THE ARTS

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, often referred to as Peter Tchaikovsky, is among Russia’s greatest cultural exports. He composed Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty, arguably the world’s greatest ballets, which sell-out theatres to this day. His compositions pack London’s Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms season year in, year out. Despite being the first Russian composer to find worldwide popularity, the nation of his birth has spent more than 100 years airbrushing the truth about his life.

In 1931 in Germany, a whole lot of things that had just been permissible a few years before had become suddenly, unequivocally verboten. And you don’t need to be a genius to guess why. Germany was becoming, in 1931, the earliest iteration of what it would be in 1939 – a country repenting for what it saw as its sins of licentiousness by enforcing the strictest social laws and codes.

Digging into the archives, we unearth the original articles printed in the Playbills of yesteryear. The original Broadway production of Jerry Herman’s Tony Award-winning musical La Cage aux Folles opened on Broadway August 21, 1983. The production would go on to win six 1984 Tony Awards, including Best Score (Herman), Best Book (Harvey Fierstein), Best Direction (Laurents), and Best Musical. In the following interview, George Hearn and Gene Barry, who starred in the central roles of Albin (Zsa Zsa) and Georges—a middle-aged gay couple whose love story was the heart of this unconventional new musical—discuss the decision to take on the roles in an era when playing gay characters on stage was still a risky move.

Trevor, a musical based on the Oscar-winning 1994 short film of the same name, is now aiming for Broadway. Produced in association with U Rock Theatricals, the world premiere musical is currently playing a limited engagement at the Writers Theatre in Glencoe, Illinois.