L
The lesbians next door in William Finn's Falsettos.
Cordelia and Charlotte
Mart Crowley’s 1968 play presented one of the earliest theatrical depictions of openly gay characters.
The Boys in the Band
Eden Espinosa portrayed an art deco bi-icon in this 2024 musical.
Lempicka
In 2022, she took on the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago, making her the first openly trans woman to play a lead role on Broadway.
Angelica Ross
This icon went into several Greenwich Village speakeasies and recruited 40 or 50 queens to be a part of her controversial play, The Drag.
Mae West
In 1923, the cast and crew of this Yiddish play were indicted for “an indecent, immoral, and impure theatrical performance.
God of Vengeance
This Tony Award-winning play is constructed of three one-acts International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery and Widows and Children First!.
Torch Song Trilogy
In this 2014 musical, Anthony Rapp plays Lucas, a character who falls in love with David in one story and Elizabeth in another.
If/Then
Based on a 2001 documentary of the same name, this musical follows a female-to-male transgender man diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Southern Comfort
She was the first drag queen to take on the role of Audrey in a major production of Little Shop of Horrors.
Jinkx Monsoon
This French play, which opened in 1926 at The Empire Theatre, was the first Broadway play to explicitly portray lesbianism. It was shut down in 1927 and was part of a censorship campaign that spurred the Wales Padlock Act.
The Captive
Song on the Sand, from this 1983 musical, marked the first time in history, a man stood on a Broadway stage and sang a heartfelt love song to another man.
La Cage Aux Folles
She was the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her most seminal work, which was adapted into a stage musical, depicts "womanist women in a recognizable context."
Alice Walker
She was credited as the first openly transgender actor to be nominated for a Tony Award.
L. Morgan Lee
This & Juliet actor declined to be considered for a Tony because they didn't want to have to pick a gender category.
Justin David Sullivan (May)
George Bernard Shaw work that was staged at the Garrick Theatre in 1905. It played just a singular performance before police arrested the cast and crew for violating the Comstock Laws.
Mrs. Warren's Profession
E.M. Forster’s classic novel Howard’s End is dragged into the present in this 2018 play by Matthew Lopez.
The Inheritance
In the original 1966 version of this Kander and Ebb musical, there is no suggestion of a queer identity. In the 1987 revision, it is implied the leading man is bi. In the 1998 revival, his queerness is made explicit.
Cabaret
In this musical, presented off-Broadway at The Public Theater, Mandy Patinkin played a married chef who decides to transition.
The Knife
They made Broadway history at the 2023 Tony Awards by becoming the first openly nonbinary individuals to win acting awards.
J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell
This 1934 Lillian Hellman play was deemed unfit by Boston’s Watch and Ward Society, leading to the cancellation of the production’s transfer run from New York.
The Children's Hour
In 2022, both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize went to Black, queer writers, marking a historical first. Name the writers.
James Ijames (Fat Ham) and Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop)
The creators of this TV show wanted to create a more positive representation of a bisexual male character. So they gave their male protagonist this bop in Season One.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
She made history in 2018 as the first trans woman to originate a principal role on Broadway.
Peppermint
In an early out-of-town production of this musical, Jo was written as nonbinary; but when the show transferred to Broadway, the production and star insisted the character had been cisgender all along.
Jagged Little Pill