, exploring what it means to exist as a queer man in such a space.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

The heaviness of queer content can sometimes take its toll, but if there's one thing the queer community knows how to do well, it's put on a darn good show!

It’s so refreshing to see a black, queer person be so unapologetically themselves.” —Gary Fuqua

"[Billy Porter, Alan Cumming, Jerry Mitchell, and Jordan Roth] have all given time, effort, and a voice for making the LGBTQ+ community visible in the theatre but also to the world. Kyle Taylor Parker for similar reasons, being the [Kinky Boots'] Lola I saw in my first live musical.

While it premiered in 2002, long after the first queer baseball players came out, the play was written before these monumental moments.

To add nuance to the tale, it is set in the locker room of a baseball team, a space that is as much fueled by the triumphant pursuit of glory as it is riddled with homophobia. The neon sign is just there for the vibes.

He's nabbed his first Tony Award nomination for his heartfelt performance as Skeets Miller, the journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1926 for covering the rescue mission of the titular cave explorer.

Tina Landau

by Caroline Cao

When I think of visionaries whose stagecraft must be digested and appreciated, I think of writer/director Tina Landau.

Her approach is go-for-broke, whether as exuberant and maximalist as the SpongeBob Squarepants musical or as minimalistic as Floyd Collins, a musical I have been reappraising the more it sits in my mind. The Book of Mormon is a satirical look at organized religion, particularly the Mormon church, and is a riot for that alone.

Everything about this show screams queer, from the celebratory cacophony of corsets, stockings, and rock ballads, to the deeply homophobic reviews it got that it steamrolled past to become a cult classic across all media formats.

Honorable mentions

While this list has named a few select titles that have played on Broadway in the recent decade or so, there is a legacy of queer identity as a defining feature of theater itself.

This coming-of-age rock musical is everything you'd want from an LGBTQIA+ musical on Broadway, following the life and struggles of high school students in a Catholic boarding school.

Fun Home

Based on Alison Bechdel's memoir of the same name, Fun Home is a musical that explores the cartoonist's own lesbian identity as she grapples with the details of her closeted gay father's life.

There is no denying that Broadway remains what it long has been — an industry that employs LGBTQ people; a community that has served as a refuge; and an art form that’s offered a pioneering showcase for LGBTQ characters and their stories. Here are a few honorable mentions of titles that have redefined Broadway.

1. Rent: A rock musical that follows struggling young artists in Lower Manhattan during the AIDS epidemic.
2. Kinky Boots: Charlie hopes to save his father's shoe factory by forming an unlikely alliance with drag queen Lola.
3. Hedwig and the Angry Inch: A rock musical that follows a fictional band with a genderqueer East German singer, inspired by androgynous 70's glam rock and the likes of David Bowie, John Lennon, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop.
4. La Cage aux Folles: The first Broadway hit centered on a gay couple, this musical follows Georges and Albin, their drag nightclub, and the comedy that ensues when they run into a conservative politician.
5. The Boys in the Band: A groundbreaking depiction of gay life in 60's and 70's New York.
6. A Chorus Line: One of the first Broadway productions to highlight queer stories by way of young dancers auditioning for a musical.
7. Angels in America: A nuanced and extremely complex exploration of the AIDS epidemic, often considered to be a "turning point in the history of gay drama."
8. Torch Song Trilogy: A play centered on a Jewish gay man, drag queen, and torch singer who grapples with a disillusionment with love in 70's New York.