This explains why on the one occasion in my life that I went a play on my own, a very attentive usher showed me to a much better seat, and then came looking for me at intermission.
As a clueless, straight, twentysomething male, I just figured he was being nice.
I'm a straight guy and I go to plays alone. Not on a regular basis, but sometimes. People shouldn't assume. I know he was probably saying it tongue in cheek, but it's like saying, "Every single jock is totally straight." People of varied sexual orientations have varied interests.
In addition to what the LR said, some theatres (ie, The Old Globe here in SD) have pre-show mixers specifically for LGBT audiences prior to specific performances. I would imagine that might be the case wherever the original LW's brother lives (assuming they have live theatre and/or a large enough LGBT community to support such a program).
There is no gayer or cruisier play intermission in town right now than ArtsWest's XANADU, performed by a cast of dewy, barely-dressed twentysomethings.
Since easily half the men at any given play are gay, and virtually all the men at a play alone are gay
I worked in theater for years, and while this might be true for areas where over half the male population at large is gay, it's patently untrue in my experience (while there *may* be a greater-than-average percentage of gay men, as theater has historically been a safe(r) space for gay men, it's not going to be half, even with all of the dudebros avoiding live theater - and not even all of the dudebros do so, nor are they all straight). That said, you're probably a lot less likely to get a homophobe-freakout reaction from hitting on a straight guy at a play versus somewhere like a basketball game, so it's still pretty good advice.
As a clueless, straight, twentysomething male, I just figured he was being nice.
I worked in theater for years, and while this might be true for areas where over half the male population at large is gay, it's patently untrue in my experience (while there *may* be a greater-than-average percentage of gay men, as theater has historically been a safe(r) space for gay men, it's not going to be half, even with all of the dudebros avoiding live theater - and not even all of the dudebros do so, nor are they all straight). That said, you're probably a lot less likely to get a homophobe-freakout reaction from hitting on a straight guy at a play versus somewhere like a basketball game, so it's still pretty good advice.