‘Schmigadoon!’ and “Prince Faggot” Lead LGBTQ Critics’ Dorian Theater Award Nominations for 2026

Schmigadoon! (c) Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Here are the nominees of the 2025-2026 Broadway and Off-Broadway season for GALECA's Dorian Theater Awards. A note on eligibility: Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Liberation, and Titaníque were recognized by the Dorian Theater awards for their original Off-Broadway productions. As such, only “new elements” of their Broadway transfers were eligible for consideration this year. 

Winners of the 2026 Dorian Theater Awards will be announced on Monday, June 1, 2026. 

Theater: Recipients of The 80th Theatre World Awards

(c) Theatre World Awards

The 80th Theatre World Award Honorees for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance have been announced for the 2025-2026 season.   The Awards witll be presented at a ceremony on Tuesday, June 2 at the Longacre Theatre.

Again, I am honored to be on the selection committee, and this is a great Class of 2026

Film Reviews: “Blue Film” Is a Sweet, Gay Drama With a Vibe of Salaciousness; “The Sheep Detective” Is a Pretty Good Benoit Baaaaa Mystery; “The Wizard of the Kremlin” Is a Dry Tale of Putin’s Ascent in Russia

Blue Film (c) Strand Releasing

Review: Blue Film 
In Cinemas 

Ever since Elliot Tuttle’s Blue Film opened at the Edinburgh Film Festival last summer, it has carried an aura of naughty gay sexual content, sharing the same trajectory as the BDSM-themed “Pillion” during the same time frame. Pillion opened earlier this year and got decent reviews—now it’s time to see if Blue Film will get a similar reception or better. Aaron Eagle (Kieron Moore, from Boots) is an L.A. sex worker who, at the start of the film, is livestreaming (a la OnlyFans) to his many followers, receiving their adulation while verbally degrading them for it. He boasts that he is seeing one of them tonight for a date for a crazy amount of money. That date/hookup turns out to be with Hank (Reed Birney, of The Humans), an older man who insists on keeping a ski mask on. But as the evening proceeds, the two wear each other’s defenses down, and when the masks are (literally and metaphorically) finally taken off, they soon realize that both are using fake names and they actually know each other from a long-ago chapter in their lives. While the promised blueness of sex and sexual acts are indeed peppered throughout the movie, I was more disturbed by the excessive amount of a casual vaping (which, unlike gay sex, is totally unhealthy). If you’ve seen any episode of Heated Rivalry, you’ve seen more than what’s shown here. But what’s dangerous is the circumstances that the two men find themselves in, making the sex a bit more taboo or psychologically fraught. That the story becomes an understanding (maybe even love) between the two men is thanks to the two actors, the only people in the film. Moore is very charismatic once the rent boy persona is done away with (although there is a moment of Aaron metaphorically shedding his past that is unnecessarily on-the-nose) as his swagger turns to empathy. Birney has the harder role as Hank is (whether self-admitted or not) a sexual predator whose shame has led him to this odd redemption arc; the veteran stage actor is able to find shades of grace in this broken man. Blue Film is a more modest film than Pillion, but its sexual nature, when it arrives, is not sugar-coated for straight audience members, and rather par-for-the-course for gay ones. Ultimately, it is a nicely told character study that will be remembered more than just the physical acts depicted. 

The 79th Tony Award Nominations

Schmigadoon (c) Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Here are the nominations for the 79th Tony Award, which will be handed out on Sunday, June 7, 2026. The host is P!nk. 

The Interested Bystander: Final 2025-26 Tony Award Nomination Predictions

The Lost Boys (c) Matthew Murphy

Most of the precursors have been announced. The Tony committee made their final rulings on category eligibility. It’s time for my final predictions for the 79th Tony Award Nominations, which will announced on Tuesday, May 5. There are questions in some categories as to how many nominees will be allowed, but I will make my best educated guess. 

Enjoy.