April 24, 2023
Theater critic Mordden (Pick a Pocket or Two) gallops through a century of gay American theater in this uneven history. Surveying 1910 to 2010, Mordden spotlights the “plays and the people” that brought queer culture to the American stage, including productions with gay characters, those written by gay creatives, or those “whose sense of parody or outright camp... are at least gay-adjacent.” Mordden traces historical themes, including an uptick in sympathetic portrayals of gay men leaving their wives in the 1960s, and the “problem plays” of the ’90s and aughts in which gayness served as a “social controversy that the principals discuss.” Mordden is most successful with close analysis, as in his consideration of the 1968 The Boys in the Band (“wildly funny... and a tiny bit unbelievable, yet so reflective of what gay life was like in New York in 1968 that the show is almost a documentary”). But his semi-stream-of-consciousness style and catty tone too often distract—he describes Truman Capote as possessing the “attitude of a malicious petit four” and pedantically corrects popular pronunciations of Madame Butterfly—and while Stonewall is referenced, the history is largely isolated from broader trends in culture and media. Queer theater fans will be piqued, though Mordden’s style is a love-it or leave-it proposition.
Starred review from April 1, 2023
The impact of gay people on American theater is impossible to quantify, but musical theater expert Mordden's (Pick a Pocket Or Two: A History of British Musical Theatre) excellent study of more than 100 years of Broadway history provides a nuanced look at the influence and representation of gay culture on stage. Beginning in the 1910s with the earliest drag queens, a fair amount of subtext and overtly gay story lines and lyrics permeated the next 30 years. That's until the post-war era saw an increase in censorship and the lingering effects of the 1927 Wales Padlock Law, which prohibited any form of sexual "perversion" on stage. The following decades, however, witnessed a steady rise in gay representation, from serious dramas to musicals, providing some of the most influential productions in Broadway history. In addition to a seemingly endless list of actors, writers, and directors, the book explores the stories behind key productions, such as The Captive, Tea and Sympathy, The Boys in the Band, Angels in America, Fun Home, and dozens of lesser known but important contributions. Mordden's knowledge and research are impeccable, and his lively, conversational tone draws readers in for more. VERDICT Mordden's book is authoritative proof that the legacy of American theater is eternally indebted to gay culture.--Peter Thornell
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from May 1, 2023
A chronological study of how queer creatives have greatly impacted the theater world. In his latest book, Mordden, who has written extensively about American and British theater, focuses on the influences of "homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, metrosexuals, and the sexually fluid" on American stage productions throughout the 20th century. The author begins with profiles of high-profile drag queens like illusionist Julian Eltinge and lesbian repertory firebrand Eva Le Gallienne, who, alongside many others, paved the way for gay characterizations and storylines through both "serious drama" and "minty repartee" roles in the 1920s. Another major figure of this time was Mae West. "In a way," writes Mordden, "she was like a hetero version of your gay uncle, a bank of information about the world that was far more intriguing than anything you heard from your parents." The author then moves on to discuss Hollywood's suppression tactics, including the 1927 Wales Padlock Law, which banned any form of "sex degeneracy" from appearing onstage. But the resurgence was swift in subsequent decades as luminaries like Tallulah Bankhead, Harvey Fierstein, and an exhaustive list of others ushered in new sex-positive, gay-identifiable productions like The Boys in the Band, Torch Song Trilogy, The Normal Heart, and Angels in America. Despite its brevity, Mordden's book is filled with hilariously quippy biographical information--e.g., "portly and owlish" Alexander Woollcott was as gay "as a parade of candy canes"; Joan Crawford "was one of Golden Age Hollywood's great phallic women"--and contributes uniquely detailed backstage stories from celebrated productions that have continued to shape American theater. As intolerance faded, queer culture thrived, moving well beyond the strict artistic censorship and homophobia that proliferated in the early decades of the 20th century. Gay historians and theater buffs of any persuasion will appreciate this terrific, condensed 100-year retrospective. A lively, highly knowledgeable report on queer culture's significant contributions to Broadway.
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