The best LGBT things to do in New York this week

Theater review by Adam Feldman [Note: This is a review of the 2017 production at Second Stage Theater. That production has now transferred to Second Stage's Broadway venue, the Helen Hayes Theater, with the same cast.] For gay history to stay alive, torches must be passed. So it is with Second Stage Theatre’s welcome and well-assembled revival of Harvey Fierstein’s plangently funny and touching play, which opened on Broadway in 1982 and ran there for three years. Then called Torch Song Trilogy, it was four hours long and covered a range of topics related to gay men in the window between Stonewall and AIDS: self-esteem, dating, violence, adoption, family tension. What it isn’t about is shame: Its central character, Jewish drag queen Arnold Beckoff, accepts his own queerness without fuss and with plenty of pithy quips. The original version was a Neil Simon–ized vehicle for writer-star Fierstein; director Moisés Kaufman’s production retools it effectively for its new star, the different but very appealing Michael Urie. More than an hour shorter than before, the play remains a triptych. The first part, "The International Stud,” is the story of Arnold’s flickering romance with the handsome, bisexual Ed (Ward Horton), and is told mostly in monologues; the second, “Fugue in a Nursery,” is a country-house sex comedy staged with all four characters—Arnold, Ed, Arnold’s pretty-boy lover (Michael Rosen) and Ed’s wary girlfriend (Roxanna Hope Radja)—in one giant bed. The third section,

Frank J. Avella's drama, inspired by true events, depicts the brutalization of young gay Russian men by groups that entrap them to be beaten and humiliated on camera. Avella shares directing duties with Carlotta Brentan.

The gleefully dark storyteller and queer comedy leader Matt Smith McCormick brings one of his most bleak creations to the PIT for this batshit solo show. Meet Pammy Pittsley, the chain-smoking, apocalyptic schoolbus driver of Pink-Eye Village, MA. She—and you—are about to stumble into a white-trash TED talk you'll never forget. 

They're taking over; get used to it. Defiantly dope comedians Jess Salomon and Sophie Santos invite their flyest queer friends to shut down Union Hall with unapologetically woman-oriented sets. They're joined by Emma Willmann, Lauren Ashley Smith and Eman El-Husseini. 

One year into our political world order, and there’s still endless comedy to be mined. Gonzo storytellers Harmon Leon, Peter Marino and Erez Ziv throw this satirical and cathartic festival of strife, with a brilliantly curated lineup that includes the LGBTQ Russian Disaster Roast Hour; Then What: Stories from Activists; Don’t Hate Me Because I’m a Republican; and Trump: An American Musical.