Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda as Julián Castro, Billy Porter as MC in SNL Spoof of CNN LGBT Town Hall

On Thursday night,  CNN held an “LGBTQ Town Hall” in which nine of the Democratic candidates for President separately answered questions on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer issues from a live studio audience. Two nights later, Saturday Night Live spoofed the event in its Cold Open skit, which I frankly found less funny than other viewers, but which is noteworthy for theater fans for having featured two Tony-winning Broadway stars: Billy Porter adapted his “Pose” MC role Pray Tell to announce each candidate, and Lin-Manuel Miranda portrayed one of the candidates, former Secretary of Housing Julián Castro:  “Well first of all, gracias. As a Democrat, I want to apologize for not being gay, but I promise to do better in the future. However, I am Latino, which we can all agree is something….”

Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

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