Happy Pride Month! While we champion LGBTQIA+ voices all year long, Pride Month gives us the perfect excuse to roll out the glittery red carpet. To celebrate, we’ve rounded up 15 iconic shows and movies that put queer stories in the spotlight—whether you’re watching from your couch or the front row.
🎭 On stage
My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?): Rob Madge’s solo show blends humor and heart in a tribute to childhood, theatre dreams, and unconditional queer joy.
Cabaret: Set in 1930s Berlin, Cabaret explores queerness, decadence, and political fear. It’s a chilling reminder of the fragility of queer joy in hostile times.
& Juliet: While Juliet takes center stage for most of this show, her bestie May is nonbinary and navigates love and identity with sensitivity and heart. They also perform one of the most beautiful ballads we’ve seen in years.
Titanique: This parody of Titanic told through Céline Dion’s greatest hits is unabashedly camp and queer. It’s a joyful celebration of pop culture excess and LGBTQ+ humor.
Death Becomes Her: This cult-classic film about vanity and immortality has long been a favorite in queer circles for its over-the-top camp, sharp wit, and iconic performances. It’s gay culture in a bottle (of eternal youth) and at the end of the day don’t we all do it for the gaze?
Purpose: A newer addition to queer theatre, Tony-winner Purpose includes an asexual protagonist who is considering being a sperm donor for their lesbian friend.
Queen of Hearts: This burlesque variety show is inspired by Alice in Wonderland. While not explicitly centered on LGBTQIA+ themes, the show celebrates fluidity and fantasy through a Wonderland filled with seductive, magical beings of all genders and identities.
Oh, Mary!: Tony-winner Cole Escola’s absurdist, campy take on Mary Todd Lincoln delivers sharp queer wit with a subversive lens on American history. A true example of queer creativity reimagining the past with irreverent brilliance.
🎥 On screen
Kinky Boots: Inspired by a true story, this high-energy musical celebrates the unlikely friendship between a drag queen and a struggling shoe factory owner.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch: This groundbreaking rock musical follows Hedwig, a genderqueer East German singer, on a journey of love and identity.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie: This is a joyful, uplifting musical based on a true story about a teen boy who dreams of becoming a drag queen.
Rent: Jonathan Larson’s rock musical broke barriers with its portrayal of LGBTQIA+ characters living with HIV/AIDS.
The Color Purple: Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel centers on the strength and love of Black women, including the tender, often-censored relationship between Celie and Shug. More recent stage and screen versions have brought its queer themes more fully to light, especially in Tony host Cynthia Erivo’s soul shattering rendition of “I’m Here.”
The Boys in the Band: Mart Crowley’s iconic play was groundbreaking for being one of the first to depict openly gay characters grappling with identity, love, and internalized shame years before the Stonewall uprising.
Victor/Victoria: Julie Andrews stars in this gender-bending classic about a woman pretending to be a man impersonating a woman. It celebrates queer performance, identity play, and the power of drag long before RuPaul hit the runway.