Broadway has long been a home for the queer community, both providing a space for queer artists to share their work as well as a place to amplify queer stories. In celebration of Playbill Pride, take a look at some of the musicals that brought LGBTQIA+ stories to the stage.
LaChanze and Elisabeth Withers-Mendes in the original Broadway production of The Color Purple.
Paul Kolnik
Cast of Bare
Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz
Joan Marcus
Alan Cumming in Cabaret
Joan Marcus
George Hearn and Gene Barry with the cast of La Cage aux Folles.
Martha Swope / The New York Public Library
Isabelle McCalla and Caitlin Kinnunen
Deen van Meer
Christian Borle and Andrew Rannells
Joan Marcus
Marcus Neville, André De Shields, John Ellison Conlee, Patrick Wilson, Romain Frugé, and Jason Danieley in The Full Monty
Craig Schwartz
Sydney Lucas, Beth Malone and Emily Skeggs in Fun Home
Joan Marcus
Neil Patrick Harris in Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Joan Marcus
Griffin Matthews and Michael Luwoye in Invisible Thread
Stark Sands, Annaleigh Ashford and Billy Porter in Kinky Boots
Brent Carver, Chita Rivera, and Anthony Crivello
Steven Pasquale with Roger Rees in A Man of No Importance at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater
Jonathan Groff in A New Brain
Joan Marcus
Will Swenson, Tony Sheldon, and Nick Adams in Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Joan Marcus
Gary Beach, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, and Roger Bart in The Producers
Paul Kolnik
Idina Menzel and Fredi Walker in Rent
Joan Marcus
Peppermint and ensemble
Joan Marcus
Alice Ripley and Tom Hewitt in the 2000 Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show.
Carol Rosegg
Daniel N. Durant and the company of Spring Awakening
Kevin Parry
Tony Roberts and Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria
Carol Rosegg
The Off-Broadway cast of The View Upstairs
Kurt Sneddon
The cast of Zanna, Don't!
Photo by Joan Marcus
Christopher Sieber and Lucas Steele in The Kid
Monique Carboni
The company of When Pigs Fly with director Mark Waldrop.
Lauren Bacall in Applause. 1970, Palace Theatre.
The original production of A Chorus Line
John McCrea in Everybody's Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre
Johan Persson
Carolee Carmello and Donna Murphy in Hello Again
Joan Marcus
Idina Menzel and the cast of If/Then
Joan Marcus
Alison Fraser, Joanna Green, Mary Testa, and Chip Zien
Susan Cook
Sierra Boggess and David Burtka in It Shoulda Been You
Naked Boys Singing
Alexander Gemignani and Michael Cerveris in the Public Theater's Road Show in 2008
Joan Marcus
Euan Morton
Joan Marcus
Etai Benson and Matt Doyle in Company
Jade McLeod and Company of Jagged Little Pill
Matthew Murphy, Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
John-Michael Lyles, Jason Veasey, James Jackson, Jr., L Morgan Lee, John-Andrew Morrison, and Antwayn Hopper in A Strange Loop
Marc J. Franklin
Justin David Sullivan in & Juliet
Matthew Murphy
Kevin Del Aguila and J. Harrison Ghee in Some Like It Hot
Marc J. Franklin
