History HaveAGayOldTime / Theatre

* One of the several drinking songs in ''The Student Prince'' had a chorus starting, "Come, boys, let's all be gay, boys."
* In ''Pal Joey'', just before the DreamBallet, Joey envisions himself becoming "the gay Joey." This has no connection to an earlier moment demonstrating that Joey likes to chase boys as well as skirts.
* In the original ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'', after Cyrano has successfully negotiated Christian into Roxanne's room, the play notes "They begin to make love." Now, it is not clear what was meant by that in 1897, but in the movie, they are clearly making out like teenagers.

* Who could forget the classic line from ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest'': "The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain"? (Being Creator/OscarWilde, it could have been dirtier than we think.)

* Music/ColePorter's 1932 musical, ''Gay Divorce'', has nothing to do with gay couples divorcing. The film adaptation (1934) was titled ''Film/TheGayDivorcee''.
** It includes the song "Night and Day," which ends with these lines:
--> And my torment won't be through\\
Till you let me spend the rest of my life making love to you\\
Day and night, night and day!
* ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' has a couple of lines of dialogue between Blanche and Mitch about Blanche being "straight". However, while it clearly means "okay" or "righteous" in the context of the scene, it's possible that, given that the term ''had'' begun to take on its modern meaning among members of the gay community, Creator/TennesseeWilliams, himself a gay man, did it on purpose (most likely to slip some hidden meaning into Blanche's line, "A line can be straight, or a street, but the heart of a human being?").
* Various instances in the Creator/GilbertAndSullivan operas:
** "Be firm, be firm, my pecker" in ''Theatre/TrialByJury''. ("Pecker" means nose, as in the old saying "keep your pecker up," but modern audiences will assume something different.)
** ''Theatre/{{Patience}}'' has the title character, the only one of the maidens ''not'' to be swooning over Bunthorne, declare her ignorance of love: "For I am blithe and I am gay." Less reverential productions have the other maidens echo her line with a sneer: "For she is blithe and '''gay'''."
** When the Fairy Queen in ''Theatre/{{Iolanthe}}'' suggests that Strephon try his hand at politics, Iolanthe exclaims, "A fairy Member! That would be delightful!" She is referring, of course, to the idea of a Member of Parliament who is also a member of the fay, but given what "fairy" and "member" have come to be slang for nowadays, this line often elicits some snickers from the audience. (The fact that all the fairies in the scene besides Strephon are played by women doesn't help matters any.)
** ''Theatre/PrincessIda'' has the chorus singing "We ought to bless her brothers' swords, and piously ejaculate" (that last word meaning "exclaim suddenly").
** ''Theatre/TheMikado'' contains the line "Dicky-bird, why do you sit / Singing willow, tit-willow, tit-willow?" Milked for all its worth on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' and ''Series/{{Frasier}}''.
** ''Theatre/TheMikado'' also has "the nigger serenader and the others of his race" on Ko-Ko's list of people "who never would be missed". "Race", in the 1880s, meant something more like "type", "kind" or "sort" rather than "ethnicity", and "nigger serenader" refers to what we today would call "blackface minstrels" rather than actual dark-skinned performers.
** In ''Theatre/TrialByJury'' there's The Judge's paraphernalia.
--> I'd a swallow-tailed coat of a beautiful blue,
--> A brief that I bought from a booby,
--> A couple of shirts and a collar or two, and a ring that looked like a ruby.
* Creator/JBPriestley’s ''Dangerous Corner'' requires Stanton to say "It's very rum ..." (antiquated word for odd, strange, peculiar) while pouring drinks.
** This wordplay was also referenced in a ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' story, with the bear coming across a rum barrel and wondering what was so rum about it.

* Happens ''over and over again'' in ''Theatre/HeddaGabler'' (translated into English in the 1950s). The word "gay" is used repeatedly as a euphemism between the characters for "overly hedonistic or sinful"... and the way they treat it as a euphemism just makes it more unintentionally funny.
* In ''Theatre/TheDiaryOfAnneFrank'', Anne says that she made the shampoo she gave to Mrs. Van Daan for Hanukkah by mixing scraps of soap with toilet water. Here, "toilet water" refers to a type of perfume, but most modern audiences probably don't know this and find the line somewhat {{squick}}-y.

* As late as 1961, there could be a Broadway musical titled ''The Gay Life'' without reference to homosexuality. A few later productions retitled it ''The High Life''. (Which will probably need to be changed again to avoid sounding like it's about drug use.)

* Who could forget the classic line from ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest'': "The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain"? (Being Creator/OscarWilde, it could have been dirtier than we think.)

* ''Theatre/{{Brigadoon}}'' has this dialogue after Tommy sings "The Heather of the Hill":
--->'''Fiona''': Ye see. Ye can say nice things when ye want to.\\
'''Tommy''': Yes! It almost sounded like I was making love to you, didn't it?\\
'''Fiona''': Oh! There's a difference between makin' love an' jus' bein' sentimental because ye're tired.
** Brigadoon also has a line in "My Mother's Wedding Day", describing just how blind drunk everyone was.
--> Everyone was blithe and gay at her mother's wedding day!

* Gaylord Ravenal in ''Theatre/ShowBoat'' is a MeaningfulName -- but in the old sense of 'gay'.

*** The song "Younger than Springtime" has a reference to being "gayer than laughter".

* In ''Theatre/SouthPacific'', there are several uses of the word gay, as well as the lyric "High as a flag on the Fourth of July"

* Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'':
** Many an English class have found amusement in this play when Caesar's wife is interrupted by someone calling out (to the general crowd) "Peace, ho! Caesar Speaks!" Ho being a general "hey!" sort of word back in Elizabethan times...
** Between Cassius and Brutus - [[HoYay "I have not from your eyes that gentleness/ And show of love as I was wont to have."]] and [[HoYay "Forgets the shows of Love to ther men."]] and [[HoYay "That I do fawn on men and hug them hard/ And after scandal them"]], [[HoYay "I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love."]]
** Cassius: [[HoYay "..and Cassius must bend his body if Caesar carelessly but nod at him."]], and (in reference to other Senators) [[HoYay "For who so firm cannot be seduced?"]], [[HoYay "Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus."]]
** Octavius: "Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth". Ew.
** Antony: "Tut, I am in their bosoms." (I can see into their hearts.)
** Varrus: "So please you, we will stand and watch your pleasure." (We are content to watch.)
** Brutus: "Lucius!/ My gown!", and "Get you hence, sirrah; saucy fellow, hence!".
** Artemidorus, who writes Caesar a letter warning him of the conspirators, signs it, "Thy lover, Artemidorus."
* ''Theatre/AntonyAndCleopatra'' must've been hilarious, given at one point Cleopatra faints and calls out "Help me hence, ho!" ... where she's saying so to her female servants.
* In ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', Lord Capulet says to his wife: [[https://everything2.com/title/Give+me+my+long+sword%252C+ho%2521 "Give me my longsword, ho!"]] Doubly bad with the innuendo of the "longsword".
** In Act 3, scene 2, Juliet opens with a monologue about her love for Romeo, using the word "come" seven times.
** In Baz Luhrmann's [[SettingUpdate modernized version]], ''Film/WilliamShakespearesRomeoAndJuliet'', the DragQueen Mercutio leeringly asks if Tybalt can spare him "a word and a blow." He also makes "the blind bow-boy's [i.e. Cupid's] butt-shaft [i.e. arrow]" sound as if it has something to do with bums.
* In ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', the term "bunghole" (which was long before ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' turned it into a crude anatomical joke) originally referred to the place in a beer or wine keg where one put the cork after tapping into it:
-->'''Hamlet''': To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till he find it stopping a bunghole?\\

** The archaic term "Polack" was used rather inoffensively for a resident of Poland in Act I, Scene 1:
-->'''Marcellus''' [''seeing the apparition of the late King Hamlet the Elder'']: Is it not like the King?\\

** In Act IV, Scene 4, when a captain of Norway's Prince Fortinbras requests permission to pass through Denmark en route to Poland:
-->'''Hamlet''': Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, or for some frontier?\\

** By the time ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' was on TV in the 1970's, Archie Bunker used the term "Polack" as a disparaging term for his Polish-American son-in-law, Mike Stivic; it came to be known as a negative ethnic slur, along with quite a number of the offensive Polish jokes that were in circulation during the 1970's as Polish-Americans were unjustly regarded as people of inferior intellect.
* In ''Theatre/HenryIVPart2'' Fang, who wants to arrest Falstaff, says that he intends to fist him--that is, to grab him. In our times, the concept of fisting Falstaff is not such an appealing one.
* In ''Theatre/HenryV'' Act V Scene II, Princess Katharine explains in French to her fiancé that good girls don't kiss before marriage. At that point in time, the verb "baiser" meant "to kiss". It doesn't anymore. Considering that entire scene is mostly just for a CountryMatters joke, Shakespeare probably would have ''approved'' of this.
** The entire English Army is in a state of bedraggled gayness in Henry V. The Shakespeare quote is from ''King Henry V'', Act 4, scene 3, in which King Henry is rejecting surrender terms offered by the French to his bedraggled tiny Army shortly before the CurbStompBattle at Agincourt:
-->Let me speak proudly: tell the constable
-->We are but warriors for the working day;
-->Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirched
-->With rainy marching in the painful field.
** ''Henry V'' is particularly prone to this, for whatever reason. The word "cock" especially gets thrown around a lot, as in "Pistol's cock is up" (2.1) and "here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock" (5.1).
** The Welsh officer Fluellen has trouble pronouncing certain English words. At one point he gets into a whole exchange about the birthplace of Alexander the Great, but keeps saying "porn" instead of "born":
--> I'll tell you, there is good men porn at Monmouth.
* Ellen Terry, an actress who played Beatrice (a character who is rather outspokenly against the idea of getting married for the first two acts) from ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'' had this to say about the difficulty in playing the part:
--->She must always be merry and by turns scornful, tormenting, vexed, self-communing, absent, melting, teasing, brilliant, indignant, sad-merry, thoughtful, withering, gentle, humorous, and gay, Gay, ''Gay''!
* In Shakespeare's ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'', a character named ''Bottom'' has his head transformed into that of a hairy ''[[AccidentalPun ass]]'' by a hobgoblin as part of an elaborate prank. Naturally, his fellow actors are horrified.
** Given that "ass" was already being used as an alternative spelling/pronunciation of "arse", this was probably another deliberate one.
* One Shakespeare's play has the line "Sir, give him head." It was an instruction to listen to what he had to say, ''not'' what you're thinking. It was probably a misspelling/variant spelling of "give him ''heed''" or a reference to horseback riding, where "give him his head" still means "let him go ahead, let him do as he will."
* ''Theatre/TheTempest'': Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, is usurped and put out of see on "a rotten carcass of a butt". 'Butt' here meaning boat.
* ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt'' refers to the possibility of lovers being "incontinent" before marriage, by which the intended meaning is "cease from sexual abstinence", not "lose control of their bowels".

** ''Allegro'': The title song, reflecting on the hectic tenor of modern life: "Hysterically frantic, we're stubbornly romantic, and doggedly determined to be gay."

* Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein example occurs in ''Allegro'', from 1947. The title song, reflecting on the hectic tenor of modern life: "Hysterically frantic, we're stubbornly romantic, and doggedly determined to be gay."

* ''The Biograph Girl'' has the song ''"I Just Wanted to Make Him Laugh,"'' sung by the character of [[Creator/MackSennett Mack Sennett.]] Sennett, a comedy actor, laments the fact that the humorless director he was auditioning for had no appreciation for his comedy skills with the line, "Perhaps given another time and place / he'd have taken me on his staff." And this is after he sings the somewhat more innocuous line, "I'm not a straight dramatic actor." Suffice it to say that he succeeded in making ''us'' laugh. What makes it even better is the fact that Sennett was played onstage in London by Guy Siner, known for portraying the delectably gay [[TV/AlloAllo Lieutenant Gruber.]] [[DoubleEntendre (I'd take him on my staff... anytime!)]]

* In ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', the term "bunghole" (which was long before ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' turned it into a crude anatomical joke) originally referred to the place in a beer or wine keg where one put the cork after tapping into it:

* In ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'': [[http://everything2.com/title/Give+me+my+long+sword%252C+ho%2521 "Give me my longsword, ho!"]] Doubly bad with the innuendo of the "longsword".

** In Baz Luhrmann's [[SettingUpdate modernized version]], ''Film/WilliamShakespearesRomeoAndJuliet'', the drag-queen Mercutio leeringly asks if Tybalt can spare him "a word and a blow." He also makes "the blind bow-boy's [i.e. Cupid's] butt-shaft [i.e. arrow]" sound as if it has something to do with bums.

for number one]], asserting that if Laertes is in good standing he can then afford to spread the love to his fellow man.

* Creator/JohnBoyntonPriestley’s ''Dangerous Corner'' requires Stanton to say "It's very rum ..." (antiquated word for odd, strange, peculiar) while pouring drinks.

* J.B. Priestley's ''Dangerous Corner'' requires Stanton to say "It's very rum ..." (antiquated word for odd, strange, peculiar) while pouring drinks.

** In ''Theatre/TrialByJury'' there's {{The Judge}}'s paraphernalia.

* ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' has a couple of lines of dialogue between Blanche and Mitch about Blanche being "straight". However, while it clearly means "okay" or "righteous" in the context of the scene, it's possible that, given that the term ''had'' begun to take on its modern meaning among members of the gay community, it's possible that Creator/TennesseeWilliams, himself a gay man, did it on purpose (most likely to slip some hidden meaning into Blanche's line, "A line can be straight, or a street, but the heart of a human being?").