History Main / AllGaysLoveTheater

As one can imagine, this trope extends all around. If a man is a stage actor or is in any way employed by a theater company, or simply enjoys watching plays and/or listening to showtunes, questions of [[AmbiguouslyGay his sexuality]] will rise quickly. This can be a PetPeeveTrope, though the degree of which varies. Most heterosexual stage actors and fans are secure enough that this sort of thing doesn't bother them (unless they're [[GenderNormativeParentPlot teenagers]]), but gay men who don't enjoy theater tend to [[StopBeingStereotypical chafe]] at being grouped with [[CampGay screaming queens]] who argue over whether Jennifer Holiday or Jennifer Hudson played a better Effie in ''{{Theatre/Dreamgirls}}''.

-->'''Russell''': "Dad, why would you ask me that?"\\
'''Mr. Peters''': "Well, they are gay, and you are in the entertainment business!"
* Creator/FrankieBoyle maintains that the real reason for the existence of musical theatre is to provide gainful employment for the majority of British homosexuals, who would otherwise be jobless. [[note]]frankie's humour is not at all politically correct.[[/note]]

--->'''Blanche''': A gay theater director, did you ever hear of such a thing?
--->'''[[DeadpanSnarker Dorothy]]''': That's absolutely shocking. The next thing you know, they'll have black basketball players in the NBA.

--> '''Rod:''' Ah, an afternoon alone with my favourite book. "Broadway Musicals of the 1940s"!

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** Louis enjoys the theatre, but in episode 1, [[BlatantLies he acted dismissively and disinterested about it]] to his family when Lestat brings up that they attended ''Theatre/{{Iolanta}}'' together -- to a brief surprised expression from Lestat. Louis was [[ClosetGay firmly closeted and in denial at the time]], and is deliberately trying to avoid this trope's implications. Louis and Lestat [[DiscussedTrope discuss]] it after the dinner.

* In the short story "Am I Blue?", Melvin says that certain groups like people in the theatre have a higher percent of gay people because they're naturally artistic. Though he points out the stereotype about all people in theatre being gay is false, as most of them are actually straight and only some of the gay characters are into theatre.

* ''Series/TheOffice'': This stereotype is one of the several reasons that Andy, a huge acapella nerd and musical theatre lover, attracts so many AmbiguouslyGay jokes. He, however, doesn't seem to be aware of the cliche at all.

** Louis enjoys the theatre, but in episode 1, [[BlatantLies he acted dismissively and disinterested about it]] to his family when Lestat brings up that they attended ''Theatre/{{Iolanta}}'' together -- to a brief surprised expression from Lestat. Louis was [[ClosetGay firmly closeted and in denial at the time]], and is deliberately trying to avoid this trope's implications. Louis and Lestat [[DiscussedTrope discuss this trope]] after the dinner.

* Lampshaded in ''Fanfic/WithPearlAndRubyGlowing'' when [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Timon]] is coming out to his mother. His mother reveals that she had already figured as much and one of the reasons she cites is that he is a musical theatre actor. With other characters the stereotype leads to problems; [[WesternAnimation/Ballerina Rudy and Louis]] are both straight, but suffered HomophobicHateCrime attacks because they're ballet dancers.

* Lampshaded in ''Fanfic/WithPearlAndRubyGlowing'' when [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Timon]] is coming out to his mother. His mother reveals that she had already figured as much and one of the reasons she cites is that he is an actor.

* Brenden Fraser's character in ''Film/{{Bedazzled 2000}}'' when he is loudly denying he is gay (deal with the devil 4th wish), the guy he lives with gives him a quick quiz ending with "What was the original Broadway cast of ''The Pajama Game''?" He names off 3-4 characters in as many seconds before catching himself "Oh my God, I AM gay!"

** In the Season 1 finale, the queer Armand (who hasn't explicitly identified his sexuality in Season 1, but he and Louis are in a same-sex relationship) lets Daniel Molloy know that he was once part of the ''Théâtre des Vampires''.

** The bisexual Lestat de Lioncourt is a big fan of the opera, and he often takes his gay boyfriend Louis de Pointe du Lac on dates to watch live performances. Lestat also used to socialize with the Women's Opera Society.

The stereotype that if a man is gay, he ''must'' love theater, especially musical theater. He'll know every play worth knowing in a given season, will be familiar with every Broadway leading lady (living and dead), and owns the original cast recordings of his favorite musicals that he sings with gusto. When he's not onstage himself, he'll religiously attend the plays in his city's biggest theater or theater district.

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* ''Film/{{Trevor}}'': "I've decided that the theater is going to be my life." Cut to Trevor directing Pinky and some other boys in a rehearsal of ''Theatre/AnythingGoes''.

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--> '''Nora:''' Think of your future! Your career!\\

* Ryan Evans from ''Movie/HighSchoolMusical'' is queercoded in the movies and confirmed to be gay by the diector, and is very into singing, dancing, and musical theatre.

* Often invoked on ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace''. Every season has at least one musical theatre-based challenge, and when Ru hints at the challenge of the week, he needs only drop the vaguest references to popular musicals for the queens to instantly get what he's referring to and light up in excitement.

* All the characters ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPennsylvania are either aspiring actors or have acted in plays, but Mac in particular is really into musical theater, declaring that "musicals are gonna be a huge part of my life moving forward" after taking part in a church skit (and begging the pastors to keep rehearsing over and over and over again). He comes out as gay soon after in the series.

--->'''Cam''': Oh really? What part is she playing?\\

There is ''some'' element of TruthInTelevision, as a good portion of stage actors and fans are indeed gay; however, this only really means that men who enjoy theater are more likely to be gay compared to other media, not so much that every gay person enjoys theater or that every person who enjoys theater is gay. Interestingly enough, this trope is completely averted when it comes to most big name male movie stars, as the moment one becomes famous there is not an automatic assumption of homosexuality, even though a good portion of movie stars enjoy theater. That is, unless a male film star still does musical theater between film projects or even expresses a preference for Broadway over Hollywood, in which case the gay rumors ''fly''.

The stereotype that if a man is gay, he ''must'' love theater, especially musical theater. He'll know every play worth knowing in a given season, will be familiar with every Broadway leading lady (living and dead), and owns the soundtracks to his favorite musicals that he sings with gusto. When he's not onstage himself, he'll religiously attend the plays in his city's biggest theater or theater district.