This list includes exceptional works about Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender experience. Authors are usually limited to one title. All available public domain works (Shakespeare, Whitman, Wilde, many more) link to free, unabridged copies. For biographical and historical information, see the glbtq encyclopedia. And don't forget to check out 100 best gay and lesbian books.
[visit GLBT Literature for more info]
Drama | ||
Albee, Edward | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Two married couples strip away each other's illusions; 1963 |
Behn, Aphra | Adventures of a group of English Cavaliers in Madrid and Naples during the exile of (the future King) Charles II – for 150 years this remained the most often-performed play in the Western world; 1677 | |
Bennett, Alan | The History Boys | Boys at elite British school in the '80s are caught between two very different teachers; 2004 |
Blitzstein, Marc | The Cradle Will Rock | Opera – political skullduggery in allegorical "Steeltown, USA”; 1936 |
Bowles, Jane Auer | In the Summer House | Tangled relationship of a mother and daughter; 1953 |
Brecht, Bertolt | Baal | A man's pursuit of pleasure in all of its forms; 1918 |
Britten, Benjamin (composer) & Montagu Slater (author) | Peter Grimes | Opera – stunning musical/dramatic masterpiece about an outcast fisherman whose apprentices die mysteriously; 1944 |
Chambers, Jane | Last Summer at Bluefish Cove | Impact of a woman's terminal cancer on her lifelong friends and lovers; 1980 |
Cocteau, Jean | The Infernal Machine | Magical retelling of Oedipus and Sphinx; 1932 |
Crowley, Mart | Boys in the Band | Compendium of gay stereotypes; 1968 |
Cruz, Nilo | Anna in the Tropics | Magical realist play about family of Cuban cigar makers in 1930 Florida; gay playwright is first Latino to win Pulitzer for Drama; 2002 |
Durang, Christopher | The Marriage of Bette and Boo | Tragi-comedy about a dysfunctional American family; 1973 (revised 1985) |
Edson, Margaret | Wit | Feisty literature professor faces death with the aid of John Donne's poetry; lesbian playwright won Pulitzer Prize; 1998 |
Euripides | The god Dionysus exacts revenge on a puritanical king who refuses to worship him; 405 BC | |
Fierstein, Harvey | Torch Song Trilogy | Life of an indomitable drag queen; 1982 |
Genet, Jean | The Balcony | Surreal, horrific comedy set in a brothel; 1956 |
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von | Epic verse drama about a man who sells his soul for ultimate knowledge; with a gay Mephistopheles; 1832 (compare Marlowe's Dr. Faustus; 1588) | |
Greenberg, Richard | Take Me Out | Travails of a gay major league baseball player; 2002 |
Hansberry, Lorraine | A Raisin in the Sun | Black lesbian playwright's classic about a divided family; 1959 |
Inge, William | Picnic | Drifter unsettles a complacent Midwest town; 1953 |
Kelly, George | Craig's Wife | A married woman is obsessed with her possessions; 1925 |
Kleist, Heinrich von | Penthesilea | Tragedy of Amazons fighting in Trojan War; 1807 |
Kramer, Larry | The Normal Heart | Fictionalized account of origins of GMHC – by celebrated author/activist who actually did found the group; 1985 |
Kushner, Tony | Angels in America | Epic two-part comedy/drama/fantasy about 1980s America; Part I: Millennium Approaches (1992) and Part II: Perestroika (1994) |
Larson, Jonathan | Musical – NYC "Bohemian" life today; 1995 | |
Laurents, Arthur, Stephen Sondheim & Leonard Bernstein | West Side Story | Musical – update of Romeo and Juliet moved to the mean streets of then-contemporary Manhattan, with one of the greatest scores in theatre history; later a classic film; 1957 |
Marlowe, Christopher | English king sacrifices all for his lover; 1594. Adapted by Brecht, 1923; filmed by Jarman, 1991 | |
McNally, Terrence | Love! Valour! Compassion! | Gay friends sort out their lives on three holiday weekends at a country house; 1995 |
Menotti, Gian-Carlo | The Consul | Opera – parable about refugees confronting a faceless bureaucracy; 1950 |
Mussorgsky, Modest | Boris Godunov | Opera – musically and dramatically stunning epic about the 16th c. Russian tsar, with libretto and music by Mussorgsky [production photo]; 1862 |
Patrick, Robert | Untold Decades | Seven one-acts on gay life throughout the 20th c.; 1988 — At this site's Robert Patrick page, the author has graciously sent links to his original photos of "the birthplace of gay theatre" – Manhattan's Caffe Cino, three of his original plays including his favorite, Michelangelo's Models: An Historical Fantasia In Three Acts, as well as an original poem – Thank you, Mr. Patrick! |
Stoppard,Tom | The Invention of Love | Gay British poet A.E. Housman (A Shropshire Lad) looks back on his life in this dream-like play; 1997 |
Van Druten, John | Bell, Book and Candle | Romantic fantasy about a contemporary witch who falls in love with a mortal; 1950 |
Webster, John | Overwhelming tragic masterpiece; ca. 1611 | |
Wilde, Oscar | Feverish drama of princess's lust for John the Baptist; 1893 (inspired by Flaubert's story "Herodias") | |
Wilder, Thornton | Our Town | Some of a small New Hampshire town's secrets; 1938 |
Williams, Emlyn | About a baby-faced killer, this is one of the most influential thrillers ever written for the stage; 1935 | |
Williams, Tennessee | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Homosexual loves, past and present; 1955 |
Wilson, Lanford | The Fifth of July | Disabled gay Vietnam vet, lover, & family; 1978 |
Wright, Doug | I Am My Own Wife | One actor plays many roles in Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of real-life German transvestite who survived both the Nazis and Communists; 2003 |
