10 New Queer NYC Shows That Will Fill You With Pride
We're here, we're queer, we want cheap tickets to a show in an air-conditioned theater!
There’s more to Pride in New York City than parades and pier dances, people. There’s also more to theater than the high-profile new Broadway revivals of Angels in America and The Boys in the Band.
If you’re marching around town this weekend, drag your flags to these LGBTQ-inclusive plays and musicals that recently opened off-Broadway for limited runs.
All I Want Is One Night
Jessica Walker pays tribute to lesbian chanteuse and club owner Suzy Solidor, an oft-painted Parisian hedonist who peaked in the 1930s, in her sparkling bio-cabaret featuring torch songs aimed at other women.
59E59 Theatres through July 1.
Boylesque Bullfight
Company XIV gets back in the ring with this gender-twisted children’s tale for adults, reimagining The Story of Ferdinand, Munro Leaf’s classic about a sensitive bull, as a baroque and bawdy mostly-male spectacle.
Theater XIV through July 29.
Everyone’s Fine With Virginia Woolf
Kate Scelsa puts an aggressively feminist, queer, and meta-theatrical spin on Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with George channeling Tennessee Williams heroines and Nick writing mpreg slash fiction.
Elevator Repair Service at Abrons Arts Center through June 30.
Log Cabin
Jesse Tyler Ferguson headlines this play about friction between two gay couples and their trans pal (comic Ian Harvie), “who should all be under the same umbrella of queerness,” playwright Jordan Harrison tells NNN.
Playwrights Horizons through July 15.
Scissoring
Christina Quintana’s quirky comedy follows a lesbian’s struggle to reconcile her relationship and her teaching job at a strict Catholic school—with help from the meddling spirits of Eleanor Roosevelt and lover Lorena Hickok.
Intar Theatre through June 30.
She Calls Me Firefly
Can young love survive substance abuse and family secrets? Sean Hudock and Daniel Burns play gay cuties with big issues in Teresa Lotz’s potent Kentucky-set drama, an official NYC Pride partner, staged in an actual bar.
Huron Club at Soho Playhouse through June 23.
Skintight
In Joshua Harmon’s treatise on youth and beauty, Idina Menzel plays a divorcée who learns that her dad, a famous designer, is dating a gay porn actor (how you doin’, Will Brittain?) the same age as her gay son.
Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre through August 26.
Sugar in Our Wounds
In Donja R. Love’s heartbreaking yet hopeful drama, part of a trilogy exploring the queer black experience, Sheldon Best and Chinaza Uche inspire as Southern plantation slaves liberated by love during the Civil War.
MTC’s Studio at Stage II through July 8.
Symphonie Fantastique
Gay puppeteer Basil Twist makes multimedia magic happen in a 1,000-gallon water tank. Previously recorded, Hector Berlioz’s stirring 1830 score is played live on piano for this mesmerizing 20th-anniversary revival.
HERE through September 2.
They, Themself and Schmerm
Never miss a chance to see Becca Blackwell perform. In this solo confessional, the trans thesp—who moonlights as talking vag Snatch Adams—challenges everything you think you know about gender and authenticity.
Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, June 24 and 26.