Colin Firth character--- Gay??? Hmmm.....

Besides the beautiful and elegant Julie Andrews, reports of Colin's performance were what led me to see this film in the first place.

Go take a step outside - see what’s shaking in the real world.

Coward often wrote plays that included a character based on himself. Indeed, he often performed in his own plays. Witty, sophisticated, accomplished pianist/singer - Peter and Coward had the same qualities. In real life, Coward was gay and had a longtime partner but he never publicly admitted to being gay (he died in 1973 and probably could have come out by that time, but he was too old by then to change his ways). For most of Coward's life, almost all gay men were closeted because of laws on the books and because of societal pressure. Beyond that, at the time the play was written (1951), a play with an out of the closet gay character would have made the play unproducable. So, innuendo had to be used when writing a gay character. BOYS IN THE BAND was the landmark play that brought gays out of the closet on the stage - it opened in 1968.

So, I think you have it right. Peter is a gay character - a 1951-era gay character.

I was almost certain that he was supposed to be gay. He carried himself in an effeminate way that is often attributed to the stereotype of a gay man. He was very flamboyant and cheeky and he called everyone, male or female, "dear". He also spent most of his time with the female characters acting very chummy but seemed to have no romantic attachments to any one of them. Then of course there was his flustered excitement over meeting William Baldwin's movie star character and that line among all the girl guides "come on, let's be honest, isn't he the most delicious thing you've ever seen?"

I'd say he was definitely meant to be gay.