You’ll soon be able to watch one of the most celebrated queer-themed Broadway plays in recent memory from the comfort of your living room.
Paula Vogel’s “Indecent,” which opened on Broadway in April, takes a behind-the-scenes look at “The God of Vengeance,” a 1907 Yiddish drama that sparked controversy for featuring a love scene between two women. Written by Shalom Asch, “The God of Vengeance” is now regarded as a classic, but when it was first translated into English and staged in New York in 1923, its cast was arrested on obscenity charges for portraying a lesbian relationship.
“Indecent” has been captured for posterity by the digital theater platform BroadwayHD, where it will be available for streaming on Thursday. HuffPost got an exclusive sneak peek at two performance clips from the show in the videos above and below.
The clip above shows the climax of the provocative play within a play, in which Asch’s characters Menke (Katrina Lenk) and Rifkele (Adina Verson) share a passionate kiss before the curtain falls. The women meet as actors to discuss the daring nature of their roles in the below clip.
Vogel, 66, won a Pulitzer Prize for her 1997 play, “How I Learned To Drive.” She said “Indecent,” which nabbed two Tony awards, was inspired by her own marginalization as a queer Jewish woman.
“I have always felt both the beauty and the danger of the presentation of lesbian sexuality in public,” she told The Cut last year. “I’m a woman who has been jumped on in the street and beaten by men.”
“Indecent” premieres on BroadwayHD Jan. 25.
