Theater

Award-Winning Composer 

b. July 10, 1931
d. December 26, 2019

“Writing for me is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.”

Gerald “Jerry” Herman was an openly gay Broadway composer and lyricist best known for the smash musicals “Hello, Dolly!,” “Mame” and “La Cage aux Folles.”

Herman was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey. His family made frequent trips to the New York theater, which ignited his passion for Broadway musicals.

Herman spent his childhood learning the piano and writing songs. Every year he attended a summer camp owned by his parents. Before long, he was directing the camp’s theater shows.

Herman attended Parsons School of Design in New York. A talented interior designer, he renovated more than 30 homes. After a year at Parsons, Herman left to pursue theater at the University of Miami. At the time, the college offered one of the most innovative theater programs in America.

In Miami, Herman wrote, produced and directed his first musical, “Sketchbook.” The successful show ran for 17 additional performances beyond its original schedule.

Herman received his bachelor’s degree in drama in 1953 and relocated to New York, where he worked with an Off Broadway revue. In 1961 the theater producer Gerard Oestreicher asked Herman to write the music and lyrics for “Milk and Honey.” It was Herman’s first full Broadway score.

In 1964, with David Merrick and Michael Stewart, Herman produced “Hello, Dolly!” The longest-running musical of its time, “Hello, Dolly!” won 10 Tony Awards, and the show’s original cast recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Multiple Broadway revivals have been produced since.

In 1966 Herman wrote the score for the hit musical “Mame.” The play earned eight Tony Award nominations, including best composer and lyricist, and won three.

After several of his subsequent shows received negative reviews, Herman took a break. His inspiration returned after watching the novel-based French movie, “La Cage aux Folles.” Herman contacted the book’s author, Harvey Fierstein, and the two collaborated on a Broadway version of “La Cage” in 1983.

The winner of six Tony Awards, “La Cage aux Folles” presented the funny and touching story of a gay couple and their straight, soon-to-be married son. It provided a watershed portrayal of gay relationships and same-sex parenthood at a time when the AIDS epidemic raged and homophobia was rampant. Herman himself contracted HIV in 1985 and began a series of experimental drug therapies that saved his life.

Herman received numerous awards and nominations. The University of Miami named a theater after him, and the Kennedy Center honored him in 2010.

In 2019 Herman died of pulmonary complications. The New York Times published his obituary.

Award-Winning Broadway Actor

b. September 21, 1969

“Pride is a protest. It’s a march, not a parade.”

Billy Porter is an Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award-winning actor and singer whose roles are frequently LGBT-themed. He was the first openly gay black man to win a Primetime Emmy Award in a lead acting category.

Porter was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father abandoned the family, and his stepfather sexually abused him. His mother suffered from a neurological disorder. A flamboyant child, Porter was suspected of being mentally ill and frequently bullied.

Porter found his escape in performing. He graduated from the Musical Theater Program at the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School. He earned a BFA in drama from Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama in 1991 and completed a professional certificate in screenwriting from UCLA.

Porter received his first major national award 1992, winning Male Vocalist Grand Champion on the television program “Star Search.” In the following decade, he established himself as a rising star, performing on Broadway in the revival of “Grease” (1994), Off Broadway in “Myths and Hymns and Songs for a New World” (1995), and at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera in “Dreamgirls” (2004). He also starred in several films, including the gay-themed “Twisted” (1996) and in “The Broken Hearts Club” (2000), which portrayed stories of gay romance.

In 2005 Porter performed a one-man autobiographical show, “Ghetto Superstar: The Man That I Am,” at Joe’s Pub, a noted Manhattan performance space. “Ghetto Superstar” earned Porter an Outstanding New York Theater nomination at the 2006 GLAAD Media Awards.

In 2013 Porter originated the principal role of Lola, the cabaret drag queen, in the hit Broadway musical “Kinky Boots.” The same year, he captured both the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Musical and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. In 2014, as part of the cast performance of “Kinky Boots,” he won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

In 2018 Porter began starring as the character Pray Tell in the television series “Pose” about 1980s New York ballroom culture. In 2019 the role earned him a Golden Globe nomination and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. The Emmy made him the first gay black man to be nominated and to win in a lead acting category. On the red carpet, Porter’s often wild, gender-bending fashion statements have added to the media attention he attracts.

Porter lives in Manhattan with his spouse, Adam Smith.

Award-Winning Theater Director

b. November 21, 1963

“Art is a great prism through which we can understand history and current events.”

Moisés Kaufman is an award-winning theater director and playwright. His work is known for its bold, perceptive portrayals of contemporary social issues, particularly those of sexuality and culture. His groundbreaking play, “The Laramie Project,” inspired by the brutal killing of a gay college student, Mathew Shepard, generated worldwide empathy and dialogue around LGBT hate crimes.

Born in Venezuela, Kaufman grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family. As a youth, he was exposed to avant-garde theater. While working toward a business degree in Caracas, he joined an experimental theater group and toured as an actor.

In 1987 Kaufman moved to Manhattan to study theater direction at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Recognizing the originality of Kaufman’s ideas, Arthur Bartow, the university’s dean, advised him at graduation, “No one will hire you. You should start your own theater company.”

In 1991 Kaufman and his husband, Jeffrey LaHoste, founded the experimental Tectonic Theater Project, dedicated to developing consciousness-raising, innovative works that push the boundaries of theatrical language and form. In its early years, the cash-strapped troupe rehearsed in the couple’s apartment. Under Kaufman’s artistic direction, Tectonic eventually flourished. The theater company has since created and staged more than 20 plays and musicals. Many, including the “The Laramie Project,” “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde” and “33 Variations,” have garnered international acclaim.

Shortly after the murder of Mathew Shepard in 1998, Kaufman took his Manhattan-based theater company to Laramie, Wyoming, the small college town where the crime occurred. They conducted more than 400 hours of interviews with 200 local residents. Kaufman used the conversations to write and produce “The Laramie Project.” The play, which premiered in 2000, became one of the most-produced works of the decade. It has been performed worldwide in theaters and schools and used to educate people about homophobia. Kaufman also wrote and directed a screen adaptation that was released on HBO in 2002.

Kaufman has earned numerous accolades for his work, including an Obie Award for his Broadway directorial debut, “I Am My Own Wife”; two Tony Award nominations: one for “I Am My Own Wife” and one for “33 Variations”; the Outer Critics Award for “Gross Indecency”; and two Emmy nominations for “The Laramie Project.” In 2009 President Obama invited Kaufman and Techtonic to witness the signing of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. In 2016 President Obama presented Kauffman with the National Medal of Arts.

Transgender Activist & Author

b. March 15, 1948

“Do whatever it takes to make your life more worth living, just don’t be mean.”

Kate (née Albert) Bornstein is an internationally renowned American transgender performer, author, theorist and activist. Her acting portfolio comprises performance art, theater, television and film. Her award-winning books have been translated into five languages and are studied in schools and universities worldwide.

Born in Neptune City, New Jersey, into a conservative middle-class Jewish family, Bornstein attended Brown University and became the first person to graduate with a degree in theater arts. Although Bornstein transitioned to female and underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1986, she now identifies as nonbinary and is attracted to women.

In Bornstein’s early career, she wrote art reviews for San Francisco’s LGBT newspaper, The Bay Area Reporter. She subsequently became a prolific performer, creating one-person shows, performance art and theater productions. In 1989, at the age of 41, she created “Hidden: A Gender,” a theater production exploring the parallels between her own life and the life of Herculine Barbin, an intersex person.

Bornstein’s groundbreaking books challenge preconceptions about gender binaries and help advance understanding of LGBT issues. Her 2009 book, “Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws,” received a Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award. Her 2013 book, “My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity,” won a 2014 Rainbow Project Book List award from the American Library Association. In 2015 Lambda Literary presented her with its Pioneer Award.

Bornstein appeared as a regular cast member on “I Am Cait,” the E! reality television program featuring Caitlyn Jenner, and has provided commentary on news-and-opinion programs, such as MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry show. She is the subject of the acclaimed 2014 documentary “Kate Bornstein Is a Queer and Pleasant Danger,” produced by Sam Feder. The Advocate magazine named it one of the best LGBT documentaries of the year, and it received the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism.

Bornstein appeared the 2017 film “Saturday Church,” and in 2018 she made her Broadway debut in “Straight White Men.”

A dedicated activist, Bornstein travels extensively giving lectures and workshops at colleges and other venues. She recently started personal gender-identity counseling she calls Heart to Heart Coaching With Kate. The New York City Council has twice honored her for outstanding citizenship for her advocacy for marginalized and suicide-prone youth.

Bornstein lives in Manhattan with her partner, Barbara Carrellas, an artist and sex educator.

Gay Pioneer

b. October 17, 1917
d. May 11, 2000

“I was one of the founders of the first homosexual organizations in U.S. history. …Our basic argument was that changes in sex laws would not benefit us alone but everyone.”

William Dale Jennings was a gay pioneer who cofounded two early gay organizations and one of the first gay magazines in America. He was dubbed the Rosa Parks of the gay rights movement when he successfully challenged his arrest on homosexuality charges.

Jennings grew up in Denver, Colorado, where he studied piano and dance. He was performing by the age of 12 and traveled with the Lester Horton Dance Group. He moved to Los Angeles in his early 20s, after training in theater direction. Jennings established his own theater company and wrote and produced more than 50 short plays. 

Jennings served in World War II and received several military honors, including a Victory Medal. After an honorable discharge in 1946, he studied cinema for two years at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. 

In 1950 the U.S. Senate declared homosexuals a national threat. That year, Harry Hay, Jennings and four other gay activists cofounded the Mattachine Society—an underground gay community network and one of the first gay civil liberties organizations in the United States. 

During this time, vice detectives posing as homosexuals commonly entrapped gay men and charged them with solicitation. Most men pled guilty for fear of public exposure. When Jennings was arrested for soliciting in 1950, he fought back. He was the first openly gay man known to have done so. During his 10-day trial in 1952, Jennings disclosed his homosexuality but denied the charge. The jury deadlocked one vote shy of acquittal, and the judge dismissed the case. Publicity surrounding the trial exposed the issue of entrapment and made Jennings an gay hero.

Later the same year, with a group Mattachine members, Jennings cofounded ONE, Inc., to develop a publication specifically for homosexuals. With Jennings as its editor, the first issue of ONE Magazine was published in 1953. It became the first widely distributed gay magazine in the United States. 

In 1954 the Los Angeles postmaster cited the publication for obscenity and refused to deliver it. A legal battle ensued, and after several lower court rulings in favor of the post office, the United States Supreme Court ruled for the magazine. A first-of-its-kind victory, the decision in ONE vs. Olesen is celebrated as a legal landmark, making the mail circulation of gay periodicals possible.

In addition to ONE Magazine, Jennings wrote for other publications and published three novels. His California gold-rush-era coming-of-age story, “The Cowboys,” was made into a movie, starring the Academy Award-winning actor John Wayne. Jennings co-wrote the screenplay. 

Jennings died in Los Angeles at the age of 82. The New York Times published his obituary.

Award-Winning Actor

b. June 26, 1970 

“I know I should've come out sooner and I'm sorry for that. Especially when I think about the possibility that I might have made a difference in someone's life.”

Sean Patrick Hayes is an actor, singer, comedian and producer best known for his role as Jack McFarland on NBC’s award-winning sitcom “Will and Grace.” The role has earned him an Emmy, an American Comedy Award, four Screen Actors Guild Awards and numerous nominations.

Hayes was raised Roman Catholic by his single mother in the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn. He studied piano performance at Illinois State University but left before graduating. He became the music director of a theater in St. Charles, Illinois, and worked as a classical pianist.

Hayes practiced improvisation at The Second City in Chicago, the renowned comedy enterprise that launched many of the industry’s top talents. In 1995 he moved to Los Angeles to work as a stand-up comedian. 

Hayes made his film debut in “Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss” in July 1998. Later that year, he was cast as the flamboyant, humorously self-obsessed gay character, Jack, in the new television comedy series, “Will and Grace.” The groundbreaking sitcom was one of the first widely broadcast programs to feature LGBT characters consistently and portray them positively.

“Will and Grace” ran for eight seasons (188 episodes) and garnered numerous awards and accolades. The series was revived in 2017 with its original core cast. 

In 2001 Hayes’s performance on “Will and Grace” earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Between 2001 and 2006 he earned seven consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the role. He also received six Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor, an American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Male in a Television Series, four SAG Awards and multiple Satellite Award nominations for his work on the show.

In 2004 Hayes founded his own television production company, Hazy Mills Productions, which has produced popular NBC shows such as “Grimm” and “Hollywood Game Night.”

Hayes’s Broadway credits include “An Act of God” and “Promises, Promises,” for which he received the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. He hosted the live Tony Awards show that same year.

Although Hayes portrays a gay character on “Will and Grace,” he did not come out until he was interviewed by The Advocate in 2010. In 2018 he told the Hollywood Reporter, “I didn't have the DNA or the ability to be one spokesperson for an entire group of people.”
 
In 2013 Hayes received an honorary Ph.D. from Illinois State University. In 2014 he married his longtime partner, Scott Icenogle.

Broadway Producer of Hamilton

b. January 1, 1965

“I fail all the time and I have to be willing to fail in order to succeed.”

Jeffrey Seller is Tony Award-winning theater producer best known for the smash hits “Rent,” “Avenue Q,” “In the Heights” and “Hamilton.”

Seller grew up in suburban Detroit, the adopted middle child of a Jewish family. He was enamored of musical theater from an early age. After hearing Patti LuPone sing “Evita” on the “Tony Awards,” he dashed to the library in search of the soundtrack. In fourth grade he wrote his first play, “Adventureland,” which later became the name of his production company.

In 1986 Seller graduated from the University of Michigan and moved to New York City. He got his start as a booking agent and became a publicist and producer. Along with his business partner, Seller produced “Rent” in 1996, “Avenue Q” in 2003 and “In the Heights” in 2008.  All three shows received the Tony for Best Musical.

While working on “Rent,” Seller created the idea for the first-ever rush and lottery ticket policies. With prices and demand for popular Broadway tickets soaring, he was determined to make shows accessible to all people, regardless of their income. He offered a number of front-row seats at a low price on a first-come, first-served basis. People camped out overnight to get the coveted spots. The success led him to offer discounted seats through a lottery system.

Seller has worked on numerous shows, including “De La Guarda” in 1998, the “Wild Party” and “High Fidelity” in 2000, the revival of “West Side Story” in 2009, and the “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” in 2011, starring Robin Williams. He produced the film adaptation of “Rent” in 2005.

In 2014 Seller produced “The Last Ship”—the musical written by rock icon Sting, based on the album of the same name. In 2015, with collaborator Lin-Manuel Miranda, Seller produced “Hamilton.” A Broadway phenomenon, “Hamilton” received 11 Tony Awards and a record-breaking 16 nominations—the most ever for a musical.

Seller lives in New York City with his spouse, John Lehrer. They are the parents of a daughter and son.

Playwright and Activist

b. May 19, 1930
d. January 12, 1965

“There is always something left to love.”

Lorraine Hansberry is an acclaimed American playwright and author, best known for “A Raisin in the Sun.” She was the first black woman to write a play performed on Broadway.

Hansberry was born on the South Side of Chicago. Her family’s home served as a hub of black intellectualism. Her parents entertained some of the most respected thinkers of the day, including W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson.

Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she became politically active and helped to integrate her dormitory. She dropped out after two years and moved to New York City to pursue a writing career. She enrolled in The New School and joined the staff of Paul Robeson’s progressive black newspaper, Freedom.

In 1953 Hansberry married Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish publisher, songwriter and political activist. At the time, Hansberry was a closeted lesbian.

In 1957 Hansberry joined the Daughters of Bilitis, an early lesbian rights organization, and became an activist. She wrote “A Raisin in the Sun” the same year.

“A Raisin in the Sun” premiered on Broadway and ran for 530 performances. It has been translated into 35 languages and was adapted for the screen. The acclaimed play made Hansberry the first black dramatist, the fifth women and youngest person ever to win a New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award.

Hansberry divorced in 1962 and died of pancreatic cancer in 1965. She was 34. At the funeral, the novelist James Baldwin and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. eulogized her.

After her death, Hansberry’s ex-husband adapted her writings into “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” which became the longest-running Off-Broadway play of the 1968-’69 season. In 1969 Nina Simone recorded a song of the same name as a tribute to her departed friend.  

“Raisin,” a musical adaptation of “A Raisin in the Sun,” opened on Broadway in 1973 and won a Tony Award for Best Musical. A revival of the original play won a Tony in 2004.

Hansberry was named to the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame and to the biographical dictionary “100 Greatest African Americans.” In 2013 she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and the Legacy Walk, an outdoor display in Chicago celebrating LGBT heroes.