Hot Sheet: What a Nance

10. EVENT: Fierce! The International Queer Burlesque Festival, May 2-5
They're here, and they're fierce, so get used to it, because this is the inaugural year of the International Queer Burlesque Festival, set where else but Columbus, Ohio. The slate of events aims to celebrate all facets of burlesque, from its history to its current performers and the fans that keep the form alive. For more information, visit fiercequeerburlesque.com

9. MUSIC: Essential Oils, Midnight Oil
If the lyric, "How do we sleep while our beds are burning?" doesn't ring familiar, it means you didn't live through the 1980s. That was from one of the greatest protest songs ever, "Beds are Burning," which was one of many monster hits that the Australian band Midnight Oil had between 1978 and 2002. The beauty of the band's terrific rock comes across with fury on Essential Oils, their first double-CD chronology ever assembled. It has the best of their 12 albums in these 36 songs including the major hits. While Midnight Oil can't be called a gay band, their original lead singer, Peter Garrett, is now a huge marriage equality activist. After he left the music industry he became a politician and served in the country's House of Representatives, as Minister of the Environment, and is currently Education Minister. Inspired by President Obama, Garrett told reporters earlier this year that he would continue to stick by his principles and support marriage equality despite coming under attack from members of his own political party.

8. DVD: Broadway Damage
When it came out in the 1990s, Broadway Damage was part of a new indie gay comedy genre (think Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss) that blossomed just as HIV-positive men were receiving the first protease inhibitor cocktails. Out with the tragic gay movies, in with the lighthearted fare. In this remastered 15th Anniversary edition, on Blu-ray, DVD, and streaming (from Wolfe, Amazon, and iTunes) we meet Marc (who dreams of his big Broadway break), Robert (who dreams of Marc) and Cynthia (who dreams of her, well, dream job). Broadway Damage is a feel good little indie hit, part of LGBT history, and winner of Outfest's audience award. Bonus: Cynthia is played by Mara Hobel, who as little Christina Crawford had faced Faye Dunaway's wire hangers in Mommie Dearest years before.

7. ART: Jacob Love, "States"
Photographer Jacob Love's landscapes and portraits are part of an ongoing series inspired by the utopian scenes in the Jehovah's Witnesses magazine The Watchtower and explore themes of constant change and the coming-out process. Photos taken during Love's travels through 15 U.S. states and parts of Canada over the past three years will be on display 24 hours a day at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art's Wooster Street Window Gallery in New York City tonight through June 21. There will be an opening reception from to 6 to 8 this evening, and Love will talk with museum director Hunter O'Hanian before an audience from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday.

6. THEATER: Breast in Show
Softball, the search for the perfect sperm donor, and most of all, the quest for Ms. Right are among the aspects of lesbian life explored by six funny women in this sketch comedy review. And speaking of exploration, it also features a sapphic Dora the Explorer. Presented by Chicago's GayCo theater troupe at pH Comedy Theater, every Sunday through May 26.

5. MUSIC: Thri!!!er, !!!
A favorite of the gay hipster set, the California dance-punk outfit !!! (usually pronounced Chik Chik Chik) releases their fifth effort, Thri!!!er, next week. "Over the course of many long van rides and post-coffee verbal riff sessions, Thr!!!er didn't merely come to represent the selling of a lot of records...it became synonymous with an artist(s)' and/or genre(s)' artistic high-watermark," guitarist Mario Andreoni said in a statement. "INXS' Kick is the Australian Thriller...Alanis' Jagged Little Pill is the Canadian Thriller...Wham!'s Make It Big is the blow-dryer's Thriller."

4. DVD: The Guilt Trip
Decades into Barbra Streisand's career, it only seems the Funny Girl gets funnier with age. In this road trip comedy, Streisand plays the overbearing mother to Rogen who is about to embark on a cross-country business trip. At the last moment, he invites his mother along to join the ride. If you haven't seen The Guilt Trip, you may think you know where it's going, but this movie is a little deeper than that. Streisand and Rogen clearly have a great chemistry that plays well on screen as mother and son. Maybe pop it into the DVD player and watch it with mom this Mother's Day. She'll be glad you visited.

3. DVD: Funny Girl 45th Anniversary Edition
One of the most popular movie musicals ever made is now better than ever on Blu-ray in this 45th anniversary edition of Funny Girl, the film that earned star Barbra Streisand the 1968 best actress Oscar. In her first starring role, gay icon Babs plays comic Fanny Brice, who becomes a star, falls in love, and marries a gambling man played by Omar Sharif. The new edition was meticulously restored from the original negative by Sony Pictures Entertainment and screened at this week's TCM Classic Film Festival on April 25. Sold exclusively at Amazon, the Blu-ray also offers up two previously released vintage featurettes: Barbra in Movieland, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film; and This is Streisand, chronicling the early years of the performer's career. Oh and be prepared to sing: The score consists of classic standards, including "My Man," "Second Hand Rose," and "I'd Rather Be Blue Over You (Than Happy With Somebody Else)" to tunes that have become standards, including "People," "Don't Rain on My Parade," and "I'm the Greatest Star." Hello gorgeous!

2. THEATER: Showgirls! The Musical!
Before the highly quotable Mean Girls, there was the cinematic train wreck Showgirls. The live musical, written by Bob and Tobly McSmith, has been extended into May and June at the Kraine Theater through May 4, and May 15--June15 at XL Nightclub, Cabaret & Lounge in New York. For tickets and showtimes visit Showgirls-themusical.com and check out their trailer below:

1. THEATER: The Nance
In burlesque shows of the 1930s, the "nance" was a campy gay comedic character, usually played by a straight man. But nance Chauncey Miles, portrayed by out performer Nathan Lane, is gay, and his flamboyant and hilarious stage antics contrast sharply with his offstage life in a repressive era. The Nance, by gay playwright Douglas Carter Beane (The Little Dog Laughed), just opened to rave reviews. At Lincoln Center's Lyceum Theatre, New York City, through June 16.