what's the opposite of a triple threat

I don’t know if it’s a trader who continues to break the rules or a non-trader who just gets the video from friends, but this has to stop. The community depends on him, especially when it comes to Broadway videos. It’s a wonder he hasn’t officially quit filming despite all of his rules being broken and so many of his videos being leaked.

theatre challenge → 1/7 scenes: “people start taking passengers back to their houses” ( COME FROM AWAY )

Some obvious ones out of the way that people here are well-antiquated with:

Falsettos (happy lesbian couple supporting characters, as well as heavy focus on Judaism)

Rent (supporting cast includes Collins, a gay Black man and anarchist, Angel, his GNC Latinx partner, Joanne, a Black lesbian lawyer, and Maureen, her performing artist partner who is implied to be bi or a lesbian depending on the version of the show)

Fun Home (protagonist is butch lesbian Alison Bechdel, plot centers on her complicated relationship with her closeted gay dad, and Alison’s college girlfriend, Joan, is very commonly played by women of color)

Some more I’d recommend or at least would like to discuss:

If/Then (plot focuses on two different timelines created by one choice the protagonist makes at the start of the show. There’s Lucas, who is an openly bisexual city planner and has male and female love interests respectively in the different timelines, David, his sweet boyfriend who is usually Latino, Kate, a Black lesbian kindergarten teacher, and Anne, whose relationship with Kate works out in one of the timelines and there’s a really touching song about it. Also they’re played by Anthony Rapp, Jason Tam, LaChanze, and Jenn Colella respectively in the original cast, so how’s that for all-stars?)

The Color Purple (the protagonist is Celie, a dark-skinned Black lesbian living in the 1930s who faces intracommunity misogyny and abuse and comes out of it surrounded by the love of many women in her life, including her bisexual lover, Shug Avery, and is also able to see herself as having inherent value and beauty.)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (the protagonist is Hedwig, described by the writer as “a gender of one”, who performs in a rock band and tells the audience the story of how she got bottom surgery and left East Berlin to find her soulmate. The show culminates in her accepting that she is a complete person in and of herself.)

Kinky Boots (The co-lead, Lola/Simon, is a Black drag queen who helps in a project to design high-heeled boots strong enough for AMAB people to wear. She also has an arc of reconciling with her father who had previously turned his back on her. I’m not crazy about the way the book is written and I remember there being some transphobic jokes both made at the expense of Lola and by Lola herself, but Cyndi Lauper did write some pretty good bops, so make of it what you will.)

A Chorus Line (one of the dancers, a young gay Puerto Rican man named Paul, gives a major emotional monologue in the latter part of the show about his coming of age.)

Kiss of the Spider Woman (the protagonists are two men, Luis and Valentin, who become lovers in an Argentinian prison. I’ve only listened to the cast recording once and am not all too familiar with it, but I get the impression it’s a classic and Chita Rivera was in it.)

First Lady Suite (one of four of the plots in this show focuses on the love affair between Eleanor Roosevelt and her reporter, Lorena Hickok.)

Bring It On (one of the supporting characters, La Cienega, is an explicitly trans Afro-Latina girl and everyone is cool about it.)

Some to be on the lookout for:

The Prom (you know people have been talking about this one! It’s about a gaggle of Broadway performers, wanting to be relevant again, hear about a couple of lesbian teenagers, Alyssa and Emma, who got banned from their school prom in Indiana and go out to fight for them. Very sweet fun show, got all the MLM/WLW solidarity you could want. A live recording of the songs can be found on YouTube.)

Head Over Heels (jukebox musical using music by The Go-Gos set in a fairytale world, starring Peppermint, a Black trans performer who competed on RuPaul’s Drag Race and will be officially the the first trans performer to be in an original Broadway cast.)

The Civility of Albert Cashier (the protagonist is Albert Cashier, a young trans man who fought in the Civil War and fell in love with one of his fellow soldiers. Both the young and old versions of him in the show are played by trans actors. There’s no official cast recording yet, but there are demos of the songs up on their website.)

Tickets for a movie can be expensive, but tickets for a broadway show are even more expensive and that’s not counting the cost of getting to New York. This makes it inaccessible to a lot of people. Through professionally filmed productions these people can see and experience this amazing art and the incredible stories told through it. By supporting the showing of Bandstand, and other professionally filmed shows like Newsies and Falsettos, you show that there’s a market for these versions of the show and encourage the making of more. Allowing more people to experience broadway theater who likely would never get the chance.

You can have your principles. When you’ve got a bellyful. But hunger has a way with you.

In order:

The Haden Triplets (Hadestown Concept Album 2010)

Melissa Myers, Anne Heaton and Rose Polenzani (Cambridge, MA 2010)

Carsie Blanton, Jacqueline Stem, Carleigh Nesbit (Washington DC 2011) 

Aoife O'Donovan, Ruthy Merenda, Kristin Andreassen (New York 2011)

Jessie Shelton, Lulu Fall, Shaina Taub (New York Workshop 2016)

Jessie Shelton, Lulu Fall, Erica Sweany (New York Workshop 2016)