Musicals

[burntjello]

It is fairly obvious that this is a mostly gay site (with the gay-oriented stories/pictures), but is anybody out there curious:
Is the rumor that all (or most) homosexuals like musicals?

For one, I would say Yes, Yes, and YEEESS again for me, but I am bisexual. So would anybody else like so comment?

[anpuZA]

Talk about off topic... good lord! Unless ofcourse someone here sees possibilities in a muscle growth musical? Err, can't help it so how about: Lats (as opposed to Cats), errr... The Sound of Muscle (worship?... duh!), Joseph and his amazing technicolor posing trunks. The Rocky Horror picture show (he he, why change the title?) Les Muscleds or the Musclegod and I? And for those of you who are inclined to youthfull...ahem, content, how about (Not so) Little Orphan Andrew?

There. And to answer your question, I have a (very hot) friend who is straight according to, well, himself. Yet he likes (some) musicals. The bases of this seems to be Disney that introduced the familiarity, for want of a better word. In fact I have another (hot) friend, who incidentally is also a rugby player, bulky (not cut) but hugely muscled. In fact I wish I could show you his shoulders, triceps and forearms... or his neck when he flexes it and a voice that makes me dream of a warm musky earth quake...thrusting the earth asunder with its power - - - but I digress. He loves musicals, in fact he can hold a tune and knows most of all popular musicals / plays. Str8... apparently.

[ARCHEON]

Originally Posted by anpuZA

Talk about off topic... good lord! Unless ofcourse someone here sees possibilities in a muscle growth musical?

Interesting topic for a muscle growth board. But now that you raised this question, a musical was written by one of the members here on the forum (ManOfSteel) on another site. MOS penned a musical in 2 acts called, "Eye of the Beholder" on the site http://beta.renderotica.com/. While not specifically a muscle growth musical, the two main characters are hugely muscled. One with a heart of gold and the other as shallow as piss on concrete.

I've never thought of musicals as being necessarily a "gay" form of entertainment. I know a dozens of gay men who actually hate musicals. But musical theatre is a uniquely American art form dating back to the late 1800's and has a place in the nation's cultural history. Personally, I love just about all music and the many forms it takes. Appreciating musical theatre is sort of like understanding why country songs always seem to feature drinking, cheating, honky tonks and unrequited love.

It's how we approach things in life that give meaning to us as humans -- not because of sexual orientation.

[CelticMuscle]

Originally Posted by ARCHEON

I've never thought of musicals as being necessarily a "gay" form of entertainment. I know a dozens of gay men who actually hate musicals. But musical theatre is a uniquely American art form dating back to the late 1800's and has a place in the nation's cultural history. Personally, I love just about all music and the many forms it takes. Appreciating musical theatre is sort of like understanding why country songs always seem to feature drinking, cheating, honky tonks and unrequited love.

I agree with that assessment. I know that the latest wheeze of historians is to claim that two men living in close proximity from 1500 to 1950 were gay (eg. Phileas Fogg and Passepartout, Gilbert and Sullivan) but I don't believe it for a moment! I also just like the music and recently found "Patience" where the Duke of Dunstable utters the line "What's to adulate about me?" (a question I have often asked myself!)

[Stoneman]

I am a gay man. Musical theater is my passion.

Not every gay man likes musical theater. The rumor seems to be losing creditability, especially among the younger gays. As a MT historian said recently, gay boys are allowed to grow up as real boys now, they don't have to know about Auntie Mame and stuff.

At the same time, I think there is something about musical theater that speaks to a gay sensibility. So.

I guess I can't say 'the gay experience' anymore, since there is no one gay experience, with all those 'real boys' running around out there.

Sigh.

I think I just depressed myself.

[burntjello]

Speaking of musicals, I am seeing Legally Blonde the Musical (DONT JUDGE ME!) and was looking at in online. Here is a link,

Legally Blonde The Musical Part 1

where there are some cute muscled college students, at about 17:07, and of course you hear the entire-girl audience screaming.

Hopefully this will make you happy again Stoneman

[arpeejay]

I think for decades the gay community, such as it was, in the U.S., especially in urban areas, appreciated musical theatre for a couple of very good reasons:

(1) A lot of stuff was actually written by gay men, from Cole Porter on;

(2) Likewise, a lot of what was written had gay men in mind, and there were plenty of winks and nudges; the theatre / musical / dance / art / performance crowd in New York during the first half of the 20th Century was extremely well-acquainted with gay men, who made up a sizeable (local) subculture.

From what I can tell, musical theater (and live theater in general) peaked in New York in the early 60s and even for those of us who were tots then most stuff that has come since that time seems lackluster by comparison. I'll take Damn Yankees over Cats any day, thanks!

When I saw the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, I thought / hoped / wished for a moment that it was back! But AIDS took Howard Ashman from us at age 41 and when it did the air went out of that balloon (or so it seemed to me; I'm a distant admirer at best, not a devotee.)

Perhaps Anpuza's hunky, hulky straight friend will pick up where the estimable Mr. Ashman left off?

xoxo

Richard

[ARCHEON]

Originally Posted by arpeejay

I'll take Damn Yankees over Cats any day, thanks!

Ain't it the truth, Richard? Ain't it the truth.

They really don't make 'em like they used to. The songs of old musicals (at least the really good ones) seemed to fully musically articulate and transcend the emotions of a particular scene. The newer musicals seem to place emphasis on similar melodies regurgitated into variations on a theme.

Gosh, I remember watching Damn Yankees with my brothers on TV and we would all sing, Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.in unison. No one could ever confuse that song with, Whatever Lola Wants. LOL. Now those were the good old days.

But if I had to pick the best musical of all time...for me...it would be, My Fair Lady. Never was there a better score or lyrics that fully matched the essence of the story. Hmm, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe perhaps the issue of Pygmalion should be revisited with a modern twist? One that sets Professor Higgins together with a studly male guttersnipe? lol.

Okay, I've dribbled on enough about this. I'm done.

[burntjello]

If I had to choose one, I would say Bye Bye Birdie. It is one of my all time favorites, with amazing songs. I just got back into it when I saw it in my home town. And plus our "Birdie: was quite a hottie. Hee hee!

[anpuZA]

Originally Posted by burntjello

Speaking of musicals, I am seeing Legally Blonde the Musical (DONT JUDGE ME!) and was looking at in online. Here is a link, Legally Blonde The Musical Part 1
where there are some cute muscled college students, at about 17:07, and of course you hear the entire-girl audience screaming.

Hopefully this will make you happy again Stoneman

You have been judged! And found wanting! Legally Blonde the musical... dear sweet jumping {insert deity of choice}! How could you!?

[Mdlftr]

Like Richard, I am a child of the 1960s.

Growing up, my parents had the albums to several of the big musicals, many of which they had seen in live performance:

Oklahoma!
Sound of Music
Camelot
My Fair Lady
South Pacific

These musicals defined the era. Beyond just the Broadway environs in NYC, the entire country knew the music, and understood the cultural references.

My Fair Lady became the basis for a humorous public ad campaign against teenage pregnancy. The ad featured a glum faced young woman, obviously pregnant, with the slogan, "She (s)hould have danced all night".

After the assasination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, his beautiful widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, gave a famous interview in which she compared his "thousand days" in office to the idyllic Camelot, "..where the winter only comes in December, and exits March the second on the dot, where it only rains at night.." She exhorted the entire country to remember her martyred husband's promise by invoking the words, " ..to remember, that once there was a spot, that was known as Camelot."
"Camelot" is still shorthand today for any short-lived period of promise tragically cut short.

"You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" from South Pacific, dealt with racial prejudice and biracial relationships at a time when America was just becoming aware of the change coming as a result of the leagacy of racial prejudice.

"Oh What A Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma! is still one of the most optimistic, uplifting, positive songs from any era, defining American optimistism and "can-do" spirit in the post war era.

Finally, "Climb Every Mountain," from The Sound of Music, is one of the best "Just do it" songs ever written. A past Olympic competitor in the rowing events played the song during every work out to keep going.

Musicals are not "gay" or "straight". They encapsulate the hopes, dreams and aspirations of millions of people in short hand form and teach us about perserverance, hope and striving for that next day.

Mdlftr

[Mad Dog]

I enjoy the movie versions of Sweeney Todd, Chicago and Moulin Rouge!, but I'd have to say those are the exceptions.

[burntjello]

hmm, i would think seeing shows is better than watching the movies. Just my preference though. I am so excited! Oklahoma is coming to my home town theater company which is like absolutely amazing, all professionals.

[gogothen]

Im str8 but a little curious
muscle guys have been catching my eye lately
As 4 musicals some r ok im a disney guy so some r musicals

[hulkoutlvr]

As far as I'm concerned, for laughter, melancholy, and heartbreak, you can't beat Stephen Sondheim, with shows like "Company", "Sweeney Tood" and "A Little Night Music". Those tend to be my favorites.

My contemporary fave is Jekyll and Hyde.

[Stoneman]

1. Have you all overlooked "My Fair Man: A Muscle Musical" in the archives? C'mon! It's all there in 11 parts, complete with rewritten lyrics!

2. Musicals are inherently gay. I even read a book to that effect. Gay men are more keenly aware of the misleading nature of surfaces in real life, usually having spent at least a few years in the closet, and the artifice of theater is something they can relate to more easily, especially in musicals where the artifice is right out there front and center. Musicals became a shared world for homosexuals. Something everyone followed, and almost a tell.

But as homosexuality becomes more accepted, and less (if any) time is spent in the closet, some of gay men's unique appreciation for the deceit of surfaces is lost, and contemporary gay men have less of a reason to be attracted to musicals. As historian Ethan Mordden puts it, "They can be real boys; they don't have to know about Auntie Mame."

Which makes it kind of ironic that I'm obsessed with masculine men, since it's the obsession with masculinity in gay culture which allows gay men to hate musicals, but I'm just full of contradictions I guess.

3. It's hard for my generation to comprehend how big musical theater was in the Golden Age. Owning the 78s to Oklahoma! or the Camelot LP was a sign of cultural awareness. It was social mobility. It was belonging to the bourgeoisie.

Now knowing what's playing on the Street feels more like being completely unaware of contemporary culture to me.

[KalaNemi]

Damn musicals are sooooo catchy. I just cant get the song out of my head. THEY ARE AWESOME!