Albert Carroll in The Grand Street Follies,1927
In the Twenties, female impersonators were among the most popular vaudeville performers. Audiences loved their outrageousness, and it is widely believed that Mae West co-opted Bert Savoy’s hip-swaying walk and his comic invitation to “come up and see me.” Albert Carroll was a female impersonator whose specialties were well-known performers and dancers. Here he burlesques Ethel Barrymore.
Angels in America Marcia Gay Harden, David Marshall Grant, Kathleen Chalfant, Ron Leibman, Ellen McLaughlin, Stephen Spinella, Joe Mantello, and Jeffrey Wright, 1993
Hirschfeld drew this Pulitzer Prize winning play when the first half, Millennium Approaches debuted on Broadway in 1993. The play was such an event that he included Ellen McLaughlin as the Angel at the top of his year end overview drawing that December.
B.D. Wong in M. Butterfly, 1988
Hirschfeld drew both B.D. Wong and John Lithgow. Lithgow played the unhappy French diplomat who falls in love with a Chinese opera diva played by Wong, who turns out to be a man.
Bent Richard Gere, David Dukes, and David Marshall Grant, 1979
Hirschfeld drew both this cast drawing of Martin Sherman’s play about the persecution of gay men in Nazi Germany when it debuted on Broadway and individual drawings of Gere and Michael York for the Times Friday theater column.
Big Fish, Little Fish Hume Cronyn, Jason Robards Jr., and Martin Gabel, 1961
John Gielgud directed Hugh Wheeler’s first play about a college professor, disgraced by a sex scandal, who now works in a minor post at a publishing company. It was one of the first Broadway plays to explore frankly the issue of homosexuality.
Breaking the Code Jenny Agutter, Derek Jacobi, and Rachel Gurney, 1987
Derek Jacobi portrayed British mathematician Alan Turing, famous for breaking the Enigma code in WWII, in this Hugh Whitemore play that links his cryptographic work with his attempts to come to terms with being gay. His story was also the basis for the hit fit film, The Imitation Game.
Cabaret Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli, 1972
Hirschfeld had drawn the original stage production of kinder and Ebb’s famous musical which dealt with the sexually ambigious Weimar era as well as this Oscar winning film version starring Liza Minnelli and the original Emcee, Joel Grey.
Elizabeth Ashley in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1974
Hirschfeld drew this sultry portrait of the actress who said that her job was “to give every man in the audience a hard-on,” except her husband in the play, Brick, who struggles with his own sexuality.
Falsettos Michael Rupert, Heather Mac Rae, Chip Zien, Carolee Carmello, Barb Walsh, Steve Bogardus, Jon Kaplan, 1992
James Lapine and William Finn combined two Off Broadway one acts by finn to give Broadway Marvin, his ex-wife, his psychiatrist, son and gay lover in the Tony-winning Falsettos.
Hair,1968
This “tribal love-rock musical” not only shocked audiences with its brief nudity, but also its attitudes to sexuality and an onstage kiss between two male leads.
Joel Grey in The Normal Heart,1985
Larry Kramer’s gripping semi-autobiographical drama about the rise of AIDS was a success off Broadway. Brad Davis originated the role of writer/activist Ned Weeks and was later replaced by Broadway vet, Joel Grey. The play eventually made it to Broadway in 2011.
Jonathan Hogan in As Is, 1985
As Is was another play to deal with the rise of AIDS, but this time directly on Broadway. Although noiminated for a Tony for best Play it only lasted 49 performances.
Kiss of the Spider Woman Heardon Lackey, Merle Louise, Chita Rivera, Brent Carver, Anthony Crivello, Kirsti Carnahan, 1993
Kander and Ebb along with Terrance McNally turned this popular novel and film about two cellmates in South America, one who is gay, and one who is not into a Tony winning musical directed by Hal Prince.
La Cage Aux Folles Gene Barry and George Hearn, 1983
This Jerry Herman musical about the hijinks of gay manager of nightclub and his partner, a drag performer who is the club’s star attraction who tried to hide their gayness when their son brings home his fiancée’s very conservative parents. It is the only musical to win Tonys for Best Musical and Best Revival each time it has come to Broadway.
Liza Minnelli in Victor/Victoria, 1997
When Julie Andrews took a four week vacation for this cross dressing musical, Liza stepped in and wowed Broadway audiences who had not seen her on stage for 11 years.
Nathan Lane in The Lisbon Traviata, 1989
Lane played Mendy, a “flamboyantly bitchy and viciously wicked opera queen” in Terrence McNally’s play about gay relationships and Maria Callas.
Quentin Crisp, 1984
The celebrated gay writer and raconteur celebrated his ninetieth birthday performing his one-man show, An Evening with Quentin Crisp. He would die almost one year later.
Rent Daphne Rubin-Vega, Taye Diggs, Fredi Walker, Adam Pascal, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Anthony Rapp, Idina Menzel, and Jesse L. Martin, 1996
Jonathan Larson’s update on La Boheme set it in the East Village during the AIDS epidemic.
Richard Thomas in Fifth of July, 1981 Landfrod Wilson’s 1978 play centered on Kenneth Talley, Jr., a gay paraplegic Vietnam veteran living in his childhood home with his boyfriend, botanist Jed Jenkins. The show came to Broadway in 1980 and Richard Thomas was one of the actors who played the role of Ken during its run.
Robert Morley and Mark Dignam, 1938
The Stokes Brothers drama of the Irish writer used much of Wilde’s own writing to tell his story and because of that it was first banned in England. This 1938 Broadway production helped launch the career of Robert Morley.
Stacy Keach in Deathtrap, 1979
Keach played Sidney, a successful playwright who stages the murder of young man who eventually turns out to be his lover to shock his wife to death. When they succeed, they end up turning on each other and are both dead by the end of the play.
The Children’s Hour Audrey Hepburn, James Garner, Shirley Maclaine, Karen Balkin, and Fay Bainter, 1961
Hirschfeld drew the original stage production of Lillian Hellman’s drama about boarding school headmistresses who are accused of being lesbians in 1934 as part of composite of long running plays that season. He drew this 1961 film adaptation to promote the United Artists film.
The Ritz Jerry Stiller, Jack Weston, Rita Moreno, Kaye Ballard, F. Murray Abraham, Treat Williams, and George Coulouris, 1976
Hirschfeld drew the poster for the film adaptation of Terrence McNally’s play set in a gay bathhouse.
