Here’s the latest lesbian and bisexual news to keep you sapphics up to date! Strap in!
But I’m a Cheerleader: The Musical
Yep, that’s right! Classic lesbian film But I’m a Cheerleader is being adapted to the stage! According to a media release, the musical was first presented as part of MTFestUK 2019, “[and] will be the first fully commissioned musical discovered at the new musical festival, to be presented on stage.” It will be running at the Turbine Theatre from February 18 until April 16, 2022.
But I’m A Cheerleader: The Musical, has book and lyrics by Bill Augustin, music by Andrew Abrams, direction by Tania Azevedo, choreography by Alexzandra Sarmiento and lighting by Martha Godfrey.
“But I’m A Cheerleader: The Musical is the story of Megan, an all-American high school cheerleader who has the perfect life.
That is, until she finds out her friends and family suspect her of being a lesbian and send her packing to ‘True Directions,’ a rehabilitation camp to set her straight. It is at this camp, under the strict tutelage of headmistress Mary Brown that Megan meets Graham, a sexy tomboy who shows her exactly what her ‘true direction’ is. Hilarious, irreverent and full of heart, But I’m A Cheerleader: The Musical is a quirky coming-of-age comedy about sexual awakening and self-realization.”
Happiest Season 2?
Aubrey Plaza got the sapphics buzzing when she used TikTok to tease a Happiest Season sequel! Aubrey was at a book signing for her children’s book The Legend of the Christmas Witch in the video. Signing books, dressed up as a witch, she says, “there’s gonna be another one…Because my character deserves love too!”
New Lifetime lesbian film Under the Christmas Tree
Lifetime is debuting its first ever lesbian-focused holiday film, Under the Christmas Tree, this December. I’m a sucker for the ‘enemies to lovers’ plot in rom-coms, as well as the ‘Type A career woman knocked off her feet by a rebellious free-spirit’. Under the Christmas Tree has both AND lesbianism!
“Marketing whiz Alma Beltran (Elise Bauman) and Christmas tree whisperer Charlie Freemont (Tattiawna Jones) cross paths when Charlie finds the perfect tree for the Maine Governor’s Holiday Celebration – right in Alma’s back yard,” according to Lifetime’s synopsis. “While they initially spar, romantic sparks soon begin to fly between the two women as the enchanting tree and some Christmas fairy dust from the town’s pâtissière extraordinaire (Ricki Lake) bring out the best in them and spark each other to take leaps of faith and fight for love and Christmas magic.”
A lesbian movie by Zendaya in the cards?
Zendaya has expressed interest in representing (the underrepresented) sapphics of color on the big screen! She spoke to Colman Domingo (Euphoria), for Interview Magazine, about wanting to direct “a simple love story about two Black girls.”
She wants to normalize same-sex relationships. “I don’t want it to be rooted in anything other than just a story about two people falling in love and that’s it. Something simple and beautiful, that leaves you happy and wanting to fall in love yourself.”
Subverting the trend of tragic endings for lesbians is also important to Zendaya. “I just haven’t seen that [a simple love story between two Black girls] without it dealing more with the traumatic side of things—which is really important to talk about, but I would love a coming-of-age story where awkward and funny things happen, just like when any other young person is trying to figure out who they are.”
“Our existence is broad and expansive and beautiful, and to see all the different emotional colors of what it means to be a young Black girl—I would like to see that, because I don’t think I’ve seen many depictions of it.”
Benadetta: a new film about a lesbian nun!
Benadetta, a new film directed by Paul Verhoeven, is based on Judith C. Brown’s nonfiction book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (1986). According to Verhoeven’s interview with the New York Times, the film follows “the rise of the title character (Virginie Efira) from young novice to abbess of her convent, her affair with a fellow nun, Bartolomea (Daphné Patakia), and what happens when their relationship is discovered by the church.”
As with any lesbian film directed by a man, there’s the concern it’ll be made with the male gaze’s fetishisation of lesbianism. Verhoeven also has a reputation for “taboo” topics and “perversion.” Efira, the actor playing the lead role Benadetta, is a fan of the director, who warned her that there would be “a lot of sex scenes…with girls…he mentioned a dildo.”
Will Benadetta be a good movie or an excuse for another “boundary-pushing” male director to fetishize us as a “taboo” topic to explore and add to the list of other “perverse” films he’s directed?
