‘Next Fall’, First of Several Gay Plays To Open on Broadway

“Next Fall,” which had a brief albeit extended run at Playwrights Horizon, is planning to move to Broadway in the Spring, opening at the Helen Hayes on March 11th.
Next Fall, which I reviewed in June as part of a round-up of gay-themed theater, tells the story of the five-year relationship between Adam, a wise-cracking atheist, and Luke, a younger man and a committed Christian. Written by Geoffrey Nauffts, the artistic director of the Naked Angels theater company, it had some prominent backers: Among the donors listed as having contributed $5,000 are Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, Elton John and David Furnish, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor Stiller, and David Schwimmer (all, not coincidentally, collaborators with Nauffts on other projects.)
The show now has a Twitter account (its first and only tweet so far, written more than a month ago, is: “Stay tuned for details about the upcoming Broadway play “Next Fall”!” and a Web site, Next Fall Broadway

When it opens, it will be the only gay-themed play on Broadway — although you could argue that both “Hair” and “Billy Elliott” (and the now Off-Broadway “Avenue Q” and the soon-to-be-departed “Shrek”) are at least gay-friendly.

But, if all goes as planned, it won’t be the only gay-themed Broadway show for long.

A revival of “La Cage Aux Folles” is planned for the Longacre, with an opening on April 18th.

A musical based on Armistead Maupin’s novel “Tales of the City” is also in the works, with a book by Jeff Whitty (who wrote the book for Avenue Q). There is no scheduled opening date, but the producers hope to get a Broadway theater for it sometime this season.

For the 2010 – 2011 season, the Signature Theater has announced plans to remount Tony Kushner’s Angels in America.